perry@well.UUCP (Perry S. Kivolowitz) (08/25/87)
A while back I promised to post a feature list for FaccII. Well,
since FaccII is drawing near, now is the time for such a posting.
Please feel free to cross post this article to any bulletin boards
or conferencing system to which you may have access.
Advantages Of FaccII Over AddBuffers
--------------------------------------------------------------------
1. AddBuffers cannot make use of Fast Ram for caching floppy
data blocks. FaccII can.
2. AddBuffers assigns a particular buffer to a specific drive.
If that drive happens not to be in heavy use then its buffers
cannot be reused on the drive that IS being used.
FaccII treats its buffers as part of a common pool. Using ad-
vanced knowledge of the actual structure of a floppy file
system and intelligent caching algorithms FaccII allows buf-
fers to migrate freely between drives as your work shifts
from drive to drive.
3. Buffers added with AddBuffers cannot be released. Once they
are allocated they cannot be deallocated until the Amiga re-
boots.
Buffers added with FaccII can be added or released at will
and in an exclusive new feature of FaccII, buffers can be re-
leased automatically when FaccII detects memory shortages
elsewhere in the system.
4. Buffers added with AddBuffers are searched slowly. In fact,
FaccII will search 2048 buffers in the same time that the
operating system will search 16 AddBuffers buffers.
5. AddBuffers buffers are managed in a strict LRU (Least Recent-
ly Used) fashion while FaccII actually understands the
structure of a floppy file system. Even if you could allocate
as many AddBuffers buffers as you can FaccII buffers, the
FaccII buffers will be used more efficiently by as much as
50 percent.
6. FaccII allows your floppy disks to whiz along at 138,900
bytes per second. With AddBuffers, you simply can't allocate
enough buffers at one time to provide that kind of perfor-
mance boost. (measured by DiskPerf, the common hard disk
bench mark)
New Features In FaccII
--------------------------------------------------------------------
1. FaccII is completely programmable by an external program.
In fact, FaccII has no human interface at all. FaccII once
started will disappear completely from view unlike Facc which
always had a window present on the workbench screen.
At any time you please you can execute a FaccII user inter-
face program (we supply two) from which you can manipulate
any FaccII parameter.
This means you don't have to have any FaccII window on the
screen at all. It also means that the portion of FaccII which
is resident in your memory all the time is smaller than Facc.
This is good news for all Amiga owners especially those with
only Chip ram.
This also means you could build a FaccII interface directly
into your own applications. The complete FaccII programmer's
interface is spelled out in great detail as part of FaccII's
almost 200,000 bytes of documentary material.
2. FaccII's user interface has a complete CLI command line cap-
ability. The original Facc program had no CLI interface at
all so all user interactions had to take place through the
windowed interface.
Now you have your choice. You can use the windowed user in-
terface or a command line interface from your startup script
for example.
3. FaccII understands floppy file system structure and uses this
knowledge to product a fifty percent more effective cache as
compared to the original Facc.
For example, if you are used to allocating 500 buffers with
the original Facc, your 500 buffers in FaccII will work near-
ly as well 750 in the original Facc (but of course will take
up only as much space as 500 buffers).
4. FaccII can automatically detect memory shortages elsewhere in
your Amiga in a completely operating system compatible way
that costs no additional overhead.
You can make your buffer cache as large as you like and if
memory should run short elsewhere on the system FaccII will
automatically release a portion of its buffer cache. The best
of both worlds! Lots of buffers and yet lots of free memory!
And let me stress that FaccII's method for accomplishing this
is completely o.s. compatible and incurs no overhead and will
work completely transparantly to any program.
5. There is a wealth of new miscellaneous features such as the
ability to freeze the cache, dump excess cache blocks all at
once, purge the cache, get accurate free memory counts all
the time, and really a lot more.
6. We've provided a user interface which emulates the original
Facc program for owners of Facc who are used to that inter-
face.
7. FaccII now knows which unit is df0: etc. The original Facc
could not tell which unit was actually which drive. FaccII
does.
8. There's nearly 200,000 bytes of documentary material describ-
ing FaccII, its user interfaces, FaccII programming, using
the Low Memory Server for your own applications, installation
and other materials.
9. And...FaccII has the same upgrade policy as Facc. That is, if
and when FaccIII comes out - all legitimate owners will re-
ceive FaccIII at next to no cost at all (just postage and
handling).
Notice I said ``if and when'' there is a FaccIII. Facc was
pirated heavily. If this happens again there just won't be
any incentive to produce yet another quality product at a
quality price. The only copy protection we can employ is your
good will. We hope that that's effective.
How To Upgrade
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Send in a stamped self addressed mailer including your original
Facc disk. We will put the new product on your old disk so make
sure your original disk is in its original condition. No upgrad-
es can be made if you don't include the original disk and the
stamped self addressed mailer. This, unfortunately, must be
strictly enforced.
How To Purchase FaccII
--------------------------------------------------------------------
FaccII will be available at your local dealers for those of you
who don't yet own Facc. It's suggested retail price is $34.95.
We would be happy to supply the product direct from us. Also, we
have been known to put together attractive pricing for group
purchases.
Dealers and distributors are invited to share in the success of
THE disk caching system for the Amiga. Our dealer and distribut-
or terms are quite liberal.
We can be reached at:
ASDG Incorporated
280 River Rd Suite 54A
Piscataway N.J. 08854
(201) 563-0529
Cheers!
Perry S. Kivolowitz
President, ASDG Incorporateddaveb@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Berezowski) (08/26/87)
Perry writes: > 4. FaccII can automatically detect memory shortages elsewhere in > your Amiga in a completely operating system compatible way > that costs no additional overhead. > > You can make your buffer cache as large as you like and if > memory should run short elsewhere on the system FaccII will > automatically release a portion of its buffer cache. The best > of both worlds! Lots of buffers and yet lots of free memory! > And let me stress that FaccII's method for accomplishing this > is completely o.s. compatible and incurs no overhead and will > work completely transparantly to any program. Once FaccII has given up some of its memory due to low memory conditions, does it ever try to get the memory back under high memory conditions. Do you see the problem here? You start out with lots of memory for FaccII but due to low memory conditions it frees up a lot of its memory. Later when the system releases the memory it took, FaccII doesn't get it back.
ain@s.cc.purdue.edu (Patrick White) (08/27/87)
In article <3816@well.UUCP> perry@well.UUCP (Perry S. Kivolowitz) writes: > > 4. FaccII can automatically detect memory shortages elsewhere in > your Amiga in a completely operating system compatible way > that costs no additional overhead. > > You can make your buffer cache as large as you like and if > memory should run short elsewhere on the system FaccII will > automatically release a portion of its buffer cache. The best > of both worlds! Lots of buffers and yet lots of free memory! > And let me stress that FaccII's method for accomplishing this > is completely o.s. compatible and incurs no overhead and will > work completely transparantly to any program. Can anybody enlighten me as to how this was accomplished? Sounds like it might be nice to put this in some of my programs. Thanks. -- Pat White UUCP: s.cc.purdue.edu!ain BITNET: PATWHITE@PURCCVM U.S. Mail: 320 Brown St. apt. 406, West Lafayette, IN 47906
lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Christopher Lishka) (08/27/87)
Bravo! I'm gonna have to rush out and buy a copy as soon as
possible! (That should be when I buy my own Amiga, which I hope is
real soon!) Also, because these guys are being *very* kind with both
their ugrade policy and copy-protection (i.e. lack of...), I urge all
Amiga owners to try and convince would be or known pirates to go out
and *buy* this product, and support a company that is out to help
their customers...even it means them not being able to live off the
lack of profits from piracy. Once again, BRAVO!
-Chris
--
Chris Lishka /lishka@uwslh.uucp
Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene <-lishka%uwslh.uucp@rsch.wisc.edu
\{seismo, harvard,topaz,...}!uwvax!uwslh!lishkaperry@well.UUCP (Perry S. Kivolowitz) (08/29/87)
In article <821@s.cc.purdue.edu> ain@s.cc.purdue.edu.UUCP (Patrick White) writes: >In article <3816@well.UUCP> perry@well.UUCP (Perry S. Kivolowitz) writes: > > > > 4. FaccII can automatically detect memory shortages elsewhere in > > your Amiga in a completely operating system compatible way > > that costs no additional overhead. > > Can anybody enlighten me as to how this was accomplished? Sounds like >it might be nice to put this in some of my programs. Thanks. >-- Pat White I posted the ASDG Low Memory Server to usenet some time ago. It is available on a Fish Disk as well (either out already or coming soon). It can also be found on P*link (think) and certainly CIS. I can answer any questions you might have about it here or by email. The posting also includes a description of the licensing procedure to include the Low Memory Server in commercial products. Perry Kivolowitz - ASDG Incorporated - (201) 563-0529