Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!dutrun!donau!duteca4.et.tudelft.nl!kooijman
From: kooijman@duteca4.et.tudelft.nl (Richard Kooijman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Simple Cache Question
Message-ID: <1991Jun06.072338.4198@donau.et.tudelft.nl>
Date: 6 Jun 91 07:23:38 GMT
References: <9106042300.AA25243@heath-bar-crunch.MIT.EDU>
Sender: news@donau.et.tudelft.nl (UseNet News System)
Organization: Delft University of Technology, Dep. of Electrical engineering
Lines: 29
Nntp-Posting-Host: duteca4.et.tudelft.nl

pshuang@ATHENA.MIT.EDU writes:

>(c) Copyleft 1991 by Ping Huang.

> * FASTOPEN is a very specific kind of caching program which keeps track
>of where DOS can find files (by maintaining a table of names with their
>locations on disk).  It does not try to cache file contents.  Therefore,
>for a small memory cost (i.e. 16Kb), it can be more efficient than a
>general kind of cache if your applications tend to open lots of
>different files all over the place.  It can work well *WITH*
>general-purposes caches.  Some people like FASTOPEN, others claim that
>it doesn't help speed much.  It seems a matter of personal preference.

Well, BYTE Mag. has done some tests on FASTOPEN and I have also done some
tests myself. Conclusions of us both were that FASTOPEN only delivers
5% speed advantage. Only programs that do a lot of opening and closing
of files (dBase ?) may benefit more than 5%.


Richard.

-- 
Richard Kooijman                 |           (__)
Delft University of Technology   |           (oo)   -------------------------
Dept. Electrical Engineering     |    /-------\/ - | Don't have a Bart, man! |
Section Computerarchitecture     |   / |     ||     -------------------------
Neural Network Group             |  *  ||----||
Room 10.04                       |     ^^    ^^
kooijman@duteca.et.tudelft.nl    | The Simpsons' cow