Inside the IBM PC: Revised and Enlarged

Introduction I viii
     A Maze to Think About I x
     Some Things To Try I xi
 1 A Family Tree I 1
   1.1 Some Family History I 1
   1.2 The PC Family I 4
   1.3 The 8086 Family I 8
   Some Things To Try I 11
 2   Fundamentals: What a Computer Is I 13
     2.1 My Computer, the Model I 13
     2.2 An Outline of the Computer I 15
     Some Things To Try I 20
 3   Data! I 23
     3.1 Bits, Bytes, and Characters I 23
     3.2 Learning About Hexadecimal I 27
     3.3 Standard Numbers I 31
     3.4 Hot Numbers I 34
     3.5 Stringing Along / 37
     Some Things To Try / 39
 4   The PC Character Set / 41
     4.1 A Character Set Overview / 41
     4.2 The Ordinary ASCII Characters I 43
     4.3 The ASCII Control Characters / 48
     4.4 A Cast of Odd Characters / 52
     Some Things To Try / 56
 5   Hardware: The Parts of the PCs / 57
     5.1 The Breakdown / 57
     5.2 Options and Adapters / 63
     5.3 Key Chips / 67
     Some Things To Try I 71
 6   Brains: Our Microprocessors / 73
     6.1 What the Microprocessor Can Do I 73
     6.2 Math Auxiliary: the 87s / 78
     6.3 Tools at Hand: Memory and Ports, Registers and Stacks I 82
     6.4 Interrupts: The Driving Force / 87
     6.5 Special Features about the 286 / 94
     Some Things To Try / 96
7 The Memory Workbench / 99
  7.1 Memory Overview / 99
  7.2 Getting Into Memory / 102
  7.3 The PC\'s Memory Organization / 105
  7.4 Into Extended Memory / 114
  7.5 Memory Banks and Expanded Memory / 117
  Some Things To Try / 120
8 Disks: The Basic Story / 121
  8.1 Basic Disk Ideas / 121
  8.2 Varieties of Disks / 126
  Some Things To Try / 132
9 Disks: The DOS Perspective / 133
  9.1 DOS Disk Overview / 133
  9.2 The Structure of a DOS Disk / 138
  9.3 Learning About File Formats / 142
  9.4 ASCII Text Files / 144
  Some Things To Try / 148
10 Disks: Deeper Details / 149
   10.1 Hard Disk Features and Partitions / 149
   10.2 Detailed Disk Structure / 154
   10.3 Nonstandard Formats and Copy Protection / 161
   Some Things To Try / 163
11   Video: An On-Screen Overview / 165
     11.1 How the Screen Works / 165
     11.2 Video Mode Overview / 168
     11.3 Exploring Video Modes / 177
     Some Things To Try / 179
12   Video: Text Fundamentals / 181
     12.1 Text Mode Outline / 181
     12.2 Details of the Text Mode / 185
     12.3 Text Mode Tricks / 193
     Some Things To Try / 197
13   Video: Graphics Fundamentals / 199
     13.1 Graphics Mode Outline / 199
     13.2 A Tour of the Graphics Modes / 204
     13.3 Graphics Details / 211
     Some Things To Try / 215
14   Keyboard Magic / 217
     14.1 Basic Keyboard Operation / 217
     14.2 Keyboard Tricks / 226
     Some Things To Try / 229
15   Other Parts: Communication, Printers and More / 231
     15.1 Printers: The Parallel Port / 231
     15.2 Communication Lines: The Serial Port / 233
     15.3 Sound / 236
     15.4 Miscellaneous Parts / 240
     Some Things To Try / 245
16 Built-In BIOS: The Basic Ideas / 247
   16.1 The Ideas Behind the BIOS / 247
   16.2 How the ROM-BIOS Works / 249
   Some Things To Try / 254
17 Built-In BIOS: Digging In / 255
   17.1 Working Principles and Machine Problems / 255
   17.2 The BIOS Services / 257
   Some Things To Try / 264
18   The Role of DOS / 267
     18.1 What Any DOS is About / 267
     18.2 History and Concepts of Our DOS / 269
     18.3 Installable Drivers and Flexible Facilities / 272
     18.4 Visual Shells: TopView and Others / 274
     Some Things To Try / 276
19 DOS Serving Us / 277
   19.1 Command Processing / 277
   19.2 Batch Processing / 281
   Some Things To Try / 282
20   DOS Serving Our Programs / 285
     20.1 DOS Services and Philosophy / 285
     20.2 All the DOS Services / 287
21   How Programs Are Built / 293
     21.1 A Little Talk About Programming Languages / 293
     21.2 Translating Programs / 303
     21.3 Putting Programs Together / 309
     Some Things To Try / 312
22   Exploring and Tinkering / 315
     22.1 The Point of Exploring and Tinkering / 315
     22.2 Working with DEBUG / 317
     22.3 Working with NU / 320
     Some Things To Try / 326
A    Program Listings / 327
     MAZE / 327
     HEXTABLE / 330
     ALL-CHAR / 331
     REF-CHAR / 332
     BOXES / 333
     MSG-HUNT / 337
     VID-MODE / 338
     COLORTEXT / 340
     GRAPHTXT / 342
     COLOR-4 / 343
     KEY-BITS / 346
 B   Narrative Glossary I 349
C    Products and Trademarks I 359
D    Other Sources of Information I 361
Index I 363
User\'s Manual for the Optional Diskette I 373