aam@pucc-h (mckay) (08/18/84)
[a blank line] Does anyone out there in netland know about the 128K memory card for the coco put out by RGS Micro inc.? I just noticed their ad in Rainbow and this month they have a picture of the card. They claim it gives an extra 64k in two 32k banks using the PAL chip to do the bank switching which at least sounds reasonable. They also claim this card is a "must for OS9 users". Has anyone gotten one of these cards? Can you really use that memory from a level one OS9 system? (ie. memory management) Their price for this card is ~$150 and since it would allow me to have many of the OS9 utilities and O-pak in "core" at the same time (making things much faster) I'm rather interested. Any comments? --Dwight McKay
strick@gatech.UUCP (09/08/84)
> Does anyone out there in netland know about the 128K memory card for the > coco put out by RGS Micro inc.? . . . > --Dwight McKay I don't know anything about the card (so why am I responding?) but Dwight asked for comments (that's why). I think you're right -- you can't do memory management on a level one system. I think the most you could do with it is have 64k of virtual disk. That takes software -- I hope they give you the virtual disk driver. If not, I can provide hints (I've written one -- it's not extremely difficult). The best thing to do with your virtual disk is use it for directories you plan to use often -- especailly for writing. OS9 writing on floppies is quite slow because you're constantly seeking between the free sector map, the i-node, and the file you're building. With virtual disk, the seek & latency times are zero. Great for 'chd' directory. I have 125k virtual disk -- enough to put my 'chx' directory in, too. Most all of my hacking is floppyless -- I save the sources on floppy when I'm done. Couldn't live without it now. I have a friend who'll be interested if you find anything out about the software.... strick! -- -- henry strickland -- the clouds project { akgua allegra hplabs inhp4 } -- school of ics / ga tech !gatech!strick -- atlanta ga 30332