Date : Wed, 31 Jul 1985 01:44:37 GMT
From : The Polymath <hollombe%ttidcc.uucp@BRL.ARPA>
Subject: Re: ** Ramdisk Information **
In article <164@proper.UUCP> walt_sak@proper.UUCP (walt_sak) writes:
>
>I would like to invite comment on the RAMDISKS used in
>conjunction with CP/M systems. Please discuss the advantages
>and bugs you have found for your system. Currently I am
>interested in using MICROSHERE's Ramdisk with a Kaypro 4-84.
I'm currently using the 360K version of Westwind's Drive C on my Osborne 1.
It works as advertised and enormously speeds up any program that does
overlay swapping from disk (Wordstar is vastly improved). It also comes
with a version of Supercalc 2 that uses the RAMDisk for virtual core,
allowing truly enormous spreadsheets. I haven't had time to test this yet.
I haven't encountered any bugs as yet, nor heard of any from anyone else.
It does take about a minute to load from floppies when booting, but all's
clear sailing from there. The drive includes software that allows it to
act as a print buffer and RAMDisk simultaneously.
>Is the cost of the ramdisk worthy of the increased speed in
>program execution? Does the ramdisk make working with very
>large dBase II files faster? What are typical time savings
>(relative to processor speed)?
Drive C costs about $650 in the 360K version. I thought it was worth it,
others may not. I haven't tried it with dBase II yet, but did use dBase II
with a RAMDisk on an IBM PC. It makes an enormous difference in speed (at
least 10x) over floppy disk operation. On the other hand, no difference
was detectable over hard disk operation.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe)
Citicorp TTI Common Sense is what tells you that a ten
3100 Ocean Park Blvd. pound weight falls ten times as fast as a
Santa Monica, CA 90405 one pound weight.
(213) 450-9111, ext. 2483
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