Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!pasteur!agate!garnet.berkeley.edu!bmug
From: bmug@garnet.berkeley.edu (BMUG)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Virtual memory init
Message-ID: <19067@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 13 Jan 89 20:50:33 GMT
References: <1542@csuna.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 45

In article <1542@csuna.UUCP> dlt@csuna.UUCP (Dave Thompson) writes:
>On the front page of this week's MacWeek (10 January 1989) there is an
>article entitled:  "Virtual memory ends RAM jam."  Connectix Corporation
>has come out with a package containing a PMMU and an INIT for $695 that
>creates an 8mb swapfile on disk, far cheaper that an 8mb DRAM upgrade.
>The article states that there is "some" performance degradation on 1mb
>RAM machines but performs adequately on 2mb machines and with no noticeable
>degradation on 4mb machines.  Sounds great!!
>
>My question is:  are there any beta testers of this software out there on
>the net who would be willing to attest to the quality of this product?
>Comments?

Connectix came to BMUG's weekly meeting last night and demoed the product.
Comments:

The demo was done on a 2 meg Mac II.  The program (i.e., INIT), ran
without breaking, with the demonstrator running Excel, PageMaker,
ImageStudio, Word, LightSpeedC 2.0, HyperCard, and about four other
applications.  The hard disk, btw, was Apple's stock 40 meg Quantum, with
a 29 mS access time.  Response was very good, even on memory (disk)
intensive tasks such as ImageStudio manipulations and the like.
MultiFinder context switching was smooth.  The only programs to date which
will not work well with the Connectix setup are debuggers like TMON and
MacsBug (nobody thought to ask about disassemblers like MacNosy).  The
faster the hard disk, the better performance will be.  Performance on a 1
meg machine will be sluggish during certain operations.  Performance on a
4 or 5 meg machine will be apparently unaffected (the last three statements
made by the demoer).
The company is planning to produce an INIT package for accellerated SE's
with boards able to accommodate a PMMU (Levco and a few others) or with a
68030.  These are in beta test right now.
Availability of the Mac II product is now.  Connectix will have a booth at
MacWorld Expo (Brooks Hall, perhaps Moscone also) with the following show
prices: INIT and PMMU: $595; INIT only (for Mac IIx and other 030
configurations): $249 (usually $295).
Seemed like a neat thing.  We're trying to get one to beat on before
recommending it.  Definitely worth a look, though.

John Heckendorn
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