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- From: Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL ("Info-IBMPC Digest")
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest
- Subject: Info-IBMPC Digest V92 #205
- Message-ID: <921227001156.V92N205@wsmr-simtel20.Army.Mil>
- Date: 28 Dec 92 06:16:10 GMT
- Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
- Reply-To: Info-IBMPC@wsmr-simtel20.ARMY.mil
- Distribution: world
- Organization: The Internet
- Lines: 667
- Approved: info-ibmpc@wsmr-simtel20.army.mil
- X-Unparsable-Date: Sun, 27 Dec 92 00:11:54 GMT+1
-
- Info-IBMPC Digest Sun, 27 Dec 92 Volume 92 : Issue 205
-
- Today's Editor:
- Gregory Hicks - Rota Spain <GHICKS@wsmr-simtel20.Army.Mil>
-
- Today's Topics:
- 486 heat: Worry about it???
- Bus def's ==> Re: EISA vs. ISA (& VESA, VL-bus, Local bus)
- Character set translation
- digitizing a photograph
- File: "IBMPC-L MAIL" being sent to you
- HELP! My 486 is slower than 386! (3 msgs)
- Info-IBMPC Digest V92 #192
- Jumper settings needed
- Motherboard layers
- Motherboards
- Problem with WIndows 3.1
- R4400 > R4000 > P5 > 486 (Indigo kicks butt : -)
- STACKER and New drive Installation
- Tape drive questions
- Will PC's ever multitask well? Is it even possible? (4 msgs)
-
- Send Replies or notes for publication to: <INFO-IBMPC@brl.mil>
-
- Send requests of an administrative nature (addition to, deletion from
- the distribution list, et al) to: <INFO-IBMPC-REQUEST@brl.mil>
-
- Addition and Deletion requests for UK readers should be sent to:
- <INFO-IBMPC-REQUEST@DARESBURY.AC.UK>
-
- Archives of past issues of the Info-IBMPC Digest are available by FTP
- ONLY from WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL in directory PD2:<ARCHIVES.IBMPC>.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: 8 Dec 92 01:45:46 GMT
- From: "Chad R. Dougherty" <crd6@po.cwru.edu>
- Subject: 486 heat: Worry about it???
-
- I recently upgraded to a 486 and discovered that since my hard
- drive is mounted vertically right above the cpu, the outter case of the
- drive becomes a good deal hotter (not SUPER hot, though) than if the
- drive is not above the CPU. The best guess I can make just by feeling
- the temp. change is probably about 20-25 degrees F. Should I be
- concerned about this extra heat with the drive above the CPU or not??
- Should I mount the drive in an open bay instead??
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 9 Dec 92 16:31:06 GMT
- From: Ed Hall <edhall@rand.org>
- Subject: Bus def's ==> Re: EISA vs. ISA (& VESA, VL-bus, Local bus)
-
- tomw@asd.sgi.com writes:
- >This is right. A lot of people run their ISA bus at 10 MHz. Some even
- >run it as fast as 16. There are some cards that don't work right for
- >anything faster than 8, though. A transaction takes 4 cycles, which
- >means you get a maximum throughput of 4 MB/s (8Mhz * 2 bytes / 4).
-
- A transaction generally takes a minimum of 3 cycles on an ISA bus. If
- the motherboard and card both support the zero-wait-state signal, this
- can be reduced to two. On the other hand, cards can assert an
- arbitrary number of wait-states (within reason); ten or more is not
- unheard of for some slower video cards.
-
- So the ISA bus can run at up to 8MB/s and still be within spec,
- although 5.33MB/sec is a more realistic assumption for an upper bound.
-
- -Ed Hall
- edhall@rand.org
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 15:57:34 MET
- From: Jim Groeneveld CMI-TNO Leiden NL <groeneveld@cmi.tno.nl>
- Subject: Character set translation
-
- Dear Marshall,
-
- Concerning your Q in IBMPCL92.189 I suggest you to look at the package
- TSFLTB14.ZIP, which may be in the <MSDOS.TXTUTL> directory on SIMTEL20.
- With that package (as far as I've seen from the DOC) it is possible to
- replace every specifyable character(s) by any other(s), so you should
- be able to define some kind of a translation table if you know the
- translation between the character sets.
-
- Regards - Jim.
- --
- Centrum voor Medische Informatica TNO <Email> | | |\/|
- TNO Center for Medical Informatics | GROENEVELD@CMI.TNO.NL | \_/ | | |
- ( CMI-TNO ) | Y. Groeneveld | GROENEVELD@CMIHP1.UUCP | Jim Groeneveld
- P.O.Box 124 | Wassenaarseweg 56 | GROENEVELD@TNO.NL | Schoolweg 14
- 2300 AC Leiden | 2333 AL Leiden | ...@HDETNO51.BITNET | 8071 BC Nunspeet
- Nederland. | (+31|0)71-181810 | Fax (+31|0)71-176382 | 03412-60413
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 18:46:15 CST
- From: Tphillip%ad4@redstone-emh2.army.mil
- Subject: digitizing a photograph
-
- HELP! HELP! HELP!
-
- I am at my wits end trying to figure out the easiest way to digitize a
- photograph.
-
- I have an application that needs the capability to take a still
- photograph and bring it into an application.
-
- I do not know any other method besides using a regular camera and
- scanning in the photograph. The problem with this is I am not sure
- what kind of quality I would get from a color scanner and a photograph.
- Also, the time it would take to develop a photograph is another
- problem.
-
- Can anyone recommend a good solution to this application?
-
- Thirston Phillips
- Computer Systems Analyst
-
- tphillip%ad4@redstone-emh2.army.mil or tphllip@redstone-emh2.army.mil
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 09:47:34 CET
- From: Pim Clotscher <clotscher@coh.fgg.eur.nl>
- Subject: Re: kaypro 2 ibmpc
-
- Todd A. Burke <burke@pepvax.pepperdine.edu> aked for a utility to read
- kaypro/cpm disks on an IBM-PC.
-
- On SIMTEL20 I found 22DSK139.ZIP, but probably this is the same Todd
- has found.
-
- I remember a program 'CONVERT' from about 1983 by Selfware, Inc. that
- included Kaypro 2, 4 & 10 cp/m formats. I was sold by 'The Software
- Specialist', 1625 K Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036 (202)467-5727
- "Washington's Computer Specialty Store". It was commercial software.
-
- Hope this helps you a bit.
- Sincerely,
-
- Pim Clotscher
- Erasmus University Rotterdam - NL
- E.R.C. - Computer Support Hoboken
- E-mail (Internet): clotscher@coh.fgg.eur.nl
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 9 Dec 92 14:58:25 GMT
- From: Tsun-Jen Hou <thou@prism.poly.edu>
- Subject: HELP! My 486 is slower than 386!
-
- I got myself a motherboard of 486/33 from our local computerstore. The
- rest of the system I put them together by myself .
-
- And I just bought a Norton Desktop for Windows, in there, there is a
- CPU speed test, from that I notice that my computer is slower than a
- Compaq 386 with a index of 25 vs. 35.
-
- Could this be the problem of CPU ? But I did not encounter any problems
- when I am running this computer.
-
- Or just a wrong crystal, but the one on the motherboard says it is a
- 33Mhz.
-
- Any response will be appreciated. Thanks!
-
- Tsun-Jen Hou Polytechnic University
- Electrical Eng. Dept.
- Life is short, play hard.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 10 Dec 92 01:29:15 GMT
- From: Joseph Chiu <josephc@cco.caltech.edu>
- Subject: HELP! My 486 is slower than 386!
-
- thou@prism.poly.edu (Tsun-Jen Hou) writes:
-
- If your system is "rated" slower than a 386 system, there's something
- definitely wrong. MHz for MHz, the 486 should outrun the 386 by
- roughly a factor of two.
-
- Things to watch for: make sure that the BIOS setting for your 486
- system is set correctly. _USE_ all the cache (internal and external),
- _ignore_ the turbo (speed select) input -or- make sure the turbo
- switch is in the correct place, and make sure the "default" speed is
- high.
-
- You might need to play around with the system memory/AT BUS timing
- (clock divider and waitstates) as well.
-
- Read the manual/call the vendor to get the most tweak out of your
- system.
-
- Good luck
- --
- Joseph Chiu, Dept. of Computer Science, Caltech. josephc@coil.caltech.edu
- 1-57 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91126. +1 818 449 5457
- * Now running OS/2, Windows, DOS, and UNIX (okay, well, maybe not...) *
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 10 Dec 92 19:08:31 GMT
- From: The Golden Gryphon <gryphon@openage.openage.com>
- Subject: HELP! My 486 is slower than 386!
-
- thou@prism.poly.edu (Tsun-Jen Hou) writes:
-
- You probably have one or more of the following turned off:
- The 486 internal cache
- The second level external cache
- BIOS shadowning.
-
- Turn 'em all on and try again.
-
- --
- The Golden Gryphon gryphon@openage.COM
- "Mad Scientists seeks mindless brawny assistants, good pay, quiet location."
- "They're not ghosts, they're metaphysically challenged." - Me
- Openage - The Premier SCO UNIX integrator in the Washington D.C. area
-
-
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 08:55:29 MST
- From: David <IDDWB@ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU>
- Subject: Need IP aware X-Client for DOS 5 or Windows (V92 #192)
-
- >Date: Thu, 03 Dec 92 23:09:35 EST
- >From: Murph Sewall <SEWALL@UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU>
- >
- >We have a visiting faculty member who needs to Telnet to her Unix host
- >from a PS/2 on TokenRing with TCP/IP connectivity. She'd like an
- >X-Windows client. Our budget is small, but bigger than zero.
- >
-
- Try DesqView /X -- I've heard it works nicely if you have enough memory
- -- 8mg.
-
- IBM TCPIP has an x window extension for os2 -- if you can run OS2 - you
- by by the TCPIP base for 200, then the xwindow kit for 150.. but that
- may be too much.
-
- David Bear
- Office Automation
- ASU COPP (602)965-8257
- ... I think -- therefore I am a formal system -- I think?
- IDDWB@ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 0:06:52 CST
- From: Kerry James Paulson <umpaul11@ccu.UManitoba.CA>
- Subject: Jumper settings needed
-
- I have an OMTI 5510-7 Hard Drive controller attached to a 40 meg MFM
- drive. The size of the drive is selected by jumpers W1-8, and
- currently jumper 4 is set. The drive formats to 32 Meg at this
- setting, but I would like to format it to the full 40. Does anyone
- else have this controller? I bought it used, so I do not have the
- manual. I would appreciate it if someone could send me the jumper
- settings (all of them in case I ever upgrade) Thanks,
-
- Kerry Paulson
- umpaul11@ccu.umanitoba.ca
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 11 Dec 92 13:30:56 GMT
- From: JAMES COPELAND X3698 P6536 <ep522jc@pts.mot.com>
- Subject: Motherboard layers
-
- wilfred.wong@cutting.hou.tx.us (Wilfred Wong) writes:
- > Hello there, I was reading some motherboards manuals today and noticed
- > in the specification that most of the boards are 4 layers. Does any of
- > you know what that suppose to mean?
-
- When they spec how manys "layers" a PC board is made of, they are
- talking about the signal traces on the boards. You've seen PC boards
- that have the circuit signal traces running both on the top and
- botom...this would be a two layer board. ie two copper layers
- seperated by PC board material. A four layer board is simply four
- layers of copper that signals can be run on.
-
- I find it hard to believe that todays motherboards are only four
- layers. At Motorola we design with at least 6 layers. 4 signal layers
- with a power and ground layer. In fact, the higher density boards are
- being done with 12 layers. 8 signal layers and 4 power layers. I
- would be interested to know if they are only talking signal layers or
- if the 4 layers includes the power and gnd layers. If you don't
- "shield" the higher speed clock lines and busses between power and
- ground the PC board will be very "noisy" when operating and spray radio
- wave interference all over the place.
-
- Anyway... They are talking about the number of copper layers within the
- PC board.
-
- Jim
-
- .....Everything is just dandy down here at the old Circle M Ranch .....
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Fri, 11 Dec 92 11:18:31 EST
- From: Ron Richards <ron@micros.com>
- Subject: Motherboards
-
- > HP is known for it's printers. Hayes is known for it's modems. Who
- > makes motherboards? It seems like anybody with a hot soldering iron has a
- > motherbord for sale. They seem to come in all shapes and sizes. I assume
- > IBM makes their own but where do all the motherboards I see in the magazines
- > come from? Who makes them? Is one better than the other? What makes one
- > motherboard design superior to another? Where can I find a reliable,
- > consistant source of good motherboards?
- >
- > David Andrew Vaughan
- > GE Consulting Services
-
- Mylex and Micronics are two well know and respected motherboard
- manufactures. Some of the other things to look for are the BIOS, the
- chip set and the cache. Phoenix, AMI and Award are the top BIOS
- producers, know for good quality and compatibility. C&T, OPTi and SSI
- are popular chip set makers, thought there are scores of others. Also,
- look at the amount and type of cache on the motherboard. It will
- usually be in the 64k-256k range.
-
- There are also dozens of asian motherboards being sold. Most use
- quality chip sets and BIOS chips so that they should be considered if
- you're on a budget. Now days most of the computer support circuitry is
- contained in the chip set, so the motherboard is mostly just a set of
- buses with expansion slots and i/o connectors.
-
- My 386/40 board is a no-name asian clone. It works fine with DOS,
- Windows and SCO Unix. I have also used DOS and Unix compilers and
- debuggers with this motherboard and have never had a problem.
-
- At work we have purchased a few 486/33 Mylex motherboards to upgrade
- some old IBM AT's, they work well also.
-
- Ask around at GE. I bet some of your co-workers have already taken the
- motherboard upgrade path. They could give you valuable first hand
- knowledge about upgrading. BTW, it is extremly easy to install a new
- motherboard if your computer case accepts standard AT or baby AT size
- motherboards. Most replacement motherboards are the baby AT size. You
- should check your case before you order. If you have a funky case you
- can order a new case with power supply and all mounting hardware for
- about $60-$100, tower configurations are about $30 more. --
-
- | Ron Richards Micros Systems, Inc., R&D |
- ron@micros.com | | 12000 Baltimore Avenue, Beltsville, MD 20705
- | (301) 210-8139 |
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 9 Dec 92 12:23:26 GMT
- From: Emmanuel Gustin <gustin@nat2.uia.ac.be>
- Subject: Problem with WIndows 3.1
-
- Thanks to all people who replied to my posting some time ago concerning
- my problems with Windows 3.1. Most people advised to add more RAM, what
- I did. However, this didn't solve the problem.
-
- The configuration of my system is:
-
- Processor 80386SX 20MHz
- Coprocessor 80387
- Memory 4 MB RAM
- Graphics Trident TVGA9000
- BIOS American Megatrend SCATsx rev 3.0 BIOS, 04/29/1991
- BUS ISA (PC/AT)
- Ports 2 serial, 1 parallel
- OS MS DOS 5.0
- Hard disk (type 47) Quantum 50MB 8 sides, 750 tracks, 17 sectors/track
- Controller IDE
- Mouse Genius mouse, driver version 9.04, on COM1
-
- PROBLEM:
- * When starting Windows 3.1 in (default) 386 enhanced mode, a
- sequence of beeps is generated. The beeps seem to occur mainly when the
- hard disk is accessed. The amount of beeps increases when adding screen
- saver, desktop bitmaps, clock, and other add-ons. Starting a program
- also causes beeps.
-
- * When continuing to run W3.1 in 386enh mode, sometimes strange
- things happen. When scrolling in Notepad, numbers are inserted in the
- file sometimes when pressing Up/Dn/PgUp/PgDn. Double-clicking a program
- icon sometimes starts a program but then immediately iconizes it.
- Pressing ALT-F4 or File... Exit in the program manager does sometimes
- NOT close Windows. When starting a large program, Win3.1 freezes and I
- have to reboot the system. * The debug switches of Windows do not
- help.
-
- * DrWatson finds no fault.
-
- * I am using the Windows SVGA driver with svgamode=106 set. Changing
- this or using Trident drivers (recent version from
- ftp.cica.indiana.edu) didn't help.
-
- * I already experimented with various AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS
- changes, but that didn't help either.
-
- ============
- AUTOEXEC.BAT
- ============
-
- echo off
- SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
- PATH C:\WINDOWS;c:\sys;c:\batch;C:\tools\nc;
- PROMPT $e[1;36;44m$P$G
- rem C:\SYS\MODE CON CP PREP=((850) C:\SYS\EGA.CPI)
- C:\SYS\KEYB BE,,C:\SYS\KEYBOARD.SYS
- C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV.EXE 1024 0
- loadhigh c:\sys\doskey
- cls
-
- ==========
- CONFIG.SYS
- ==========
-
- files=30
- buffers=10
- lastdrive=d
- break=on
- shell=c:\sys\command.com c:\sys /p /e:512
- device=C:\windows\himem.sys
- device=c:\windows\emm386.exe noems
- rem devicehigh=C:\SYS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,437,1)
- devicehigh=c:\tools\mouse\gmouse.sys
- devicehigh=C:\SYS\ANSI.SYS
- COUNTRY=32,,C:\SYS\COUNTRY.SYS
- STACKS=9,256
- DOS=HIGH,UMB
-
- Has anyone seen this problem before?
-
- Emmanuel Gustin
- University of Antwerp, Belgium
- gustin@nats.uia.ac.be
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 8 Dec 92 17:05:39 GMT
- From: Rainer Malzbender <rainer@spot.colorado.edu>
- Subject: R4400 > R4000 > P5 > 486 (Indigo kicks butt : -)
-
- The recent issue of Computer Design has a little blurb in it about the
- new R4400 chip from MIPS (now part of SGI). It's an upgrade of the
- R4000 and basically runs faster and has a larger primary cache. The
- current R4000 runs at 50 Mhz externally, 100 Mhz internally. The R4400
- has a 75 Mhz external clock. Cache has been increased from 8k/8k to
- 16k/16k.
-
- Anyway, the interesting thing for this group is that the article made a
- comment about even the existing R4000 being faster than the
- not-released P5 from Intel, not to mention the R4400. The R4000 has
- been shipping for almost a year.
-
- Here's a data point: I took somebody else's existing Fortran code to do
- numerical chaos on a PC and recompiled it on my Indigo R4K without any
- changes except for replacing the graphics calls (the program is
- 99.99999 % floating point, including much double precision). What took
- an hour on a Gateway 486DX2-66 took four minutes on the Indigo. And
- this was using a compiler that only generates R3000 binaries (i.e., no
- 64-bit instructions).
-
- Regarding the flame wars: I own a Mac, Amiga, and 486 and have cursed
- them all :-)
-
- Rainer M. Malzbender
- Fyzzicks
- CU Boulder, 303-492-1366
- Real computers have hardware memory protection.
-
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 16:08:40 MET
- From: Jim Groeneveld CMI-TNO Leiden NL <groeneveld@cmi.tno.nl>
- Subject: STACKER and New drive Installation
-
- Dear Steve,
-
- Concerning your Q in IBMPCL92.189 I would like to ask you whether you
- do not put the hard drives into the finally desired systems and then
- transfer the whole contents of the "old" drive onto the "new" one
- serially. There are nice utilities to transfer files or directories (or
- even whole disks) via a 0-modem cable. The one I use is the package
- ZIP151.ZIP, that transfers at a speed of 115200 bps, but only files or
- directories. So I wrote (in BATch) a set of utilities (which I will
- upload to SIMTEL20 in due time) that uses ZIP 1.51 (and another utility
- DISK), to transfer a whole disk or a part of it (a specific directory
- branch). If you are interested in that utility (called CLONE) drop me a
- line. I'm regularly improving it.
-
- Regards - Jim.
- --
- Centrum voor Medische Informatica TNO <Email> | | |\/|
- TNO Center for Medical Informatics | GROENEVELD@CMI.TNO.NL | \_/ | | |
- ( CMI-TNO ) | Y. Groeneveld | GROENEVELD@CMIHP1.UUCP | Jim Groeneveld
- P.O.Box 124 | Wassenaarseweg 56 | GROENEVELD@TNO.NL | Schoolweg 14
- 2300 AC Leiden | 2333 AL Leiden | ...@HDETNO51.BITNET | 8071 BC Nunspeet
- Nederland. | (+31|0)71-181810 | Fax (+31|0)71-176382 | 03412-60413
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 9 Dec 92 22:18:15 GMT
- From: Bob Lee <rlee@andy.bgsu.edu>
- Subject: Tape drive questions
- Keywords: tape drives
-
- I have had a CMS 250MB drive for about 4 months now. It was a MAJOR
- life saver when I was installing OS/2 and I had to re-partition my hard
- drive. Just load the program, tell it to backup drive C, and go do
- something else for about 1/2 hour. IMHO I think that once the drive
- finds where it needs to be on the tape, the writing of the files to the
- tape is faster then a floppy, even when working through a floppy
- controller.
-
- If anyone out there has a large library of diskettes with archived
- programs and stuff you don't use very often, a CMS QIC-80 drive is a
- great investment. Well worth the money! Not only will it eliminate that
- cumbersome floppy library, it also makes backing up your hard drive
- fast and easy. Also, I did some figures. Megabyte per megabyte,
- cartrige tapes are cheaper then floppies.
-
- There are still a few things about the QIC-80 that still bug me.
-
- 1. You can't delete a saved volume unless you delete the entire
- tape.
-
- 2. This may be asking too much but I wonder why you couldn't
- load and execute files off of a tape the same manner as you would a
- floppy.
-
- I talked to a CMS tech guy and he said they have been getting requests
- for the ability to delete volumes off of a tape. Aparently he said that
- this is strictly a software limitation. I guess they just need a large
- enough demand and they'll get a team to start working on it.
-
- -BOB
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 9 Dec 92 14:55:49 GMT
- From: kevin s coupal <baloo@nx01.mik.uky.edu>
- Subject: Will PC's ever multitask well? Is it even possible?
-
- Will the IBM ever be able to multitak like a big machine.? I mean. A
- machine like an amiga has 4 or 5 processors, a NeXT has 1 processor and
- 9 I/O processorsAnd the intel machines have ONE processor. I try to
- multitask and access a disk floppy drive and my machine crawls to a
- halt. Cuz the CPU has to wait for the slow flppy drive instead of
- pasing the process off to an alternate processor. So, will the PC ever
- be able to multitask as well as an Amiga? Or other non-intel machine??
- It doesn't seem too probable to me, but then again maybe its the
- operating system. Does UNIX make the PC multitask much better than
- windows, desqview, or OS/2??
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 9 Dec 92 16:35:45 GMT
- From: Tony Quan <quan@xenon.stanford.edu>
- Subject: Will PC's ever multitask well? Is it even possible?
-
- baloo@nx01.mik.uky.edu (kevin s coupal) writes:
-
- The problem of course is the operating system. The DOS/Windows
- combination will never multitask well because of it's fundamental
- design. With the right operating system, even middle of the road
- machines can multitask well. I use OS/2 2.0, which is an excellent
- multitasker. Yesterday as an experiment, I did the following all at
- the same time:
-
- Format a floppy in drive A:
- Format a floppy in drive B:
- Run PMGlobe (program that draws different views of earth)
- Run a download at 14.4Kbps
- Telnet & FTP over ethernet from a Unix machine
- Run Word for Windows 2.0 and format documents
-
- I have a 386/33. Everything worked fine, all at the same time, even
- the downloads and FTP. The modem download was done at over 1300
- characters per second and the FTP went at about 45K per second even
- while all of this was going on. I know from personal experience that
- this would have been too much for Windows on the same machine. So with
- the right OS, yes, it is possible.
-
- --Tony
- quan@cs.stanford.edu
-
- --
- "Where the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons,
- computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh only 1 1/2
- tons." ---Popular Mechanics, March 1949
-
-
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 9 Dec 92 16:29:22 GMT
- From: "H.C. Pulley" <hcp@csx.cciw.ca>
- Subject: Will PC's ever multitask well? Is it even possible?
-
- Coherent 4.0 is a multitasking, multiuser, protected mode, 32-bit
- operating system that resembles SVr3 unix.
-
- I run Coherent 4.0 on my 386dx/40 with 8MB of RAM. I can format both
- floppies at the same time, and have two make/cc/as/ld sessions as well
- as several interactive users logged in at the same time, and all my
- cron jobs (jobs executed periodically by the CPU).
-
- PC's multitask very well. The floppy controller can operate in
- parallel with the CPU; so can the hard drive controller, etc. If you
- want fast video for a PC you can get a card with an additional
- processor.
-
- The problem is DOS programs; they busy-wait whenever they are waiting
- for I/O, keystrokes, disks to spin up to 3600rpm etc. Under Coherent
- (and all unixes), process can wait on events. When a process is
- waiting, the CPU switches to another process. When the event occurs,
- the CPU puts the waiting process back into the list of runnable
- processes. Thus editors wait on the keyboard, a copy to floppy will
- wait on disk spin up, download programs will wait on the com port.
- Only programs that do large amounts of number crunching are ever
- interrupted due to priority (because they have had too much CPU time).
-
- Harry
- --
- hcp@csx.cciw.ca |This message released|It takes all kinds,
- hcpiv@grumpy.cis.uoguelph.ca |to the PUBLIC DOMAIN.|and to each his own.
- ----------------------------------+---------------------|This thought in mind,
- Stay away from the DOS side, Luke!|Un*x don't play that.|I walk alone.
-
-
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 10 Dec 92 19:04:32 GMT
- From: The Golden Gryphon <gryphon@openage.openage.com>
- Subject: Will PC's ever multitask well? Is it even possible?
-
- baloo@nx01.mik.uky.edu (kevin s coupal) writes:
-
- I think you know not of what you speak, I'm running SCO Open Desktop
- on 3 PC's on my machine. I have 3 IO subprocessors in the compaq, 2 in
- the Zenith, and none in the Daly. This all has to do with what kind of
- hardware you put in your PC. Multitasking has nothing to do with your
- floppy being slow. It has to do with you not having a separate
- processor memory bus. When you access any peripheral in your bus you
- processor must slow to the bus speed (8MHz for [E]ISA, and 10 MHz for
- MCA).
-
- Multitasking is an OS feature which the intel fully supports.
-
- The Golden Gryphon gryphon@openage.COM
- "Mad Scientists seeks mindless brawny assistants, good pay, quiet location."
- "They're not ghosts, they're metaphysically challenged." - Me
- Openage - The Premier SCO UNIX integrator in the Washington D.C. area
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of Info-IBMPC Digest V92 #205
- *********************************
- -------
-