ramsiri@blake.u.washington.edu (Enartloc Nhoj) (01/18/91)
When you install SOFTLINK.prg (partitioning software), your first installation of each partition requires a BOOTING of the partition. This makes me wonder if Spectre wouldn't work in one partition while TOS is running in another partition.. if not, why not... and is there a possibility for it... Imagine a TT, some kind of partitioning software that allows for Spectre, TOS and MS-DOS .. seems like it could be done.. i suppose this has been brought up here before.. -kevin Because NOTATOR requires the DONGLE copy protection and the GCR also occupying the port.. there would have to be some code that would allow both cartridges to be read without disabling one for the other.
dsmall@well.sf.ca.us (David Small) (01/22/91)
(the thread discusses SOFTLINK, Spectre, and basically running Spectre and TOS at the same time). I'm not that familiar with SOFTLINK or what it does. The Spectre and TOS have entirely different memory maps, and many things would have to be pretty cleverly handled to get them to switch between modes (say, on a keypress). For instance, the video shifter is pointed to another place, all the interrupts are reprogrammed, the interrupt vector base for the MFP is moved, and so forth. We've speculated on whether or not REVOLVER would be able to do this. In a conversation with its authors, we think it is possible. I personally think such a program would have to have one memory partition active, starting at 0 (interrupt vector area), for the size of the partition, and the others idle, since none of the low-level critical globals of either the Mac or GEM/TOS would be available. It could do a block-copy bankswitch and start running. There would be all sorts of interesting things to resolve doing this, but I think it's technically possiblr. With the 68030's onboard MMU, life gets real easy real fast doing this. With MMU, each partition would think it has its own machine, starting at 0; the MMU worries about translating what the program thinks into reality. Hence we could have multiple TOS's and even multu^[ple Spectre's running in place, provided there's enough memory to hold them. Oddly enough, we added the capability of a 12 megabyte ST to our SST board, and this was one reason why -- the ability to instantly flip from TOS to SuperCharger to Mac mode is pretty impressive to people. Anyway, it's possible, it's FAR easier and more reliabile with a 68030 or other MMU, and we just might add it into a future Spectre for fun. -- thanks, Dave / Gadgets