From: Jack <gyk...@ea...> - 2014-01-07 14:40:45
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Johnson Lam has posted a new 12-Jan-2014 DRIVERS.ZIP file, with an updated UIDE and re-issued UHDD/UDVD2, in his "dropbox" at -- <http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15785527/drivers.zip> The file is "postdated" 12-Jan-2014 as Johnson is VERY busy at his job, but he has managed to post it early. MANY Thanks, Johnson!! UIDE now offers 4 separate caches: A "Common" cache for disks and diskettes, plus an optional "User-1", User-2", and "CD/DVD" cache. The "Common" cache is always set and uses a default size of 80-MB. All 4 caches can be from 0 (unused) to 4-Gigabytes, and their only rule is that their total size cannot exceed a system's XMS memory! A user driver can also set up its OWN cache and specify it for use during caching requests to UIDE. UIDE cache parameters and user- driver caching calls are specified in the UIDE.TXT file. User-driver caches do demand "a bit of work" as can be seen in the 25-Sep-2012 UDVD2 driver's Init logic. So, for convenience, UIDE provides "User-1" and "User-2" caches, completely set-up and "Open for Business" by using only UIDE's new /X or /Y switches! Cache data for all caches "defaults" into UIDE's "Common" cache if /X /Y or /C are omitted. Thus, user drivers or UIDE's own CD/DVD logic "still work", even if the other caches are not requested for UIDE. Although no user drivers are yet written for its "User-1"/"User-2" caches, UIDE's "CD/DVD" cache can be a "Help!" for an older CD/DVD drive that is losing "tracking" across seeks. Caching all of the CD/DVD directories eliminates many seeks, improves speed, and will help "save" the drive's mechanism from wearing out! The "CD/DVD" cache can be 700-MB for a full "video game" CD, or it need be only the size of the largest file/directory that will be copied to disk plus 10 to 20-MB for directories. An 80-MB "CD/DVD" cache should work fine for most DOS systems. Note that the old /UD switch has been deleted (LONG story!), and a /C cache should be used instead. The old UHDD and UDVD2 drivers have been re-issued, as non-caching "stand alone" drivers, for use as needed. There are old programs which can FAIL on new hardware! The 1994 Norton NCACHE2 will NOT run on systems with UMBPCI upper-memory: Data-miscompares in real mode, and a TRAP to JEMM386 in protected-mode! If only the 1408- byte UHDD loads first, to handle UltraDMA and avoid I-O above 640K (uses its XMS buffer, instead), there are NO failures with NCACHE2 in real- or protected-mode! For that, and for other cases of old software on new hardware, UHDD and UDVD2 have been re-issued! Some can say I am "Dreaming!", to believe that new drivers needing caching may be written so late in the DOS life-cycle. But it can happen -- New "schemes" like FireWire and USB appear all the time! And in any case, I wanted to get multi-caching done in UIDE, while I still had some ideas about HOW to do it!! J.R.E. |