johns@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Conan the Barbarian) (12/08/90)
I've got the Quarter 4 1990 issue of ST World in front of me. There is a review of the new desktop that was designed for the TT and possibly for the STE. At the end of the article they mention something about getting the new desktop on ROMS. I'm hoping this isn't wishfull thinking, but does anyone at Atari know anything about that? And, when the magazine articlsays desktop, do they mean the whole ROMS? I'm thinking rather than getting the 1.4 ROMS, go for the new ones. Any chance of that happening? -- John Schmitt johns@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca ...!unet!utai!utgpu!maccs!johns
svrobins@npe.isnet.inmos.co.uk (12/11/90)
In article <276089C2.18110@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>, johns@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Conan the Barbarian) writes: > I've got the Quarter 4 1990 issue of ST World in front of me. > There is a review of the new desktop that was designed for the TT and > possibly for the STE. At the end of the article they mention something > about getting the new desktop on ROMS. I'm hoping this isn't wishfull > thinking, but does anyone at Atari know anything about that? And, when > the magazine articlsays desktop, do they mean the whole ROMS? > I'm thinking rather than getting the 1.4 ROMS, go for the new ones. Any > chance of that happening? > > -- > John Schmitt > johns@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca > ....!unet!utai!utgpu!maccs!johns Quoting from ST Applications (December 1990) : "The TT Desktop is 22K larger than the current ST GEM Desktop, and Atari have confirmed that it won't appear in future versions of the 192K TOS Roms used in the Atari ST. But the Atari STE uses 256K TOS Roms (30K of which isn't used), and programmers at Atari Systems Software Division have indicated that Atari will bundle the TT Desktop in future versions of the STE's Roms." So If you have dont have an STE (which you dont, as you are contemplating an upgrade to 1.4 Roms) the it looks like the answer is NO. Its a real shame, I'd love to fit it too. Paul Robins
jfbruno@rodan.acs.syr.edu (John Bruno) (12/13/90)
In article <144.2764b8e3@npe.isnet.inmos.co.uk> svrobins@npe.isnet.inmos.co.uk writes: >In article <276089C2.18110@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>, johns@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Conan the Barbarian) writes: >> [ST World TT Desktop article info deleted.] >> I'm thinking rather than getting the 1.4 ROMS, go for the new ones. Any >> chance of that happening? >> >> -- >> John Schmitt >> johns@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca >> ....!unet!utai!utgpu!maccs!johns > >Quoting from ST Applications (December 1990) : > >"The TT Desktop is 22K larger than the current ST GEM Desktop, and Atari >have confirmed that it won't appear in future versions of the 192K TOS Roms >used in the Atari ST. But the Atari STE uses 256K TOS Roms (30K of which >isn't used), and programmers at Atari Systems Software Division have indicated >that Atari will bundle the TT Desktop in future versions of the STE's Roms." > >So If you have dont have an STE (which you dont, as you are contemplating an >upgrade to 1.4 Roms) the it looks like the answer is NO. Its a real shame, >I'd love to fit it too. So that implies that the six-chip TOS set is on 64Kbit ROMS. When I opened my machine last time, I noticed that there was a connection on the motherboard that had to be soldered/desoldered (I forget which) to enable the ST to use 256Kbit ROMS, don't all ST's have this capability? The only problem I see about putting the TT ROMs in an ST is that they access hardware not available on the ST. Another problem might be that there is 68030 code in the ROMs, but if they can be plopped into an STE, that can't be a problem. I'm just guessing here, but I bet that there is some code in the ROMS (at least the older ones) that is non-tuned high-level language compiler output, otherwise we wouldn't have products like QuickSTII that blow the doors off of the speed of the ROMs themselves. Maybe tuning the routines would save space as well as speed things up. Anyway, I don't believe in fixing things that work, so I won't be replacing my TOS 1.4 ROMs unless there is extra functionality, more speed, and compatibility with existing software. When I put TOS1.4 in, some software (Arkanoid is all that I can think of right now) wouldn't work anymore. Despite people like Allan Pratt that (rightfully) try to stop people from taking shortcuts around documented TOS features, there will always be some poorly written software that doesn't work with a newer TOS version, so check your software out before you upgrade! I only upgraded to 1.4 because of its better hard disk management. ---jb > >Paul Robins