Re: ROM 1 better than ROM 3?

[spector@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article thoang@orion.oac.uci.edu (Trangdaithi Hoang) writes...
>
>MATTHEW L. JENSEN <mjensen2@wpo.uwsuper.edu> wrote:
>>I still believe ROM 03 is better--more tools in ROM mean faster operation, 
> 
>Maybe, if you're running off of floppies or a slow mass media device.
>The time it takes to load the equivalent tools on a ROM 1 with Ramfast,
>fast hard disk, and accelerator is hardly noticeable.

	True, increased smartport speed becomes irrelevant if both a ROM 01
and ROM 3 are RamFast equipped (using HDs rather than 3.5 floppies), though
your forgetting something. After everything is loaded, the ROM 3 will still
redraw the screen and load slightly faster. Why? The ROM 3 accesses it's
QDII(etc) tools directly from ROM, at a full 2.8 MHz -- the ROM 01 has to
access them from RAM and slow down to 2.6 MHz.

>A lot of the noise you hear is interference picked up from neigboring
>cards.  You can eliminate a lot of the interference by isolating the
>sound card from other cards.  For example, I have the Sonic Blaster in
>slot 4, three slots away from either the Zip in slot 1 or Ramfast in
>slot 7.  It's about as quiet as the ROM 3.  I must admit that some

	Funny, I have two ROM 01s manufactured at different times. Both
have a problem with noise even with _all_ internal slot cards removed. 
Try accessing pull-down menus and you'll always get that annoying off tone
musical-like scale as you move up and down. 

>of the new features on the ROM 3 are useful, but I really miss the
>compatibility of a ROM 1; the ability to run everything.  Even some
>of the more recent stuff are not fully ROM 3 compatible (ie. DocVu
>2.0).  Haven't run across a program that is ROM 3 compatible only.
>Also, the ROM 1 can have 8 MB of ram without losing /RAM5.

	Compatibility? What recent programs are not ROM 3 compatible?
Virtually all post-1990 software released has been made to work on
either ROM version, older programs which are not compatible (games, demos)
have been patched. I can only think of a handful of software titles which
still won't run from my ROM 3. What sort of incompatibilities does DOCVu
2.0 have? As for the 8mb RAM problem, System 6.0.1 fixes that bug so it's
possible to create a RamDisk with that amount of memory. Even so, how many
people need/want that amount of memory in a IIgs system? Especially when
adding the 6th, 7th or 8th Meg on a ROM 3 will force you to turn off DMA.
Speaking of which, the ROM 01 is only DMA compatible to 4megs RAM... ;-)

	Back on software incompatibilities, I've actually found software
which runs on my ROM 3 but not the ROM 01. Try loading "Teenage Queen"
on a ROM 01, takes quite a number of boots before it'll load up without
crashing. Runs perfectly on my ROM 3... :) 

Mitchell Spector
m_spect@pavo.concordia.ca / spector@vax2.concordia.ca