<REFERENCE>PRIME>BORIS

Diagrams

AMLC baud rate header

Information on how to configure the baud rate jumper header on an AMLC board to customize the 25xx/26xx/27xx baud rate groups.

CBL6109

A pinout for the CBL6109 cable used to connect an ICS or AMLC serial port to a modem or other DCE.

CBL6124 modem cable pinout

A pinout for the CBL6109 cable used to connect an ICS or AMLC serial port to a terminal or other DTE.

Lists

CPU type codes

Model number codes returned by the STPM instruction for various types of Prime CPUs. This list was likely extracted from an insert file. It is not complete. Formatted, as we often did, to be placed in HELP* and read using the HELP command. We tended to collect these (and many other things) in a directory tree called INSTALLER, which the system installers (Roger Young and I) took on tape to customer sites for new installs. They were copied into HELP* from there.

Decoding disk errors

How to decode the cryptic disk error messages printed on the console by PRIMOS when something goes wrong. A HELP file.

Disk model/type numbers

A list of disk types known by various versions of MAKE that had been seen by BORIS at the time of its compilation. A HELP file.

Decoding magtape errors

Errors during accesses to magnetic tape generated errors akin to those for disk errors. This is the magic decoder ring for tape. A HELP file.

MAKE for CDC 340

How to modify (slime-patch via PSD) the MAKE program to support the CDC 340 MB FMD drive.

CPU and peripheral power specs

Weight, heat, amperage, size, and power plug specifications for some Prime CPUs, peripheral cabinets, disk and tape drives, and printers. Source unknown.

PRIMOS segment map

Contents and/or purpose for each memory segment known to PRIMOS.

BORIS History

A bespoke multiple listing system software package was developed by a few programmers for the Traverse City Board of Realtors in the early 1980s. The programming was done on a Prime computer operated by Northern Michigan College. The new MLS software was a menu-driven system written in COBOL, and depended on PRIMOS cominput files to move from one program to another. Real estate agents used terminals (TeleVideo 925, TI Silent 700) and modems (for a number of years, always Multi-Tech, starting before their adoption of the Hayes command set) to dial into the system over telephone lines. One of the original programmers, if memory serves, was Gerry Barczak. I no longer recall the other names. Subsequently, a small group of entrepreneurs (initially Tom Cramer and Todd Colthorp; later joined by John Weurding and Ira Luntz) came together in the Lansing, MI area to commercialize this software. The early ephemera named the company "BORIS, a division of PGS", where BORIS was an initialism of "Board of Realty Information Systems", and PGS was "Professional Guidance Systems". PGS was founded in 1982. BORIS sold a Prime computer and the necessary terminals, printers and modems to individual Boards of Realtors and multiple listing services. The markup on the hardware was a key piece of revenue in that era before software and services had driven hardware out of consideration.

By 1985, BORIS was ready to launch the first MLS software offering online property photos. The photos were generally taken by contract photographers and uploaded into the Prime from a local workstation in the MLS office. The first cameras were Sony analog video still cameras which stored the image on two point five inch floppies which had spiral tracks. Display was via a small board added inside the terminals (by then I believe Esprit 6310s) which intercepted both the serial input and the video output. There was no intelligence on the board: it was a pure logic construct which waited for one of a few command characters (load image, display quarter-screen sized image, display full screen image, display no image) then clocked the relevant number of characters into its RAM. For display, it replaced the video signal coming from the terminal with its own overlay in the affected part of the screen. The first installation was in Joplin, Missouri. The modems used were UDS/Motorola 208 A/B modems, which operated at 4800 bits per second in half duplex mode. They were used with EC100 error correction units, as errors in the data stream caused terminal lockups due to the simplistic command code structure. Images were quite low resolution by modern standards, with 4 bit depth, and probably not more than 80 pixels horizontally.

The passage of time brought ever faster modems. Only one site, to the best of my recollection, ever ran the 4800 baud configuration. V.29 half duplex modems at 9600 baud by Fastcomm, Data Race, and others were used for a while. There was a phase with Telebit products, though as I recall they were used in standards mode instead of PEP mode. Later, as adoption of dialup became widespread, more common protocols at 14,400, 28,800 and other familiar rates were used.

Around 1990, BORIS developed a new version of its software using the Informix 4GL and Sun hardware.

BORIS was bought by Moore Data in the 1997. Moore choose its own MLS software to continue, and the BORIS products were allowed to die. Support contracts continued for a few years before the East Lansing office was closed permanently.