Micro-Integration, Inc. specialized in communication packages which run on microcomputers, and had about 30% of the market share at the time I was employed by Micro-Integration, Inc. The primary packages they produced were BiSync 3270, 3780, Hasp, and Vip 7705 terminal emulators and workstations, SNA 3270, 3780, and 3770 terminal emulators and workstations (including Cluster versions) using software emulation, Coaxxsys and Twinaxe for the emulation of 3270 and 5280 terminals respectively using combined hardware and software emulation, and ACCULINK (for asynchronous communication). These emulators ran on the ISIS, CP/M, PcDos, MsDos, and RMS operating systems. Testing was carried out over synchronous communication links (using 2400 and 4800 baud modems) to a OS/VS mainframe. Most products supported both switched and direct connections.
My duties as a Senior Systems Analyst consisted of the maintenance and improvement of BiSync Hasp (8-bit), the design and implementation of the majority of the original Vip 7705 emulator (based on existing emulator designs with William Shomo writing the remainder), with responsibility of 100% for later releases. In addition I carried out the design and implementation of an internal operating system, and of an asynchronous communications network (including protocol) with full error checking and retry to support the Cluster products. In addition I have carried out a complete redesign of all software emulators based on the internal operating system. This design was not fully implemented due to the limited programming talent in the area. I was also responsible for all areas of Coaxxsys. Further, I wrote an extensive windowing support package.
The above operating system supported multitasking, with tasks dynamically created (but not destroyed). The dispatcher was nonpreemptive with round-robin scheduling. Messages, queues, timers, delays, and dynamic storage allocation were all integral to the operating system. It was written in 8086 assembly language so that direct C language calls could be made. A network protocol was built on top of the operating system using interrupt-driven asynchronous communication links with full error checking and retry. The links were automatically quiesced when there was no activity present to reduce interrupt overhead. The operating system has been moved to different PCs changing only the MS/PC-DOS interface (to obtain timer ticks, and the initial storage allocation). Different networks have been supported (including a broad band network) changing only the lower levels of the network protocol.
While at Micro-Integration I learned much about communications and expanded my knowledge of micro computers. I added Pascal, C, and 16-bit 8086 assembly to the list of languages with which I was already acquainted.
Micro-Integration, Inc. merged with IE Systems, Inc. April 1986, but retained the Micro-Integration, Inc. name.
I received an unexpected offer from FaxGroup which presented the opportunity to perform research in artificial intelligence applications.
Intel 8080/8086/80186/80286 assembly
Zilog Z80 assembly
C
PASCAL
IBM PC
IBM XT
IBM PC-3270
IBM AT
Tandy 2000
NEC APC III
Godbout MP/M system
many PC "clones"
numerous MsDos 16-bit machines
Intel 8080
Zilog Z80
Intel 8086
Intel 80186
Intel 80286
CP/M
ISIS
MsDos
PcDos
RMS
Brief
WordStar
John Parsons
William Shomo