wrd@tekigm2.UUCP (Bill Dippert) (04/08/86)
David Young (CDY) has called me to task for saying that both the Newell and the RAMBO XL are incompatible with Atari DOS 2.5. Maybe that is what it sounded like, but what I meant to say was that Atari DOS 2.5 when it sets up Ramdisk D8: does not see the full 256k RAM. Instead DOS 2.5's D8 Ramdisk sees another "plain jane" 130XE and does not know about the additional 130k RAM available. What I would like from anyone is a DOS 2.5 compatible DOS that would see the additional 130k RAM and set up D8 with the additional RAM for a SuperRamDisk. Atariwriter+ should also see the additional RAM as expanded banks, or as additional banks. At the present time Atariwriter+ sees the banks thru the use of the Option B command, but AW+ only knows about four 16k banks. Can AW+ be made to see four 48k banks or 12 l6k banks? There are some DOS's out there now that do some or all of this, but they sacrifice compatibility with DOS 2.5. I also like the menu driven format of DOS 2.5, not some of the other "command" type DOS's. o((((( )))))))o ooOO((((( )))))))OOoo ooooooOOOOOO(((((building rock walls around my cave....)))))))OOOOOOOooooo
jhs@MITRE-BEDFORD.ARPA (04/11/86)
The Newell 256KXL upgrade by itself just makes an 800XL (or whatever) have 256K of memory, accessible as 65K of normal memory plus 12 16K banks that can be switched into the region from 16K to 32K in place of the normal memory that is there, under the control of $D301. It is merely a highly compatible extension of the 130XE architecture to twice the memory. DOS software per se has no knowledge of ramdisks that might be implemented on a 130XE or 256KXL-modified 800XL. To DOS, a disk is a disk is a disk. To make the memory into a ramdisk, an additional piece of software called a ramdisk handler has to be supplied. It takes care of making the extra memory look exactly like a disk to DOS (any DOS). If you buy 256KXL and OMNIVIEW256 from CDY, you get in OMNIVIEW (aside from an 80-column screen display and other goodies) the ramdisk handler software, and it is ROM-resident so you never have to worry about it except for loading and running a 1-sector program to "install" it -- setting up the right vectors and values in tables so that DOS can find it. If you use CDY's INSTALL program, you get a 720-sector SS/SD disk lookalike which all DOS versions can deal with as such. You can do "J" sector copies to and from it just as though it was a normal DOS 2.0 compatible disk. CDY supplies MYDOS with the hardware upgrade, and MYDOS will let you configure the disk to (I believe) any oddball number of sectors you want, and certainly to act like a double-density disk or one slightly larger with 1500+ sectors. You get to specify the sequence in which banks are used, and the MYDOS manual tells you which sequence to use for which configuration. However, the CDY-supplied ramdisk works just fine with every DOS I have tried, not just with MYDOS, in the SS/SD configuration. In particular, with the software provided by CDY, I have been running a standard 720-sector disk, which I use to do sector-for-sector copies of whole disks with one physical drive, and simultaneously the 130XE ramdisk, which has around 500 sectors. It is possible to copy files to this disk, put certain ones on the full-sized disk, and then copy the full-sized disk out to a "real" disk. This is very convenient for making up several different disks with various combinations of files on them. Anyway, whatever DOS you have, you don't need to change the DOS but only to get the right ramdisk handler software to make the DOS see the memory as a disk. If you bought the RAMBO hardware, perhaps the manufacturer can sell you the necessary handler package. If not, maybe somebody out there in net-land can help you. Possibly you could even buy OMNIVIEW256 from CDY and get it to work with your RAMBO memory upgrade. It ought to work fine if the RAMBO product is 130XE compatible. Believe me, having 80 column capability is mighty nice if you do any program or text editing. Also it would make your BASIC math functions work noticeably faster and would let you run old 800 software with less hassle. Good luck! -John Sangster jhs@mitre-bedford.arpa ...!ihnp4!linus!mbunix!jhs