Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!cg-atla!bolton
From: bolton@cg-atla.UUCP (Lee Bolton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: another neophyte
Keywords: ramdisk relocate bios
Message-ID: <8329@cg-atla.UUCP>
Date: 1 Feb 90 05:28:39 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Agfa Compugraphic Division, Wilmington, Mass. USA
Lines: 91


	Hello:

	I've recently aquired ;-} a brand new shiny (well, matte putty)
	computer. configured as follows:

	Manufacturer:     Motorola Computer Systems Model #PCP141
			  (really. no kiddin.)
	Mother Board|     Micronics 88290036  Rev B
	CPU:              Intel 80386/16 no cache
	Controller:       Western Digital Corp. WD1003-WA2  Rev 13
	Floppy Drive:     Toshiba FDK-82  5.25in. 1.2m HD
	Hard Drive:       Miniscribe model 3053  44.6MB
	I/O card:         Track Tenneco (I never heard of them either)
	I/O II card:      Courier 286 A0029540 REV.2
	Memory card:      Micronics MB105095  Rev B
			  (sockets for 2M, 1M installed)
	RAM:              Hitachi 80ns 256k x 1 static column
	OS:               Phoenix MSDOS 3.3
	BIOS:             Phoenix V2.1

	Included with the system, was a utilities disk with 3 important
	programs on it.

	MICEMM4B.SYS    a (sic) memory manager.
	RAMDRIVE.SYS    a disk emulator.
	RELOCATE.EXE    a ROM to RAM translator.

	I have a whole mess of questions about this monster that
	neither the dealer nor Motorola Tech Support have been able
	to answer.

	This is my CONFIG.SYS

	    shell=c:\bin\command.com c:\bin /e:2048 /p
	    files=24
	    buffers=16
	    device=c:\bin\nansi.sys
	    device=c:\bin\micemm4b.sys 0 (256) /ERROR
	    device=c:\bin\ramdrive.sys 256 /a
	    lastdrive=e
	    break=on

	First, RELOCATE.EXE is supposed to copy BIOS from ROM to RAM.
	neat. The little 4 page document is a bit too terse on the
	subject. Like it doesn't happen to mention just what exactly
	gets moved, or from whence to where. a couple of sentences
	mumble about BIOS, EGA BIOS, and/or a 64K frame buffer??
	Unfortunately, such incantations are much too techy for
	this neophytes ears.

	MICEMM4B.SYS is supposed to make the top 384K available as
	extended memory, and RAMDRIVE.SYS is supposed to be able to
	live there. MICEMM4B.SYS is supposed to take a pile of
	parameters. First is a number describing a starting address
	as counted in paragraphs from the bottom of what's referred to
	as 'discontiguous memory'.
	The second parameter is supposed to be the size of the pool to
	be managed (in bytes).

	I cannot get the ramdisk and the relocated BIOS to co-exist.
	No matter how I set up the memory manager, it faults out
	with a memory protection error when I invoke the relocator.
	It's not unreasonable to think it possible to put BIOS wherever
	it has to go and let the ramdisk have the rest is it?

	Has anybody, anywhere ever heard of this system or these
	routines?  Does anyone know what's happening here?
	Do there exist tools to accomplish what I want to on this
	system?? I would even (horror) !-{ pay for them.

	This all comes about because I got a bunch of utilities
	that supposedly make MSDOS a bit more palatable to
	Unix types like me. The documents for this shell clone advise
	that I transplant COMMAND.COM to a ramdisk, as it gets called
	a lot. sounds logical. But I don't think it wise to shove
	COMMAND.COM into RAM if I have to take BIOS out. sort of like
	cutting off a hand to cure a cut finger.

	Would anyone like to venture an opinion regarding the relative
	throughput of either method? Like, What does it cost to run
	BIOS from ROM versus RAM? How much is saved by moving COMMAND.COM
	to RAM?  I'm sure that these questions have wider scope than
	just my little travails here.

			       If you got this far, Thanks for your time.
-- 
R. Lee Bolton          {uunet!ginosko,decvax,ulowell}!cg-atla!bolton 
Agfa Compugraphic Division.        (508)-658-5600 X5461| The brain...
200 Ballardvale St.    Home voice: (508)-283-7980      | it's....Gone Jim.
Wilmington, Mass. 01887     data:  (508)-281-5958      | just...GONE!