Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!hybrid!scifi!bywater!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: A3000 questions and comments
Message-ID: <19126@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 19 Feb 91 21:39:23 GMT
References: <21104@know.pws.bull.com>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 92

In article <21104@know.pws.bull.com> mohabir@arisia.Xerox.COM (Daniel A. Mohabir) writes:
>1.	Why is it that the Hardframe controller on my A2000 automatically 
>recognizes a diskchange on my Syquest drive but the A3000 does not?

Maybe you have an old version of either the Syquest firmware or the A3000
OS?  The up-to-date A3000 release supports both the scsi.level and FFS level
diskchange operations necessary to deal with removable media.

>2.	Why couldn't one of the bits in the battery backed-up RAM be used 
>as a "drive-click" bit? If the bit is set, your drive is capable of not-
>clicking; if it is cleared, your drive is not capable of not-clicking.

It doesn't make any sense to put bits in battery backed RAM that aren't 
necessary, or at least nearly necessary, to get your system booted.  You can
run some kind of program to turn off clicking as soon as you boot.  I think
there's a field somewhere, perhaps in trackdisk.device, to turn off clicking
under 2.0.

>3.	Why doesn't the "list" command have a sort option (like the "dir"
>command)?

Ideally, you should just be able to pipe list into sort.  I tried this
under 1.3, which in WShell would just be "list | sort", but it didn't work.
Sort requires both input and output files to be named; it doesn't default
to stdin and stdout.  Hopefully the 2.0 version does.

>4.	I installed a second floppy drive in the A3000 (an A2000 floppy drive),
>and of course the eject button is not the same. Where can I get a new A3000 
>eject button?

I'm not sure about that.  If you order an A3000 add-in floppy, you get one.
A dealer might know if they're available as a replacement part, assuming the
floppy you have now lines up OK in the first place.  You might have to order
the whole floppy, I'm not sure.  Believe me when I tell you I know what that
sounds like, but some companies don't think about spare parts.  I recall an
editorial not too long ago about trying to replace the ball in an IBM mouse.
IBM doesn't sell the ball, just the mouse.  I has a similar problem, twice,
when a windshield wiper motor system in my old car (since sold and not missed 
for a moment) failed.  Not the motor itself, but some kind of voltage 
regulator.  While this part probably went for all of $1.00 or less, GM didn't
sell just the part.  You had to buy the whole assembly for $300, motor
included.  I should have fixed it myself, but I didn't have the time.

>6.	What is a SetRamsey, and where can I get one?

Forget about it.  SetRamsey was a toy to play around with various Ramsey 
(A3000 Fast RAM controller) settings, before 2.0 knew how to set it up
correctly.  You don't need it, and it can get you into trouble if you set
things up wrong.

>7.	Why does my 486 AT compatible machine at work still run MSDOS 3.3 
>(which can directly address a full 640K bytes of memory)? 

Intel made a number of compromises in the '486, which allow it to run MS-DOS,
but cause a performance penalty versus what they more than likely could have
done, if all they had to worry about were "operating systems", rather than
"glorified program loaders with lots of available hacks to simulate operating
system features in application programs".

>8.	This one is addressed to Commodore. Please, give us a way to still boot 
>Kickstart 1.3 after 2.0 goes goes into ROM. I said PLEASE.

With a little brain surgery, SetCPU V1.6 should work on an A3000 and allow you
to boot 1.3.  Last I tried it, it had some trouble with the A3000, and it
doesn't know where the 32 bit Fast memory is (it specifically looks for 32 bit
Fast memory on the A26x0 cards, defaulting to the first Fast memory it finds
on other systems).

>9.	Why doesn't the schematics in the A3000 Introduction manual have 
>songs associated with the Chips?

The songs were never strictly associated with chips, per se, but rather with
the page, or even something associated with the function on the page.  The
A3000 schematics are probably no exception in most cases (I put in most, but
not all, of the lyrics).  How clever are you at figuring out such associations?

>10.	Whatever happened to SetClock?

It changed.  It accesses the clock through a resource, so we can change the
clock hardware any time we like.  Like we did from A2000 to A3000.  This means
that the old SetClock in 1.3 won't set the A3000 clock.

>PS.	Did I mention that I think the A3000 is a great machine? Well done 
>guys.

Thanks.  Glad ya like it.

>|  Daniel A. Mohabir           |  Phone:         |  Amiga.            |
-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
	"What works for me might work for you"	-Jimmy Buffett