Info-Atari16 Digest Wed, 10 Jul 91 Volume 91 : Issue 382 Today's Topics: 1.44M upgrading (help) amiga-atari war amiga 68010,and 68000 16 mhz? APPLE + IBM Agreement Author(s) of Alchimie Jr. - A Midi Sequencer Breaking links in a hard disk (ACSI) chain MEGA STE problems Mgif 3.5 Portfolio in T2 Portfolio in Terminator 2? Problems with FATSPEED. skates.lzh at terminator Supra vs. ICD controllers TT memory allocation what Atari DOES have (2 msgs) What is GDOS? XControl Maccel Welcome to the Info-Atari16 Digest. The configuration for the automatic cross-posting to/from Usenet is getting closer, but still getting thrashed out. Please send notifications about broken digests or bogus messages to Info-Atari16-Request@NAUCSE.CSE.NAU.EDU. Please send requests for un/subscription and other administrivia to Info-Atari16-Request, *NOT* Info-Atari16. Requests that go to the list instead of the moderators are likely to be lost or ignored. If you want to unsubscribe, and you're receiving the digest indirectly from someplace (usually a BITNET host) that redistributes it, please contact the redistributor, not us. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 10 Jul 91 05:38:36 GMT From: netcomsv!yonder@decwrl.dec.com (Christopher Russell) Subject: 1.44M upgrading (help) To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Well, as you may have guessed, I am trying to get a 1.44m drive working in my ST (1040STf). Anyways, my first bummer was that I found I had the old WD1772 IC, so I purchased a 02-02 version. I came home and desoldered the old 1772 and then soldered in a socket. I put it all back together (plugged the old 1772 in) and everthing still worked... So far so good. I then tested the new 1772. It works ok... Now for the good (bad) stuff... The 1.44M upgrade document says to run 16Mhz to the 1772 pin#18 from pin #39 of the video shifter (U31). So I installed the new 1772 in the socket with pin #18 bent up. I used a small set of test clips to connect pin #39 of the shifter to the bent up pin. Well, everything booted up fine still (from harddrive). All accesses to the floppy drive failed now though. So I moved on to the next step. The docs said to set the step-rate to 6ms (vs. normal 3) to offset the doubled clock speed. I have TOS 1.0. The docs said to set the clock rate from Gulam like so: 'pokew a08 3' for 3ms and 'pokew a08 0' for 6ms. This seems kinda weird, like it would be more intuitive to do store a 6 for 6ms... Anyways I stored the 0 at a08 and then ran the IBMFMT.PRG (of Y.Tsuji) as suggested in the docs. It just locked up when it tried to format the disk. My questions: Am I doing anything obiously wrong? Have I set the step rate correctly? Are the pin numbers correct? Is there another place I can pick up the 16Mhz? Should I go with a 16MHz osc (uhg)? Is there a better way to test this? Oh yah, I'm usng the TEAC 235HF drive (which works beautifully as a 720K). Do I need to set the straps differently for 1.44M operation? After I determine that I can get this to work at all, I plan to setup one of the more complete HD circuits, probably using a '157 and the HD line from the drive to select and appropriate clock rate... Thanks... -- Christopher L. Russell (yonderboy) Phone: (408)378-9078 Campbell,CA yonder@netcom.COM or clr40@amail.amdahl.com or chrisr@leland.stanford.edu ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jul 91 09:08:38 GMT From: noao!ncar!unmvax!uokmax!occrsh!area88!erick@arizona.edu (Erick Tadefa) Subject: amiga-atari war To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Jul06.143615.27970@actrix.gen.nz> Roger.Sheppard@actrix.gen.nz (Roger Sheppard) writes: > >In article <1991Jul6.095641.18538@crash.cts.com> chuckie@pro-odyssey.cts.com (Chuck Schul) writes: >> my only envy on the amiga is from the start they had memory and slots easy >> to upgrade.for those stucjk with olsder(older)st's we got to use >> soder.atari should be more open minded.and i own an atari and i bitch. >> ---- >> ProLine: chuckie@pro-odyssey >> Internet: chuckie@pro-odyssey.cts.com >> UUCP: crash!pro-odyssey!chuckie >> ARPA: crash!pro-odyssey!chuckie@nosc.mil > >Try to copy Files on A Amiga and format disk, all there commands are external, Benefits: Flexibility, you can remove whatever cmds you don't need and add others, plus they don't occupy space on the memory map (ROM space) >they have to be loaded from disk, that is why they have to use 2 disk drives, > Drawback: yep, 2 disks are almost necessary for ease of use. also they only write tracks, not sectors, and with out CRC checking, >they only do sum checks.. > You can write to sectors all you want, just the OS writes/reads entire tracks, DMA stuff... B Also all the Virus problems that they have, you can't write protect >the disks as they don't use a dive controller ic. > There are ways to avoid viruses, bootblock viruses are the least of ones worrys considering all the smarter viruses. Some bootblock generators are virus hunter/killers. The chip is a drive controller, its just in a custom chip that also happens have in it the sound DMA, D/A converters and so on. There file format is very Slow and there machine runs some 30% slower Can't quarrel with you on that, AmigaDos is slower than ST/IBM format, no question about that. >than a ST, this is because of the wait states that they have, no transparent >video or ram refreshinger. > Speed is comparable, and much faster if there is heavy use of graphics & sound Video is handled by the video chips, not the CPU, RAM refresh is handled by them as well. The CPU has better things to do than 'blit' blocks on a screen. I know I had one, all it was good for was Games.? > Yep, darn best gaming machine around today. Its also a neato computer too. -- >*** Roger W. Sheppard * Roger.Sheppard@bbs.actrix.gen.nz *** >*** 85 Donovan Rd * * At least I don't Flicker, not *** >*** Kapiti New Zealand.. * like a dying light globe. ! *** > The ST flickers now, with the new 640 x 800 & 320 x 400 hacks available for it. BTW: I own an IBM, used to have an Amiga but they haven't upgraded their graphics enough for my tastes so out it went... ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jul 91 08:51:40 GMT From: noao!ncar!unmvax!uokmax!occrsh!area88!erick@arizona.edu (Erick Tadefa) Subject: amiga 68010,and 68000 16 mhz? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Jul6.095639.18532@crash.cts.com> chuckie@pro-odyssey.cts.com (Chuck Schul) writes: > >i read on the amiga net that you can remove 68000 chip and replace with 8 >mhz 68010 for faster operation hardly no software problems if you do there >are software patches to help.can this be done on the st;s? also the can put >a 16 mhz 68000 with ram chip and software patch to run faster also.can this >also be done on the atari and why not.they seem to have a good cheap >upgrade fix for thjose who cannnot afford 500 for a fastv 68030 board! > The older ST Roms don't work with a 68010 because of some problems with how it calls routines (using traps instead of simple JSRs), and the 68010 has a different stack frame which mucks it up. On the Amiga you can do 16Mhz because there conveniently is a 28Mhz clock you can pull and divide down to 14.32Mhz. Don't know if there is a tappable 16Mhz clock on the ST somewhere however. ---- ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jul 91 03:15:19 GMT From: noao!ncar!midway!clout!chinet!saj@arizona.edu (Stephen Jacobs) Subject: APPLE + IBM Agreement To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Jul9.112242.31968@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> shawl@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes: >Just to get some discussion going: What do you all think will be the >effect on Atari of the recent agreement between Apple and IBM? It seems to me >that it could be deadly. > >Steve Shawl I'd agree, if it wasn't that both IBM and Apple have a big stake in nothing coming directly out of this agreement. IBM wants to be sure Apple doesn't put them through endless lawsuits when they move into GUIs. Apple wants to be able to get into more offices. But neither one wants to develop a product that the other one has something VERY compatible with. And by the time anything comes of the cooperation, we'll be into another generation of machines, at least. I still say Atari has the machines on the shelf to make itself a future. They NEED to grind them out in big numbers, and at a decent price. Do that, and everything else gets better. Don't do that, things get worse. What Apple and IBM do a couple years down the road is a problem to look at later. Steve ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jul 91 02:55:16 GMT From: noao!ncar!asuvax!ukma!aunro!alberta!herald.usask.ca!ccu.umanitoba.ca!umhagma1@a rizona.edu (Dr. Phrancinstyne) Subject: Author(s) of Alchimie Jr. - A Midi Sequencer To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu First of all, I must say that this is one heck of a sequencer. I would really like to get a hold of these pseudo-geniuses to congratulate them and also ask a few questions. It doesn't seem that they have an internet address that I could get a hold of them at, so if anyone knows who these people are and how I could get a hold of them it would be extremely appreciated. I noticed that they have 4 places that you can get a hold of them at: by mail, (to Switzerland, and I am in Canada); or through one of the following (all of which I don't have access to, I don't think): COMPUSERVE ID 100016,156 BIX ID DCANEVESI DELPHY ID DCANEVESI (ALCHIMIE Jr, copyright (c) 1989,1990 Prosoft Informatique.) Any help would put me in thorough blissfulness. Please help me soon. Thanks in advance. Brett Hagman (umhagma1@ccu.umanitoba.ca) ------------------------------ Date: 9 Jul 91 23:58:19 GMT From: noao!ncar!hsdndev!think.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!ubc-cs!fornax!wolf gang@arizona.edu (Wolfgang Jung) Subject: Breaking links in a hard disk (ACSI) chain To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Jul7.213855.14145@gmuvax2.gmu.edu> scoile@gmuvax2.gmu.edu (elioC evetS) writes: >Anyone know a way to repoll the devices? > >Or, perhaps more validly, CAN one re-poll the devices? > >I've got two hard drives. The second I don't use very often, so don't normally >power it up when I boot the machine, but sometimes I end up needing it, and it >is SUCH a pain to have to REBOOT the entire system just to get one lousy HD >on-line. Anyone know if there's a way around that? > the Problems seems,that your HDDriver just links disks while getting started with booting. But run the driver again(if it allows doubled installed drivers) In the case the Driver won't allow 2 of his kind to work, use a compatible, but differnet on, when the second drive is ready. This should work.. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Jul 91 16:55:57 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!apple!portal!atari!apr att@arizona.edu (Allan Pratt) Subject: MEGA STE problems To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu carter@engr.wisc.edu (Gregory Carter) writes: >I can confirm the problem of the bad sound/display chip in my MEGA STE. >I orginally just thought it was the way it was suppose to be. You were wrong. >Now that you describe in detail what I experience, lines on screen at 8Mhz, >scratchy sound etc.. you should assume that you both have Mega STe's which are broken in the same way. >Look, when you buy from Atari, you GET what you pay for. Like it or lump it. No, like it or get it fixed. Your Mega STe is BROKEN and should be FIXED. Take it or send it back to your dealer and have it replaced or fixed. Mega STe's are NOT supposed to be this way. ============================================ Opinions expressed above do not necessarily -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp. reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else. ...ames!atari!apratt ------------------------------ Date: 9 Jul 91 17:41:18 GMT From: fernwood!portal!cup.portal.com!Bryan_Jones_Woodworth@uunet.uu.net Subject: Mgif 3.5 To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Does anyone know how to modify Mgif 3.5 to work with a 1 megabyte system? Could someone please pass this info on to me, telling me in detail how to modify it? I know nothing of programming; perhaps someone would be willing to help me modify Mgif 3.5 to work with 1 megabyte. Thanks Bryan_Jones_Woodworth@cup.portal.com ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jul 91 04:34:57 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!wuarchive!m.cs.uiuc.edu!vela!swood@arizona.edu ( EVENSONG) Subject: Portfolio in T2 To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Perhaps we should be kind in return, and and name an atari.archive after terminator (chuckle) swood@terminator.cc.umich.edu (swood@atari.archive.umich.edu) -- ---- Insert favorite .signature here ---- | swood@argo.acs.oakland.edu | swood@vela.acs.oakland.edu Bitnet: swood@Oakland | swood@unix.secs.oakland.edu UUCP: ...!uunet!umich!{vela, argo, unix, nucleus}!swood ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jul 91 00:29:34 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!chaph.usc.edu!aludra.usc.edu!baffoni@arizona.e du (Juxtaposer) Subject: Portfolio in Terminator 2? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Portfolio in Terminator 2? Summary: Yup, I came, I saw it, It blew me away. :) Expires: References: <12267@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> Sender: Followup-To: baffoni@aludra.usc.edu Distribution: usa Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Keywords: T2, portfolio, Arnold In article <12267@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> cliu@jarthur.claremont.edu (Corey Liu) writes: >Anybody out there see "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" yet? Awesome flick! >(IMHO) But that's not the point of my post. > >Correct me if I am wrong, but was that an Atari Portfolio making a cameo Ok, wait a sec and I'll correct you. :) >appearance in the film? Wow! An Atari machine in the likely summer movie >box-office blockbuster! > >Did not look like Atari had a hand in the appearance though. I could not >find any listing in the credits and it seemed the filmakers tried to avoid >showing the product label (i.e. the Fuji). > They did make an appearance .... way down at the end of the credits in the "Thanks to" section that listed just about everyone in the phone book. But I am surprised you didn't see them as they were at the top of the Alphabetical listing... BTW, you're right, they didn't show the Fuji, but the BRIEF pan down to the lable was just enough, and went into focus enough (for about 1/2 sec) to show the label. They must not have paid the movie makers much because Subway Sandwiches had a good 30 sec. spot during the time the cops were telling Sara Connor (Linda Hamilton) in the Loony bin that someone had taken John and killed the foster parents. Makes you wonder what size of "contributions" they make to the movie producers for this kind of stuff. >Am I incorrect? Any info on this? > >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- > "This must be the place I waited years to leave." - P.S.B. >Corey Liu (__) cliu@jarthur.claremont.edu >Harvey Mudd College |oo| cliu@jarthur.uucp >Claremont, CA \/--Moo! cliu@jarthur.bitnet >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Mike ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jul 91 09:34:04 GMT From: otter.hpl.hp.com!hpltoad!ghiggins!gjh@hplabs.hp.com (Graham Higgins) Subject: Problems with FATSPEED. To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I have been asked by M.Bouron@uk.cray.com (Marc Bouron) to post this for him. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I am having a few problems now that I've downloaded FATSPEED. I cannot write to any HD partitions ("disk full"!!) and `show information' eventually crashes with four bombs (illegal instruction). Delete and rename work fine :-| I have NeoDesk 2.06 running over TOS 1.0 -- does anyone know any problem with such a configuration? I have stripped out my AUTO folder, so I am just running ICDBOOT.SYS, FATSPEED.PRG, and STARTGEM.PRG -- this had no effect... As ever, thanks for any and all information :-) Cheers, [M][a][r][c] ############################################################################## # # marc@sequoia.cray.com # . . # # Marc CR Bouron # M.Bouron@cray.co.uk (ARPA) # _|\ /|_ # # Cray Research (UK) Ltd. # M.Bouron@crayuk.uucp (DOMAIN) # (_|_V_|_) # # +44 344 485971 x2208 # M.Bouron@uk.co.cray (JANET) # | | # # # ...!ukc!crayuk!M.Bouron (UUCP) # # ############################################################################## Graham Higgins. HPLabs, Bristol, UK. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Jul 91 20:28:56 GMT From: pa.dec.com!hollie.rdg.dec.com!ryn.mro4.dec.com!aidev.enet.dec.com!miskinis@decw rl.dec.com (John Miskinis) Subject: skates.lzh at terminator To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Well, first I should express my feelings toward .LZH files: "There should be a law against them!" I finally obtained an LZH extractor that worked with the .LZH file :) ANYWAY, I placed the files in A:/skates/jmw as documented, but keep getting a mysterious "error #052, press any key"... Has anyone out there been successful in getting SKATES.LZH to work for them? I'm *REAL* excited over the existence of a skateboarding game for the ST, and the comments say BIG, and FUN... _John_ (Systems Programmer / Skateboarder) ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jul 91 06:04:03 GMT From: netcomsv!yonder@decwrl.dec.com (Christopher Russell) Subject: Supra vs. ICD controllers To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I'm about to emabark on the fun project of setting up a homebrew harddrive system for my ST (SyQuest 44). Anyways, lots of folks have suggested the ICD Advantage adapters. ICD's seem to be reliable, have good tech support and very good software. Supra adapters can be gotten for less though. The Supra adapters have everything the ICD has as far as basic features. Both have clocks. Are the ICD adapters worth the extra money. Should I avoid Supra? I haven't heard anything good or bad about the Supra controllers. BTW, I'm going by what I have seen in my new BEST Electronics catalog: ICD Advantage w/clock --- $105.95 "The New" Supra w/clock - $ 77.00 Both seem to come with software, cables, etc. Anybody know what the significance of "The New" is above. Was there an "old" Supra adapter? Can anybody comment on Supra's support, reliability? How about will a Supra work with a SyQuest (obviously very important). -- Christopher L. Russell (yonderboy) Phone: (408)378-9078 Campbell,CA yonder@netcom.COM or clr40@amail.amdahl.com or chrisr@leland.stanford.edu ------------------------------ Date: 9 Jul 91 17:04:46 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!apple!portal!atari!apratt@arizona.edu (Allan Pratt) Subject: TT memory allocation To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu martin@minster.york.ac.uk writes: >OK so far. My problem is that I can't find anywhere a description of >*which bits* in the program header contain this information! [about >allowing program load and malloc to come from TT RAM] I think it's there somewhere, but it's easier to answer this than find it myself and tell you where to look. One of the previously-unused longwords in the program header has been assigned a meaning as of TOS 1.4. The least significant bit of this longword is a flag which, when set, says "don't bother to clear the whole TPA, just my declared BSS." The next-least significant bit declares that the program may be loaded into alternative RAM (that is, non-ST RAM) and the next bit declares that alternative RAM is eligible to satisfy Malloc calls. The high byte of the longword has another meaning (too arcane to go into here) and the other bits are reserved. This longword is at offset $16 from the start of the program file. Thus, the program header looks like this: struct prg_header { short magic; /* always $601a */ long tsize, dsize, bsize, ssize; /* segment sizes */ long unused; /* unused */ long prgflags; /* described above */ short absflag; /* if nonzero then no fixups */ } I think program appeared recently in c.[sb].a.st which lets you set the bits in prgflags. ============================================ Opinions expressed above do not necessarily -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp. reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else. ...ames!atari!apratt ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jul 91 00:03:08 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!chaph.usc.edu!aludra.usc.edu!baffoni@arizona.e du (Juxtaposer) Subject: what Atari DOES have To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <5344@orbit.cts.com> chucks@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Erik Funkenbusch) writes: >And you think that a laser printer can print 1 megabyte a second? I'm no apple >advocate, but the speed of appletalk can certainly keep up with the fastest >laser printers on the market today for PC's. (pc is generic here). course i >suppose that those atari printers aren't postscript either. have you used a >laserwrite IISC (scsi laser printer). scsi is alot faster than appletalk, yet >they print at the same speed. Yes, I think that fast Post. Printers CAN keep up, if not surpass, appletalk speeds (max 250k bps). The reason a LWIISC prints as slow as say the IIntx (which I doubt but I shall hold my tounge as other conditions may be present to cause the IIntx to slow down) is that the IISC uses a 68k processor while the IIntx uses a 68020 (but uses appletalk). The IISC doesn't have the speed to take better advantage of the SCSI connection. The new laser printers that will be released October use 25MHz '030 and ethernet connectable - those should be pushing the limit of the laser-printing speeds! Does the Atari laser printers use anykind of CPU for image fetching? Also, is the image bit for bit what is printed? If so, why is it so hard to make it postscript-usable? > >.--------------------------------------------------------------------------. >| UUCP: {amdahl!tcnet, crash}!orbit!pnet51!chucks | "I know he's come back | >| ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!chucks@nosc.mil | from the dead, but do | >| INET: chucks@pnet51.orb.mn.org | you really think he's | >|-------------------------------------------------| moved back in?" | >| Amiga programmer at large, employment options | Lou Diamond Philips in | >| welcome, inquire within. | "The First Power". | >`--------------------------------------------------------------------------' -Mike ------------------------------ Date: 9 Jul 91 16:53:28 GMT From: kira!news@uunet.uu.net (Robert B. Pegram) Subject: what Atari DOES have To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu From article <1991Jul5.140200.18187@galileo.cc.rochester.edu>, by lchd_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (----* Ho Ling Cherd *----): > Howv much does a LaserWriter IIntx cost? What kind of technology had Steve > Job chosen on his NeXT Laser printer? Amusingly, the NeXT printer is very reminiscent of the the Atari Lazer printer. It uses the Cube's display Postscript to image a page at 300 or 400 dpi and then spews it out though a fast connection to the Laser to print. Exactly what an ST does when using Ultra Script. bye, Bob Pegram pegram@griffin.uvm.edu or !uvm-gen!pegram ------------------------------ Date: 9 Jul 91 22:30:21 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!think.com!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!world!azog @arizona.edu (azog-thoth) Subject: What is GDOS? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Ive seen many references to GDOS, on here, and in manuals, and my question is simple: what is it? Correct me if I am wrong, but from what I understood in various manuals, GDOS should have been included with my 520ST. Of course, having purchased mine used, I may not have gotten everything. I only got one diskette, labled USA Language disk, with VT52 emulator, and Control Panel, and Basic... Where would I get GDOS from? Thanx +---------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ | Billy D'Augustine | Close your eyes, what do you see? Dreams in | | azog@world.std.com | rhyme with reality. - Fates Warning | +---------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jul 91 01:17:57 GMT From: bu.edu!bucsf.bu.edu!selick@uunet.uu.net (Steven Selick) Subject: XControl Maccel To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I received XCONTROL.ARC from Terminator, and at first got a comlete system hangup. After gradually adding .xpc files to the directory xpc, I found that the problem was the maccel file. Is it my 1040ste with tos 1.6? ------------------------------ End of Info-Atari16 Digest ******************************