Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!coplex!dean
From: dean@coplex.uucp (Dean Brooks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: KS Roms (on a '3k) Also, undocumented commands.
Message-ID: <1991Jun2.225252.16323@coplex.uucp>
Date: 2 Jun 91 22:52:52 GMT
References: <1991Jun2.094302.15875@news.stolaf.edu>
Organization: Copper Electronics, Inc.
Lines: 42

seebs@thor.acc.stolaf.edu (The Laughing Prophet) writes:

>A large number of people have been commenting about 'when 2.0 is burned in
>rom'.

>Why, oh why, would you put it in rom? I think putting KS in Ram is one of
>the nicest things the amiga does - it allows me to switch os's at will. Sure
>it takes memory - but so does Rom, just different memory. ;-) Seriously,
>though, what's so great about having it in ROM? I see no clear advantage,
>except for the ~2 seconds and ~512k of time and disk space involved, and
>the 2 seconds only applies during a cold boot or a really bad guru. :)

The main issue isn;t actually *having* it in ROM, its more of a question
of when will it be finished.  Obviously, support for WB2.0 will still
be less than 100% until C= begins shipping machines with 2.0 in ROM.
When 2.0 ships in ROM for all model Amigas, hopefully everyone will
throw away their 1.3 include files; there wont be any need for them.

The original WorkBench (1.1,1.2,1.3) has always been the pitfall of
the Amiga.  When 2.0 is complete, I sincerely hope that 1.3 dies
silently, never to return again.  If you disagree, you obviously
haven't used 2.0 much... (-8

I also think the act of placing software in ROM symbolizes to many that
the software is "complete".

>Re: Undocumented commands. Well, I keep seeing people around here told
>'use CPU NOCACHE' or something like that. Well, I appear to have a command
>called 'cpu' in my c: directory. Where did it come from? Appears to be
>standard distribution. Where is it documented? Well? Does someone have
>docs for this? Is there a reason for which it isn't mentioned in the
>"System Software" documentation? (i.e., maybe it isn't so much system
>software as, uhm, a really simple minded game...)

Actually, its documented in the newer System Software manuals.  I think
it was added in 2.03. "CPU ?" should give you most of the information
you need (about turning on/off cache'ing and burstmode).

--
dean@coplex.uucp (Dean Brooks)
Copper Electronics, Inc.
Louisville, Kentucky