[Freedos-user] New 12-Jan-2014 UIDE, With 4 Caches!

[Jack <gyk...@ea...>]

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.