Re: Alltech Focus Hard Card/8 MB Sirius RAM

[pubpc1@library.ucla.edu]

"Barry Rees" <Barry.Rees@prodigy.net> wrote:
>I have a ROM1 GS and I am interested in buying an Alltech Focus Hard Card &
>an 8 MB Sirius RAM card. If anyone has this combination, I would be
>interested in hearing how it's working out for you. In particular, does the
>8 MB Sirius work flawlessly (in general) and with the Focus or are there
>problems with with accessing memory between the 4 to 8 MB range ?
>
>Any input would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Barry Rees
>Barry.Rees@prodigy.net

Barry, it works flawlessly.  There is absolutely no problem accessing
all 8MB of memory.  All GS/OS and many ProDOS 8 software see all the
memory (and those P8 programs that don't can't access GS memory at all).
The Focus does not use DMA, which explains why the two cards work well
together.  The only difference you'll see is if you do a "noise reduction"
with your graphics software on a large (eg. 1050x750) TIF, the computer
no longer runs out of memory.  :)

I almost didn't want to give back the Focus I borrowed because it worked
so smoothly with 8 megs (unlike SCSI cards, which need DMA turned off).
I did not do tests, but it seems that 8 megs with a Focus is faster than
8 megs with an Apple High Speed SCSI with DMA turned off.

-Scott G.