TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL (05/06/89)
A couple of people have mentioned one or more (maybe only one) known bugs in the TWGS ROM. That prompts two questions: are the bugs serious (i.e., capable of trashing your hard dirve, for instance) and does anyone know how Applied Engineering intends to deal with them? TMPLee@Dockmaster.ncsc.mil
shankar@bedrock.SRC.Honeywell.COM (Son of Knuth) (05/07/89)
Several people have mentione a bug/s with the TWGS card ROMs. I was just wondering what the ROMs are used for? --- Subash Shankar Honeywell Systems & Research Center voice: (612) 782 7558 US Snail: 3660 Technology Dr., Minneapolis, MN 55418 shankar@src.honeywell.com srcsip!shankar
blochowi@cat28.CS.WISC.EDU (Jason Blochowiak) (05/07/89)
In article <890505222604.700890@DOCKMASTER.ARPA> TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL writes: >A couple of people have mentioned one or more (maybe only one) known >bugs in the TWGS ROM. That prompts two questions: are the bugs serious >(i.e., capable of trashing your hard dirve, for instance) and does >anyone know how Applied Engineering intends to deal with them? There's only one that I've heard of, and that's that GetCacheSize doesn't return properly, and that would only cause problems if there were a program which called the routine (which there aren't any that I'm aware of - considering that this is the first generation of TWgs'es). The worst problem that would be caused (if there is indeed a program that calls the routine) is a system crash (yaknow, BONK!, and into the monitor). I have no idea what AE is doing about it... I suppose I should ask :) I wouldn't worry about it, tho' - my TWgs has given me 0 problems in the couple of weeks that I've been using it, which pretty much rules out it failing under normal (non hardware failure) conditions, given the amount that I use my IIgs. >TMPLee@Dockmaster.ncsc.mil ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jason Blochowiak (blochowi@garfield.cs.wisc.edu) "Not your average iconoclast..." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
blochowi@cat28.CS.WISC.EDU (Jason Blochowiak) (05/07/89)
In article <21499@srcsip.UUCP> shankar@bedrock.UUCP (Son of Knuth) writes: >Several people have mentione a bug/s with the TWGS card ROMs. >I was just wondering what the ROMs are used for? The firmware is for toying with the TWgs. Included are calls to find out what version of the TWgs it is, whether or not it can be set to different speeds, get info about what speed(s) are available, routines to get & set the speed, and to find out about and play around with the cache (the routine to find the size of the cache - GetCacheSize - is buggy). There are also some ID bytes to make sure the TWgs is there. The specific calls are as follows: TransWarpID (4 bytes - not a routine, just 'TWGS'), and TransWarpID2 ('SMJS'). GetTWInfo, ResetTW (overrides control panel settings), GetMaxSpeed, GetNumISpeed (# of speeds), Freq2Index, Index2Freq (these switch back and forth between a speed index and the actual Khz [not Mhz] speeds), GetCurSpeed, SetCurSpeed (these get & set the clock speed in Khz), GetCurISpeed, SetCurISpeed (these use the index numbers), FlushCache, DisableIRQLogic, EnableIRQLogic (I'll discuss these below), GetTWConfig, SetTWConfig, GetCacheSize (the buggy one), EnableDataCache, EnableDataCache, DisableDataCache (apparently data & instruction caching are seperable - instruction caching can't be turned off). About the IRQ stuff: The TransWarp can slow itself down when the IRQ disable processor flag (Interrupt ReQuest) is set - so, if there's some timing critical routine (like I guess are used in the AppleTalk stuff) which sets the IRQ flag, it won't run at the wrong speed. I have this option disabled, and I haven't had any problems (the TWgs comes with it enabled, so as to not cause any problems), but I don't own/use AppleTalk. >Subash Shankar Honeywell Systems & Research Center ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jason Blochowiak (blochowi@garfield.cs.wisc.edu) "Not your average iconoclast..." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
wombat@claris.com (Scott Lindsey) (05/07/89)
From article <2719@puff.cs.wisc.edu>, by blochowi@cat28.CS.WISC.EDU (Jason Blochowiak): > About the IRQ stuff: The TransWarp can slow itself down when the IRQ > disable processor flag (Interrupt ReQuest) is set - so, if there's some timing > critical routine (like I guess are used in the AppleTalk stuff) which sets > the IRQ flag, it won't run at the wrong speed. I have this option disabled, > and I haven't had any problems (the TWgs comes with it enabled, so as to not > cause any problems), but I don't own/use AppleTalk. I've been running mine w/ IRQ enabled, using AppleTalk/AppleShare without any problems except for overheating (initially) for a couple of weeks. Oh, in response to your mail (that I haven't responded to) about ROM address space: after digging through the Firmware & Hardware manuals (I haven't been able to check some other references to the Tech Intro to the IIGs or Programmer's Intro (since I don't have those yet)), as far as I can tell, TWGS uses space reserved for "ROM expansion." That means it can only conflict with other 3rd party stuff. Apple reserves some banks for system/tools and others for ROMdisk, but none of that is in the $Bx banks (where TWGS lives). BTW, the other things that live in TWGS ROM are the CDA, the startup sound, & the startup graphics. -- Scott Lindsey |"Cold and misty morning. I heard a warning borne in the air Claris Corp. | About an age of power when no one had an hour to spare" ames!claris!wombat| DISCLAIMER: These are not the opinions of Claris, Apple, wombat@claris.com | StyleWare, the author, or anyone else living or dead.