smlg1015@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (12/18/90)
I'm having trouble installing EEsof's Touchstone CAD program on my 386 based PC. Will anyone who has successfully done this, tell me what memory manager you're using and exactly what is in your config.sys and autoexec.bat files? The folks at EEsof have 386Max as their memory manager; I have QEMM and it is failing miserably. Stuart Lichtenthal .
gbastin@x102c.harris-atd.com (Gary Bastin 60293) (12/18/90)
In article <46500177@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> smlg1015@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes: > > I'm having trouble installing EEsof's Touchstone CAD program >on my 386 based PC. Will anyone who has successfully done this, tell >me what memory manager you're using and exactly what is in your config.sys >and autoexec.bat files? The folks at EEsof have 386Max as their >memory manager; I have QEMM and it is failing miserably. > I have had the experience of installing two versions of Touchstone on PCs. The first was about 3 years ago and involved trying to get Touchstone RF (not Touchstone Sr.) up and running on two PS2 Model 50s. After much experimenting, I found that any addition to the default files and buffers would cause a problem. Likewise, the mouse driver was the only TSR that could be loaded in memory. Initially, I tried to run with DOS 4.01, however, there was just not enough RAM left to run Touchstone. Touchstone RF needs about 587K-590K of RAM available to be able to load and run all the features. It also needs DOS >=3.3. So the only version of DOS that has all the features, but which is not too bloated, that will run Touchstone RF is Version 3.3. Since we also had wordperfect on the same two machines, and it requires more files and buffers, I had to rig up a .bat file that would copy a new autoexec.bat, and re-boot the machine. Then, after using wordperfect, another .bat file that would restore the old autoexec.bat, and re-boot the machine again. Yes, it was a kludge, but it did work! The latest experience was in getting the OS/2 version of Touchstone Sr. running on a Zenith Z386-20. After much fiddling, and adjusting, I was able to speed up this snail a bit. It originally was only 5X SLOWER than the DOS version of Touchstone Sr. After much soul searching and adjusting the defaults (to take out the spooler, and to take out the frequency updates while analyzing) and adding more memory (initially EESOF recommended >=4MB, now they claim at least 10 MB is needed) to bring up the memory to 7 MB, I was able to speed it up to only about 2.2X SLOWER than the DOS version. My recommendation is to avoid the OS/2 version, unless you are really on a tight budget, and go with the workstation version to achieve any kind of speed. BTW, the platforms for both the DOS and OS/2 versions was the same! Only the operating system and the version of Touchstone differed. As for the reason to go with the newer version of Touchstone, it was an attempt to be able to analyze the effects of cover height on microstrip. The old version claims that the impedance of a microstrip line doesn't vary as the cover height is reduced to 1/2 the substrate thickness above the line! (This is a well know bug in the old version of Touchstone). For the other versions that we are running under DOS on 386s, we have not had any luck trying to run with QEMM. So we had to take QEMM out, and revert to straight DOS. Never tried 386MAX, so cannot comment on that memory manager. As bad as it may sound, we have also had to constantly reboot to take out the Banyan drivers, so that there is enough memory to enable Touchstone to load. Touchstone is not really compatible with the defaults needed for any thing else to be installed on the same machine, especially not at the same time. It is also not compatible with having network drivers loaded. It is at its best in a non-networked environment, with a machine dedicated to just running it. Touchstone is a very memory intensive program. The old version of Touchstone RF (1.4) also had several bugs that would lock up the machine about 1-2 times a week just as you tried to save a circuit file. I believe this was only a problem on the TEMPEST versions that we bought (no hardware keys needed). I realize that I have not answered your questions, but hopefully you now know what some of the problems are with getting Touchstone up and running. The best approach we have found is to just dedicate machines to running Touchstone, rather than trying to rig up special .bat files to re-configure the machines all the time. Unfortunately, dedication of a 386 to running just Touchstone is not practical for small sites. Good Luck! Gary Bastin, WB4YAF /-/-/ Internet: gbastin@x102c.ess.harris.com Mail Stop 102-4826 | phone: (407) 729-3045 Harris Corporation GASD | P.O.B. 94000, Melbourne FL 32902 Speaking from, but not for, Harris!
smlg1015@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (12/19/90)
Dear Gary and other folks using Touchstone: After much experimenting like Gary, I've succeeded in loading Touchstone on our lab's Northgate using the QEMM memory manager. So far, I've only used the tutorial files, so I don't know if the program will lock up as has been Gary's experience. Here's a summary of my experience: 1.)QEMM should be loaded AFTER command.com and the mouse.sys 2.)MAPS=8 or larger locks the program. I have MAPS=0. 3.)I experienced trouble filling high ram, so I used NOVIDEOFILL and during the install sequence of QEMM, told it not to use fastest ram, not to change rom to ram, and ,in general, not to do anything extra. This is after I tried using the default installation. 4.)The page frame is at E800. 5.)FILES=15 BUFFERS=3 in config.sys. I forgot all about WordPerfect's requirements here,: