Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!hellgate.utah.edu!helios.ee.lbl.gov!ucsd!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hp-pcd!hplsla!kens
From: kens@hplsla.HP.COM (Ken Snyder)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Basic windows questions
Message-ID: <5190078@hplsla.HP.COM>
Date: 22 Feb 90 20:52:52 GMT
References: <2470@uwm.edu>
Organization: HP Lake Stevens, WA
Lines: 36

> Disk Cashe software supplied by the vendor should be removed,
> according to the article.  They say that SmartDrive (supplied with
> Windows 386) has a "smoother" integration for cashe operations.  Now

   I guess they didn't lie since they said "smoother" and not "faster."
I've used both superpckwik and pc-cache and had great performance
increases in disc accesses.  Installing SmartDrive didn't improve the
disc access enough to be noticed.  Anybody out there know how to make
SmartDrive perform like a real disc caching program?

> here's where I get confused.....  PC Mag says that SmartDrive uses
> EXTENDED memory for the cashe.  I ordered the 160 Meg disk with ESDI
> controller and 32K cashe.  I believe that the Gateway cashe is
> hardware based.  So whether this is a problem or not remains to be

   The cache for the disc is on the Ultrastore disc controller itself.  It
is totally invisible to DOS except for providing faster accesses.

> seen.  I do wonder if the Gateway drivers let you partition the 4 Megs
> of memory so that say 1 Meg remains as extended and Windows 386 use
> whatever's left for EMS.
> 
   Yes.  Every EMS memory manager I've seen allows you to specify an
amount of memory to be left as extended.

   BTW, in your memory calculations, remember to exclude the 384k between
640k and 1M.  This memory is used exclusively for rom shadowing (whether 
you shadow or not), video mapping and I/O space for some cards.  Some
memory managers can "reclaim" some of the fragments left over for special
applications (himem tsr's) but it can't be used as expanded memory.
I'm not sure if this is true of motherboards other than the Micronics
board used in the Gateway or not.

Gateway owner,

Ken