MK-DOS
Encyclopedia
MK-DOS was one of the most widespread operating system
s for Elektronika BK
Soviet
personal computers, developed by Mikhail Korolev and Dmitriy Butyrskiy from 1993. Like ANDOS
, the system provided full compatibility of operating environments for all models of BK, emulating environments of the BK-0010 on more modern BK-0011 and BK-0011M machines. All requests to a magnetic tape
from programs if they were made through proper ROM functions were redirected to a disk.
The system supported up to 4 physical disk drives (the number actually limited by disk ROM installed) and as many hard disk
partitions
as the number of letters in the Latin alphabet, which could be used as separate logical drives, each with a volume of up to 32 MB (See also: drive letter assignment
). Starting from version 3.0 the system also supported mounting disk images as logical drives
. When booted on a BK-0011 or BK-0011M the system automatically created a RAM disk
in the computer's memory.
MK-DOS used a widespread on BK MicroDOS file system
which did not support file fragmentation
(like the file system used with RT-11
). Although incompatible with RT-11's file system, both shared many principles. MicroDOS' file system had read-only support in ANDOS. The filename length was limited by 14 symbols (the filename extension
was not recognized separately and was considered as part of the filename).
Minimum installation of the system took not more than 8 KB of the computer's memory. The system had a functional graphic Norton Commander
-like file manager
called MCommander. The system shipped with a number of utilities including driver
s for RT-11, FAT 12 and CSI-DOS
file systems as add-ons for the file manager.
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s for Elektronika BK
Elektronika BK
The Elektronika BK was a series of 16-bit PDP-11-compatible Soviet home computers developed by NPO Scientific Center, the leading Soviet microcomputer design team at the time. It was also responsible for the more powerful UKNC and DVK micros...
Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
personal computers, developed by Mikhail Korolev and Dmitriy Butyrskiy from 1993. Like ANDOS
ANDOS
ANDOS is a Russian operating system for Electronika BK-0010, Electronika BK-0011 and Electronika BK-0011M series computers. It was created in 1990 and first released in 1992. Initially it was developed by Alexey Nadezhin and later also by Sergey Kamnev, who joined the project...
, the system provided full compatibility of operating environments for all models of BK, emulating environments of the BK-0010 on more modern BK-0011 and BK-0011M machines. All requests to a magnetic tape
Magnetic tape
Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recorders...
from programs if they were made through proper ROM functions were redirected to a disk.
The system supported up to 4 physical disk drives (the number actually limited by disk ROM installed) and as many hard disk
Hard disk
A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...
partitions
Disk partitioning
Disk partitioning is the act of dividing a hard disk drive into multiple logical storage units referred to as partitions, to treat one physical disk drive as if it were multiple disks. Partitions are also termed "slices" for operating systems based on BSD, Solaris or GNU Hurd...
as the number of letters in the Latin alphabet, which could be used as separate logical drives, each with a volume of up to 32 MB (See also: drive letter assignment
Drive letter assignment
Drive letter assignment is the process of assigning alphabetical identifiers to physical or logical disk drives or partitions in the root filesystem namespace; this usage is now mostly found in Microsoft operating systems...
). Starting from version 3.0 the system also supported mounting disk images as logical drives
Disk partitioning
Disk partitioning is the act of dividing a hard disk drive into multiple logical storage units referred to as partitions, to treat one physical disk drive as if it were multiple disks. Partitions are also termed "slices" for operating systems based on BSD, Solaris or GNU Hurd...
. When booted on a BK-0011 or BK-0011M the system automatically created a RAM disk
RAM disk
A RAM disk or RAM drive is a block of RAM that a computer's software is treating as if the memory were a disk drive...
in the computer's memory.
MK-DOS used a widespread on BK MicroDOS file system
File system
A file system is a means to organize data expected to be retained after a program terminates by providing procedures to store, retrieve and update data, as well as manage the available space on the device which contain it. A file system organizes data in an efficient manner and is tuned to the...
which did not support file fragmentation
Fragmentation (computer)
In computer storage, fragmentation is a phenomenon in which storage space is used inefficiently, reducing storage capacity and in most cases reducing the performance. The term is also used to denote the wasted space itself....
(like the file system used with RT-11
RT-11
RT-11 was a small, single-user real-time operating system for the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11 family of 16-bit computers...
). Although incompatible with RT-11's file system, both shared many principles. MicroDOS' file system had read-only support in ANDOS. The filename length was limited by 14 symbols (the filename extension
Filename extension
A filename extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file applied to indicate the encoding of its contents or usage....
was not recognized separately and was considered as part of the filename).
Minimum installation of the system took not more than 8 KB of the computer's memory. The system had a functional graphic Norton Commander
Norton Commander
Norton Commander was a prototypical orthodox file manager , written by John Socha and released by Peter Norton Computing . NC is a file manager which provides a text user interface on top of DOS. It was officially produced by Symantec between 1986 and 1998...
-like file manager
File manager
A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to work with file systems. The most common operations performed on files or groups of files are: create, open, edit, view, print, play, rename, move, copy, delete, search/find, and modify file attributes, properties...
called MCommander. The system shipped with a number of utilities including driver
Device driver
In computing, a device driver or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a hardware device....
s for RT-11, FAT 12 and CSI-DOS
CSI-DOS
CSI-DOS is an operating system, created in Samara, for the Soviet Elektronika BK-0011M and Elektronika BK-0011 microcomputers. CSI-DOS did not support the earlier BK-0010. CSI-DOS used its own unique file system and only supported a color graphics video mode. The system supported both hard and...
file systems as add-ons for the file manager.
External links
- Disk image of MK-DOS 2.10
- Disk image of MK-DOS 3.15
- Disk image of MK-DOS 3.17
- Mikhail Korolev homepage (Original documentation for MK-DOS 3.15) V.P.Yurov. BK-0010(.01) with disk drive (Comparison of operating systems for BK-0010). Magazine "Personal computer BK-0010 - BK-0011M", 1993 V.P.Yurov. Disk operating systems for BK-0011(M). Magazine "Personal computer BK-0010 - BK-0011M", 1994 (djvu)