Re: RAM Control Panel: What is the RAM CACHE????????

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Sandy <compuser@prodigy.net> wrote:

> I believe this is the control panel supplied by Apple on the System 6
> disks.
> 
> On this control panel, you have 2 slide controls, 1 is RAM disk size, and
> the other is RAM CACHE size.
> 
> What is the RAM CACHE????  What does it do?

The RAM cache slider sets the maximum amount of RAM that is to be used
by GS/OS for caching the contents of disks.  It is up to the device
driver to make use of this - Apple's SCSI hard disk and 3.5" drivers do,
but the 5.25" driver does not.  The RamFast almost certainly doesn't
make use of it.

In most cases, it is used to cache directory information, which saves a
significant amount of time when handling subdirectories on 3.5" disks.
Some applications may choose to cache the contents of files as well.

As I noted, the setting is a maximum - GS/OS will use as much memory as
required, up to this limit.  In addition, the cache memory is released
if it is needed for something else (e.g. an application requesting
additional memory when there is very little free memory).

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand