a344@mindlink.UUCP (Tom Klok) (09/21/89)
A friend of mine is running BBS Express! Pro (node 86) on a 130XE running SpartaDOS 3.2 with a 256K MIO and a 5 Meg HD (soon to be 20 Megs). I've noticed that SpartaDOS seems to make a lot of seeks to the HD, especially when writing files. Since Pro likes to keep everything well split up in lots of subdirectories, it's my guess that Sparta is following the directory chain around the disk every time a file is opened, especially if the filename specifies a path from the route (ie "D3:>PRO>DATA>FILE.DAT"). The net effect is that it can take upwards of 2 seconds to open a file, even though burst access is very fast once the file is open. So, my question to all you Atarians is this: does anybody have a program to use the extended 64k of the XE to supply caching for the hard drive? I figure if the bitmap, directory and sector link sectors were kept in ram, and Sparta's read calls were intercepted so the sectors were supplied from ram instead of going to the disk, the speed could be increased by a huge amount, perhaps almost as fast as a ramdisk. Write operations would be done through the cash to the disk immediately; I think delayed writes is asking too much of the existing software. If someone has a cache, or knows of someone that does, I'd really like to take a look at it. If not, I might attempt to write one in MAC/65, but I'd need better docs on the internals of Sparta and the MIO than I now have. This, too, would be much appreciated. Thanks to all that reply. Tom Klok aka ZedOne cosysop of Sin City BBS 604-321-9925 a344@mindlink.uucp or tom_klok@mindlink.uucp voice # 604-321-1809
gdtltr@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Gary D Duzan) (09/23/89)
In article <519@mindlink.UUCP> a344@mindlink.UUCP (Tom Klok) writes: => =>So, my question to all you Atarians is this: does anybody have a program to =>use the extended 64k of the XE to supply caching for the hard drive? I figure =>if the bitmap, directory and sector link sectors were kept in ram, and Sparta's =>read calls were intercepted so the sectors were supplied from ram instead of =>going to the disk, the speed could be increased by a huge amount, perhaps =>almost as fast as a ramdisk. Write operations would be done through the cash =>to the disk immediately; I think delayed writes is asking too much of the =>existing software. => One of the earlier versions of SpartaDOS X included cache support, but it was removed from the later versions because it only increased the speed in a limited number of cases. Gary Duzan Time Lord Third Regeneration Atari Enthusiast Extreme -- _o_ _o_ [|o o|] "Two hearts are better than one." -- Yes [|o o|] |_O_| "Don't listen to me; I never do." -- Doctor Who |_O_|