Re: FDHD Blues

[hochstrasse@urz.unibas.ch]

In article <1993Apr17.125522.7471@actrix.gen.nz>, dempson@swell.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) writes:
> In article <1993Apr16.202236.42806@urz.unibas.ch> hochstrasse@urz.unibas.ch writes:
>> 
>> * If you put the controller into slot 5, as recommended, you can't
>>   use the GS' RAM disk any more! I.e. you can create it and it's
>>   taken away from your system's memory, but you can't access it!!
>>   I wonder why Apple put this 'feature' into the new controller.
>>   Perhaps because it's intended to work with //Es too.
> 
> It's not a feature of the SuperDrive card - the same applies if you
> put ANY card in slot 5 and set slot 5 to "Your Card".  RAM5 can only
> be accessed through the IIgs's built-in SmartPort firmware, which is
> only available if slot 5 is set to "Internal".  ROM disks (e.g. OctoRAM
> ESP) are also affected.
> 
> I would have thought that the SuperDrive card would be able to
> recognise that it was running on a IIgs, and patch into the original
> SmartPort in some way, so that all devices on both busses were
> available.  Unfortunately, Apple neglected to provide this facility.

-- That' exactly my point...
> 
> It would also be very useful if Apple released a native GS/OS driver
> for /RAM5.  This wouldn't help with ProDOS-8, of course.
> 
-- perhaps someone else could do it?... (who owns the device driver
   manual [grin])

>>   BTW, is anyone aware of a fix for that? (I mean besides the one
>>   I mention below)
> 
> I used the same solution - putting the SuperDrive card in slot 6.
> There is no way around this problem short of patching the code in the
> card's ROM, and that would be a large amount of work.

-- Making a GS/OS driver would perhaps be easier...
> 
>> * Perhaps today, I'd rather buy a Floptical, because it can also
>>   read 720K and 1.4M disks besides those big 21M babies.
> 
> ... and doesn't occupy another slot (assuming you already have a SCSI
> card).

-- Well that's one of my various problems, have a Vulcan, am short
   of slots would like to have flopticals, CD-ROMs, big HFS partitions
   etc....

   BTW, I read somewhere in the system 6 docs, that the HFS FST was
   slower than the ProDOS FST. Has anyone made some tests with huge
   HFS HD partitions? (I hate this 32M barrier...)

Urs

|   BRIGHT SOFTWARE           |  *  A P P L E   I I   F O R E V E R  *  |
|   Urs Hochstrasser          |   Actually in Development: C H E M I X  |
|   Strassburgerallee 79      |   Pseudo:   CodeBurger (binary sauce)   |
|   4055 BASEL, SWITZERLAND   |   InterNET: HOCHSTRASSE@URZ.UNIBAS.CH   |