HDD's => Buffers & RAM questions

Hi

Anyone knows if exists a way to locate the HDD buffers in FastRAM?

Using FBlit or other tools, don't help.

Thanks

??? I always thought it was located in fast ram as default! Are you sure it is using chip ram for your hd buffers?

@abraXXious

Hi my friend, nice to "see" you again :)

I know I have a lot of HDD's and partitions on the same system, but all of them are used for different purpouses..... 4 HDD's & 15 partitions..... :roll:

Test is simple...

If I set buffers to 120 or 200 chip memory decreases to 1.1MB.

If I set buffers to 80 on all partitions chip memory increases to 1.7MB

---------- Post added at 21:18 ---------- Previous post was at 21:02 ----------

I'm thinking......

Maybe unmounting, inside the 3.9, the partitions not needed (OS4 ones) at startup?

But I don't know the command/sintax to use in startup-sequence.....

Buffers are used in FAST RAM normally. They only go into chip RAM if it:

-there is no FAST RAM available at boot time (like in some accelerators with no autoconfig);

-You installed a MASK value different than 0x7777777F, which then points towards chip mem address area instead FAST RAM.

@rkauer

Quote:

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-You installed a MASK value different than 0x7777777F, which then points towards chip mem address area instead FAST RAM.

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Hi my friend....

Thanks a lot for the info :)

Default values aren't 0x7FFFFFFF? Corrected, default values are 0x7FFFFFFE?

I will check this evening/night, but I think this is the default value asigned by 3.9.

What are the correct MASk values for 3.9 & OS4? It affect only to RAM asignation or also to r/w operations, performance, ....?

Thanks

Will affect everything, from R/W to memory consumption. Will work the same way in every OS you throw it in.

Looks like there is some confusion here. Mask is an address which determines where (and where not) the filesystem should transfer data. Buffers are used by AmigaDOS for each mounted device to improve the performance of a given device. The above mask values should allow transfers to most any where fast memory would be located. The primary purpose of mask is for devices which use DMA (i.e. Zorro2 DMA is limited to a 24 bit address range).

There are 3 choices for a mountlist entry which determines where buffers should exist:
BUFFMEMTYPE = 0 OR 1 (ANYMEM)
BUFFMEMTYPE = 2 OR 3 (CHIPMEM)
BUFFMEMTYPE = 4 OR 5 (FASTMEM)

Floppy drives require CHIPMEM. Hard drives use ANYMEM. This means if no FASTMEM is available when the device is mounted CHIPMEM will be used. So if you have no Auto-config FASTMEM or no Special-config FASTMEM (A3000 or A4000) Hard drive buffers may end in up in CHIPMEM. One possible solution is to try using ROMTAGMEM which requires a reboot but will ensure the FASTMEM is present before any devices are mounted.

@SpeedGeek

Thanks for the info m8 :)

Can you post any config example for an noob :oops: like me?

I have a lot of mem: mobo 16, CSPPC 128, ZoRAM 256, Radeon 256, Voodoo.... >512 MB FastRAM.......

Thanks in advance :bowdown:

Well assuming your using HDtoolbox you should already have a default value of BUFFMEMTYPE = ANYMEM for every HD partiton. Also, based on your description you have plenty of Auto-config and Special-config FASTMEM. So it makes no sense at all that you would have HD buffers in CHIPMEM. Unless the CSPPC has some configuration option issue?

Thanks for the info m8 :thumbsup:

Finally I solved the problem:

- All Mask: 0x07FFFFFFE
- Less number of partitions: Before 15, Now 12
- Buffers 80 in each partition

Now CHIP RAM is : 2.005.360 Bytes at startup (Workbech loaded) :)

Opening many windows with a lot of content each window, CHIP RAM decreases, but newer under 1.968.040 bytes. Great to play every app/game with "Hungry of ChipRAM".

Thanks to all & Best wishes