Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!well!farren
From: farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Multitasking (was re:Powermonger etc.)
Message-ID: <22183@well.sf.ca.us>
Date: 15 Dec 90 20:38:48 GMT
References: <9012130059.AA08767@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Lines: 27

i0046145@WATER.FIT.QUT.EDU.AU (Lukacz Alex) writes:

>I've been having major problems with multitasking lately, anyone care to tell
>me what exactly is happening or a fix?

He goes on to describe floppy gronking while trying to do multiple accesses,
and slowdown in serial stuff while doing floppy stuff.

The disk gronking is, unfortunately, due to the nature of the OS disk access
routines.  If you have two routines, each accessing different tracks/sectors,
the trackdisk routines just shuffle between the two tracks, resulting in a
lot of long seeks (gronk!).  Nothing you can do about it, I'm afraid, as
long as you're running on a pure floppy system.

The serial slowdown doesn't have quite so clear a cause, but might well
be related to the fact that the serial port and the disk both share one
of the PIA chips.  Don't know about this one, though.

The solution?  Don't do multiple floppy accesses, or access the floppy while
you're using your serial port.  Sounds smart-assed, I know, but... I used
to have exactly these problems.  These days, I tend not to use floppies
directly unless I can't help it.  Add some RAM, and do your work in the
RAM: disk (or a recoverable ramdrive), and your problem will disappear.
Or add a hard drive, and similar good things will result.

-- 
Mike Farren 				     farren@well.sf.ca.us