01659@AECLCR.BITNET (Greg Csullog) (02/10/90)
Even though I paid for PC Ditto II in Sept 89, I still have not rec'd it.
I got so tired of waiting that I bought PC Speed. After installing it the
other day, I post the following message on our local BBS.
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Last night, I installed the PC Speed board that I showed to users at the
meeting on Tuesday. The installation was very easy in a Mega; I just had
to solder a 64 pin socket on top of the 68000.
After I plugged the board into the socket, I booted the Mega and ran
PC_INSTL.PRG. I set up the screen as an Olivetti (640x400) instead of
either Hercules or CGA to get the same screen layout as the default ST
screen. I then ran PC_SPEED.PRG, and, when asked, supplied MS DOS.
The NORTON SI was 4.0. I tested out dBASEIII Plus and Word Perfect - no
problems at all (except for the fact they are PC applications which means
they do not come up to the level of Mac or ST software's user friendliness).
At a future user's group meeting, I will show my Mega running as an ST,
as a Mac (runs 20% faster than a Mac Plus) and a PC (runs at the speed of
a Turbo XT). How's that for compatibility. If I had the cash, I would install
a 16 MHz 68000 and run the ST at > 2x the speed of a Mac. I could also get
the German 386SX/387 board and run the ST like a Compaq 386 !!!
Other facts about PC_SPEED.
(i) multi-meg STs can use the extra RAM as extended memory (my NORTON
SI says I have 960k extended memory with the Mega 2).
(ii) extra RAM can be used as a RAM disk with a supplied .SYS file.
(iii) the 68881 math co-processor will be used to emulate an 8087 so that
a single co-processor can be used for Mac, ST and PC modes.
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Since that posting, I formatted drive C: with MS DOS but I could not get
PC Speed to boot from hard disk. Was that because I reran HINSTALL to have
the ST boot from C: as well?