Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!vsi1!octopus!pete
From: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 386 to the max
Summary: Works with Desqview, but...
Message-ID: <444@octopus.UUCP>
Date: 13 Nov 88 15:09:49 GMT
References: <1750@dataio.Data-IO.COM> <432@sdrc.UUCP> <581@husc6.harvard.edu> <5445@saturn.ucsc.edu>
Reply-To: pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann)
Organization: Octopus Enterprises, Cupertino CA
Lines: 33

A quick note:

386max *does* work with Desqview, as long as you use the current version
of 386max (x.62 I think). Unfortunately, plain DV doesn't include the QEXT.SYS
driver that's required to move 60K of DV into extended memory. Thus, 386max+DV
isn't an identical replacement for DV+QEMM. On the other hand, 386max does
some nice things that QEMM doesn't do, such as mapping unneeded ROM's out of
the address space (f'rexample: as long as you don't need to use the G=c800:5
trick, you can map the ROM on an Adaptec controller right out of your memory
space without any trouble: it is only used at pre-config.sys boot time!...
another example: AMI BIOSes contain a spare 16K EGA BIOS that is completely
unneeded... grabbing these areas back with 386max gives me lots of high DOS
memory...


On the OTHER hand (that's why I'm Octopus... 2 hands is never enough :-)),
the new DV is supposed to do a lot of magical things, like load config.sys
drivers into high dos memory. We'll see...

Pete
[recovering for 24 hours between returning from Singapore and heading off
to COMDEX. I'll post a report of interesting things learned in a week or so.]
[Another note: I *very* carefully tested the "write 360K on 1.2M drive" S/W,
and every other trick I could think of, including using a $400 drive alignment
package to align the drives within an inch of their life. Conclusion: while
you will get good results MOST of the time, it is impossible to reliably write
360K floppies on a 1.2 drive. In every case, I produced floppies that didn't
read correctly on one or more perfectly aligned 360K drives.]
-- 
  OOO   __| ___      Peter Holzmann, Octopus Enterprises
 OOOOOOO___/ _______ USPS: 19611 La Mar Court, Cupertino, CA 95014
  OOOOO \___/        UUCP: {hpda,pyramid}!octopus!pete
___| \_____          Phone: 408/996-7746