[Coco] new question/survey

[Aaron Wolfe]

On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 1:42 AM, Gene Heskett <gene.heskett at verizon.net> wrote:
> On Thursday 21 January 2010, Aaron Wolfe wrote:
>>I do not have a 2MB kit, only 512k in both upgraded CoCos.
>>
>>A related question though, is it really possible to use the extra RAM?
>> I've found that the system page seems to become full before I even
>>approach filling 512k.  Are there useful ways to use the full 2MB?
>
> I use up to 1.7 megs of it as a scratchpad automatic ramdisk (it formats
> itself and is ready to function about 100 milliseconds after you invoke a dir
> /r0 command, and deiniz's when you are done, returning every byte to the
> pool), using the myram package I wrote many years ago.  However I can move
> data from my scsi hard drive at virtually the same speed as the ramdisk with
> megaread times of about 12-13 seconds for either, so the only real advantage
> is the silence instead of a seacrate 1Gb hawk pinging away when the compiler
> is running.  It makes you think its actually getting something done when it
> sounds so busy.
>
> And some of us are working on getting level3 running, which will give us back
> 8 to 16k of system ram.  So stay tuned as they say. :-)
>

I think Boisy and I have freed up even more than that under level 1 or
2 with the drivewire stuff we're working on, with the (perhaps quite
significant) limitation that it requires leaving out any console
drivers for the CoCo.  If you can handle the Term device being on a
telnet connection, you can get a huge amount of free space in the
system map.  I haven't tried running Level II BBS in this
configuration yet (we just sorted out this "headless" mode earlier
today).  Before I was running out of system ram with only 2 lines
running, hope we might get 3 or 4 now though.

We could actually free even more but there is a bug that only shows up
with very small bootfiles.  If that gets sorted out I think its
another 12k (I *think* we gained about 20k already, but don't hold me
to that).

Assuming this mode does allow me to actually get processes using up
512k (I have little use for a ram disk personally) then I might try to
get my hands on a 2MB board :)


>>On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 11:27 PM, Gene Heskett <gene.heskett at verizon.net>
> wrote:
>>> Greetings all;
>>>
>>> How many readers of this list have Tony's 2 megabyte kit in their
>>> coco3's, or something similar?
>>>
>>> --
>>> Cheers, Gene
>>> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
>>>  soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
>>> -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
>>>
>>> It's a brave man who, when things are at their darkest, can kick back and
>>> party!
>>>                -- Dennis Quaid, "Inner Space"
>>>
>>> --
>>> Coco mailing list
>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>
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>
>
> --
> Cheers, Gene
> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
>  soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
>
> If God had intended Man to Watch TV, He would have given him Rabbit Ears.
>
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>