Info-Atari16 Digest Thu, 5 Dec 91 Volume 91 : Issue 639 Today's Topics: Atari's Cartridge port??? Atari 520 STe Atari Sys 5 Unix- any owners out there? (2 msgs) CACHEXXX.PRG Where can I find it? Drive reading problem HELP: Mouse is flaky. Intermittent Boot Problem on MEGA4 (2 msgs) Rufus 1.06 SCSI Hostadapter fuer ST Should someone buy an ST now? ST on stage ZAL 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: 5 Dec 91 15:02:56 GMT From: math.fu-berlin.de!fauern!LRZnews!NewsServ!colina@uunet.uu.net (Curtis Colina) Subject: Atari's Cartridge port??? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Dec5.114052.2142@darwin.ntu.edu.au>, topfm@darwin.ntu.edu.au writes: |> Can any-one help me with this. |> |> Looking at the cartridge port of the ST i can find 16 data connections |> but only 15 addresses. |> |> I want to be able to both read and write to the cartridge port. Also I can |> find no reference to the speed of the cartridge port. |> |> Rob. There's a problem with reading _and_ writing to the cartridge port. But a German Organization has actually managed to read AND write by a mean trick, you must read a special adress, which gives the device online the hint, that you want to transmit data and the data is in one of the registers....... So no easy solution to that one.... Dossi.... ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 91 18:42:52 GMT From: noao!ncar!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!atha!aunro!ersys!mforget@arizona.edu (Michel Forget) Subject: Atari 520 STe To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu kurto@cache.usu.edu (869883 Olsen Kurt_Consultant) writes: > > Hello, > > Can somebody tell me about the 520 STe? Meaning: what kind of > disk drive? Memory expansion capabilities? Tos version? Anything else > exciting? > > The reason that I'm asking is that I'm looking at expanding the > memory on my 1040 ST, and got to thinking that it could be nearly the > same price to buy a 520 STe and a couple megs of SIMMS. Plus I'd get > the latest TOS, right? > > Thanks, > > Kurt Olsen > kurto@riverheights.declab.usu.edu Well, the 520STe is the same as the 1040Ste in most respects. It has stereo sound capability, but I think you have to provide your own speakers. You can use the regular Atari monitors on it as well. The internal drive is double sided, and it has 512 K of memory. You can expand the memory cheaply because of the type of memory it uses. The TOS version is 1.60 (or 1.62). Not the latest, or even close. Some of the nicer features of the machine include playing music in the background and having the Blitter chip. You should also consider that upgrading your old system is also a viable option. If you can find good deals, that is. I'm going to follow that path instead of buying an entirely new computer. For $600, I will have a 4 MEG machine that runs at 16 MHZ. If I am lucky and Atari gave me a model with the capacity for a Blitter chip, then I can add that for roughly $50. Stereo sound can be purchased on a cartridge, but I'm not sure how good it is. Some cartridges aren't supported by the MOD file players while some are. Either way, I don't listen to music that often (from the cuputer at any rate) so it isn't a major concern. To sum all this up, you should buy an STe is you don't want to upgrade your old machine or that avenue isn't open to you. The STe is a great computer, and worth the price. But if you can upgrade your old machione, go for it. I'm saving close to $700 by upgrading. The only things I won't get by doing this are Stereo Sound (and DMA sound, I suppose) and possibly the Blitter chip. I don't play many game though, so the Blitter chip might not be as useful to me as you would think. The Blitter chip is also useful for emulating big screens (another thing I don't do, but could be useful to you) or certain graphics operations. A nice chip, but not really a neccessity. << ------------------------------------------ >> << mforget@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca >> << ersys!mforget@nro.cs.athabascau.ca >> << Michel Forget >> << "Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, >> << for they are not happy campers!" - UNKNOWN >> << ------------------------------------------ >> ------------------------------ Date: 4 Dec 91 20:59:13 GMT From: charon.amdahl.com!amdahl!JUTS!duts!kls30@uunet.uu.net (Kent L Shephard) Subject: Atari Sys 5 Unix- any owners out there? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Nov29.142127.25333@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> jppg9764@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (John Paul Pietrzak) writes: >Since I have access to the local NeXT price list at UIUC, I can offer some >additional facts: >In article <1991Nov29.074441.15954@cis.ohio-state.edu> tbrown@tortoise.cis.ohio-state.edu (ted croft brown) writes: >> >>In the US at least, the NeXT looks like a great deal. About $5K will get >>you an 040, a 2 bit 17" greyscale monitor, 20M RAM and 600Mg HD, and scads of >>software. But those are student prices buying Memory and Hard Drive from >>Second sources. > >Yes, you can't quite get such a good system directly from NeXT. The closest >thing, in terms of a NeXTstation directly from the company, is $5948 for >16 megs RAM and 400 meg HD. An equivalent NeXTcube is $2000 more. NeXT's >most competitive pricing occurs with the base NeXTstation, which has the '040, >8 megs of RAM and a 105 meg HD, at $3498. Although this would normally be a >serious contender to the market which Atari seems to be aiming for, the 105 >meg HD severely constrains the applications which you can run, as the operating >system will take up much of that space. You (apparently) almost have to >purchase another 100-200 megs of HD storage in order to run it comfortably as Come on now. Any UNIX system running a GUI will need 200-300megs of disk space to run well. This is not exclusive to NeXT. >a stand-alone unit. (Now, connected to a network is another matter... :) >Also, the NeXTstation has no slots, presumably as it is meant mainly for >being part of a network (You connect all your devices to the server, and >have the nodes of the network send their data to it). > Not really true. What kind of devices do you want to connect? You have a SCSI port, a DSP port, and serial ports. Most devices that people use can be connected to one of these. >(Disclaimer-- These are student discount prices at UIUC, I cannot guarantee >that they bear any relationship to the world at large.) > >Personally, I would love to get a NeXTcube, with 16 megs of RAM and 400 meg HD; >unfortunately, this setup costs $8048 from NeXT, and I calculate that it would >take me approximately 2.25 years at my current level of income, penny pinching >all the way, in order to afford that kind of system. By then, I assume I will >want something different... > >I think Atari can compete successfully with people who prefer an even >lower-priced Unix workstation than NeXT offers.o I don't think so. Atari has no machine that has the performance. Don't forget UNIX itself will cost money. > >John "Sorry to digress" Pietrzak -- /* -The opinions expressed are my own, not my employers. */ /* For I can only express my own opinions. */ /* */ /* Kent L. Shephard : email - kls30@DUTS.ccc.amdahl.com */ ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 91 15:10:00 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wupost!darwin.su ra.net!Sirius.dfn.de!chx400!bernina!neptune!pseemann@arizona.edu (Patrick Seemann) Subject: Atari Sys 5 Unix- any owners out there? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <4352@krafla.rhi.hi.is> adamd@rhi.hi.is (Adam David) writes: >The glossy brochures mention 64-bit wide memory. If the TT fast-ram is >64 bits wide at 16 MHz then this would be equivalent to 32-bit RAM at >32 MHz. Does anyone know the REAL story? As far as I know, only the video RAM is accessed 64-bit wide. >The ROMs are a real bottleneck though, 32 bits wide at 8 MHz. - or is some >other hidden factor at work to improve these figures? The ROMs are slow. But there are at least two programs which copy the contents of the ROM to fast RAM and change the corresponding page table entries. Makes the TT quite a bit faster :-) -- gruss, Patrick -- "The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper." -- Eden Phillpots ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 91 16:18:48 GMT From: van-bc!jonh.wimsey.bc.ca!jhenders@uunet.uu.net (John Henders) Subject: CACHEXXX.PRG Where can I find it? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In <3127@wet.UUCP>, Ed Krimen writes: >You may also want to try Cold Hard Cache 3.5, if it works on the TT; I'm >sure it would though. It's cachev35.lzh on atari.archive. > >CACHExxx will still "thrash" your disk around since it doesn't cache THAT >much. CHC will buffer more. I used it before I ran ICD's software (with >their host adapter, which is required). > Cachexxx will not " trash" your disk if you make it big enough. It's one of the only caches I found which could be made to buffer the directories of 6 - 8 10 meg partitions at once. Whether this is a valid test or not, I don't know. I would like a cache program which worked like the Laser C 2 shell, keeping entire files in memory during assemblies and linking, as well as keeping the binaries in memory. A ramdisk is inefficient, but no cache I've found can do what I want. But try this with any cache program. Show info on one partition, then the second, then the first, then the third, and so on. Keep making the cache bigger until all partitions can be shown and the first is still entirely in memory ( no disk activity on show info ). I found cachexxx did this on my system when set to 320. ( 4 meg is good for something after all.) This also had the effect of keeping smaller programs resident so using them several times required no disk accesses either. ICD's cache only allows the fat and data buffers to be set to 99, almost a third less than what works for this test. It allows multiple caches, but I've yet to find a combo which works as well as the above mentioned set-up. However, memory is necessary. On my 4 meg machine, once I've got the caching set up, Gemini running, and a comfortable Harlekin configuration, I usually have about 2 meg of tpa left. ;-) But I can shell out of an editor, run compiles and links and never get out of memory errors, so I guess 2 meg is enough. And of course, the machine runs about as fast as it can, though when I installed as ADSpeed, it was even nicer. Note, I haven't tried Gnu programs under this set-up. I might have to cut back on memory usage if I wanted to run g++ or gnu emacs. Has anyone else tried similar " tunee-ups" ? -- John Henders jhenders@jonh.wimsey.bc.ca MIND over MIDI Productions or ubc.cs!van-bc!jonh!jhenders Vancouver,B.C ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 91 15:29:17 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!zaphod.mps. ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!dhbutler@arizona.edu (David Butler) Subject: Drive reading problem To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu >Recently I have been having problem reading some Mac disk under >my A drive of my 1040Ste using Spectre. I get disk unreadable etc >message very often. However everything is fine when I switch the >disk to my external drive. So, I assume that somethign is wrong with >my A drive. However, nothing starnge happen when I am using the A >drive under Atari mode. Could somebody point me out >what could be wrong with the drive? Well, the Megas had problems with shielding (mine does)... I suppose there could be a similar problem in your 1040. If this is the problem, shielding your drive cables (you have to open the box) with aluminum foil, and then wrapping that in some kind of tape to avoid shorts, will usually solve the problem. OR... You may be able to adjust your potemeter... There are instructions on how to do this in the Spectre manual. My potemeter has to be all the way to the right to get my dirve to read/write disks well. What you do is remove the top of the GCR, and, using a small screwdriver and a very gentle touch, rotate the only thing in there that looks like it can be rotated. Don't try this if you are a terminal clutz :-) While running the FULL disk test on a good (high quality) floppy disk, adjust the potemeter. The GCR disk test program comes with your spectre software. The results should get better/worse depending on where you set the potemeter. If you are really lucky you may find a setting that both of your drives work on. However, I've never met anybody who had much success at this, you will probably have to settle for one drive or the other functioning correctly with mac disks. Good Luck... Can we put this on an FAQ list somewhere (whatever those are and wherever one finds them)? By the way, you really should read my cool .sig file ;-) - David Butler - dhbutler@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu -once I was the one you wanted so bad just a little more than you ever had like adam & eve, paradise is sad I need a holiday from you I need a little more room to move suffocation's on the loose - - Willie Phoenix - ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 91 16:24:30 GMT From: van-bc!jonh.wimsey.bc.ca!jhenders@uunet.uu.net (John Henders) Subject: HELP: Mouse is flaky. To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In <1991Dec5.044757.18250@muddcs.claremont.edu>, Corey Liu writes: >My original ST mouse (1988) is acting flaky. The >pointer will only move down when I direct it upwards >or downward. Right/left motion is fine. > >I've noticed a gradual decay of its behavior over the >past week where it would move the pointer only down >sometimes, but now it seems stuck in the downwards >mode. > >Is anybody familiar with this problem? Is it just the >untimely death of my ST mouse? Is it a virus? This sounds like the photo transistor degradation I posted on several months ago. Did anyone keep a copy of that message, I as I didn't? Basically, the photo-transistor changes over time until the resistor biasing it no longer supplies enough impedance. Upping the impedance will fix the problem for a while, but the transistor will continue to drift. Best solution is a Golden Image mouse, as after a week, you'll never go back. -- John Henders jhenders@jonh.wimsey.bc.ca MIND over MIDI Productions or ubc.cs!van-bc!jonh!jhenders Vancouver,B.C ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 91 14:51:10 GMT From: mcsun!uknet!qmw-dcs!icdoc!syma!jimsk@uunet.uu.net (Dr J E F Skea) Subject: Intermittent Boot Problem on MEGA4 To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu A friend has left me with his Atari Mega 4 (bought in the STates) to test, claiming that it wouldn't boot off his hard disk, and could I test it with another hard disk please. Duly done, I find that it will boot first time about 20% of the time, about 30% of the time it will drag itself up on the 2nd-5th attempt, and the other 50% of the time it bombs out. As it doesn't seem to be a hard disk problem, I'm supposing it's a CPU fault. Does this behaviour ring any bells out there? I seem to recall earlier messages on faulty chips (though I think they were for the ST-FM so I didn't pay too much attention). Thanks in advance for any info -- Jim Skea :jimsk@uk.ac.susx.syma (or for all those who drive on the wrong side of the road) Jim Skea :jimsk@syma.susx.ac.uk (JANET) ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 91 19:31:25 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!think.com!yale.edu!cs.yale.edu!fischer- michael@arizona.edu (Michael Fischer) Subject: Intermittent Boot Problem on MEGA4 To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Dec5.145110.23800@syma.sussex.ac.uk> jimsk@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Dr J E F Skea) writes: >A friend has left me with his Atari Mega 4 (bought in the STates) to >test, claiming that it wouldn't boot off his hard disk, and could I >test it with another hard disk please. Duly done, I find that it will >boot first time about 20% of the time, about 30% of the time it will >drag itself up on the 2nd-5th attempt, and the other 50% of the time it >bombs out. > >As it doesn't seem to be a hard disk problem, I'm supposing it's a CPU >fault. Does this behaviour ring any bells out there? I seem to recall >earlier messages on faulty chips (though I think they were for the >ST-FM so I didn't pay too much attention). > >Thanks in advance for any info Both of my Megas are this way on reboots. They generally boot okay initially if I power up the hard disk first, wait until it spins up and completes its internal tests, and then power on the CPU. But reboots often fail, and the only "solution" I know is to keep rebooting. I too vaguely recall something a long time ago about faulty chips or faulty component values in the reset circuit. Does anyone remember what the fix was? -- ================================================== | Michael Fischer | ================================================== ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 91 13:50:23 GMT From: mcsun!sun4nl!alchemy!accucx!jeroen%phil.ruu.nl@uunet.uu.net (Jeroen Scheerder) Subject: Rufus 1.06 To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu [Stuff deleted] > > > >It was supplied in German. I translated the binary and the resource > >and I'm now working on the documentation. > > > >Soon Rufus 1.06 will appear on The Archive (behold!) with both the > >german and the english version of the binary, and german, dutch and > >english resource files. > > > >Expect it by the end of the first December week :-) > > A VERY bad idea. First of all, DON'T create new distributions without > contacting the author first. In principle I agree; but after searching *very* hard for recent Rufus versions (using archie) and came up with zip. I found only an 'old' 1.04 that I uploaded unchanged to atari.archive. Then someone told me a Dutch BBS had 1.06; I uploaded (using Uniterm...) and read the documentation with the sole purpose of contacting the authors as Julian Reschke - the famous author of the Profibuch - suggests. I did not find any way of contacting them - apart from writing to the German bank the shareware fee must be paid to. So I tried to change the package as little as possible, only translating german strings to english ones, testing identical behaviour of both english and german version after each modification. Only when I felt sure the functionality of the program had not been altered I decided to give other people a chance to profit from my tedious work too. However, the distribution package I made contains the full original package I received - I only *added* my modifications to it. My intentions never were to infringe on any copyrights or anything, and I tried to remain as close to the original package as humanly possible. > > Second, Rufus 1.10 will be shipped in a few weeks and an english version > will exist right from the start. Sure. But then again, the Rufus 1.04 version I found two weeks ago was created very very long ago (1990, as I recall) - and it was not easy to locate even that very old version! >From German magazines I already knew for quite a while about more recent versions being available - although they never appeared anywhere on the Internet. I gave up hope on 1.10 appearing within reasonable time and I thought I took appropriate measures. I am sorry to have offended anyone by doing so. Now if someone *would* be as kind as to make Rufus 1.10 available noone would have to do the things I did, now would they? Regards, Jeroen. ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 91 17:16:40 GMT From: infonode!tensmekl@uunet.uu.net (Kermit Tensmeyer) Subject: SCSI Hostadapter fuer ST To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article mk@Materna.DE (Michael Kuschke) writes: > >Hallo, > >ich ueberlege gerade ob ich mir eine SCSI-Platte an meinen ST haenge. Da >ich mich leider auf dem ST-Markt nicht besonders gut auskenne hier meine >Fragen: > > Was darf ein SCSI-Hostadapter fuer den ST kosten ? > Gibt's empfehlenswerte oder weniger empfehlenswerte Adapter ? > Welche Software sollte man einsetzen ? > Was ist sonst noch in diesem Zusammenhang interessant ? > proably the best ST - SCSI interface is the ICD interface set. The best cost (American) that I have seen is around $95. If you want to find only German sources for your ST, may I suggest that you limit the distrubution of your posting. > > Besten Dank fuer etweiige Antworten, > Tis nicht's ciao > -Mic > >-- >Michael Kuschke e-mail : mk@materna.uucp >Dr. Materna GmbH Voice : +49 231 5599 200 >Vosskuhle 37 FAX : +49 231 5599 100 >D-4600 Dortmund 1, West Germany -- Kermit Tensmeyer | Intergraph Corporation SomeWhere in the South (it's a Civilized place) | "It's only MY opinion" ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 91 16:55:40 GMT From: faatcrl!cciolori@rutgers.rutgers.edu (cciolori) Subject: Should someone buy an ST now? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Instead of bickering over which computer is better, I would like to ask what machine you would recommend to a friend, family member, etc. Limit the choices to something the average Joe could afford. For example, a $10,000.00 SPARC station is out of reach to 99.9% of home users(and overkill too). I don't want to put any hard limit on cost, like say $3000.00 and under...use your own discretion and explain. As for me.... I own an ST and a Mac. I have also used PCs very extensively, as well as Suns and several other machines. Since a Sun is out of range, and a bit much for most people, I make the following recommendations. For the first time, or novice user I would recommend the Mac Classic, or maybe the LC. If they had a slightly larger budget I would recommend something in the low end Mac II range. With a printer a Classic or LC is under $2000.00, and there is a very large library of software for it. The Macs are also among the easiest to use, which is important for a novice user. For a more expierienced or technical user, I would recommend a PC compatable. The prices for PCs have dropped incredibly because of the competition among clone makers. You can get a lot of power for a good price. PCs also have BY FAR the largest software library, as well as the best support from third party software manufacturers. You can also get a very good version of UNIX for a PC..which is nice for the advanced user. ON THE OTHER HAND...DOS is the worst OS I have ever used...and even Windows is just a way to overlay DOS. If you don't like command lines and constantly fooling around with memory managers, etc..a PC is not for you. In my opinion, they are the most user UN-friendly computers on the market. The Commodore 64 was less frustrating. So why no ST recommendation from me?? I couldn't do that to a friend. Seriously. The fact of the matter is that the ST has little or no support in the US. Software is not easy to find, and even periodicals are scarce. In addition, very few large software companies make products for the ST. In my opinion Atari had incredible potential in '85-'88. They could have been big, but they screwed up in a series of consistently bone-headed moves. On the other hand(there is always another hand!) Atari STILL could pull themselves together and get back in to things if they really tried. There are plenty of markets to explore and move into if they looked. I hope they do. Chris... ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 91 12:18:22 GMT From: ncrcom!ncrlnk!ncrcam!mreiss@uunet.uu.net (mreiss) Subject: ST on stage To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Well, my son said he was going to post this, but he has been rather busy. Finals are next week for him, so I can understand. Anyway, last Saturday night we (wife, son, and myself) were at the Front Row in Cleveland, Ohio. This is a theater in the round - literally. It has a round stage that turns as the performance takes place. There is seating in a circular fashion all around the stage. In this way, you get to see the performance from all sides. Well, we were there to see the Moody Blues - YAAAH ! It was a great concert, if you like the Moody Blues. Anyway, the way the stage was arranged and where we were, facing us, almost directly on stage when we sat down, was an Atari ST. I had often heard of STs being involved in professional performances, but this was the first time I had seen one in person. I'd guess that on a regular stage it would have never been seen. My son went up to the stage to look at it. I believe he said it was running Notator software or something, I can't remember for sure. I think he said it was a 520 also. If I'm wrong I'm sure he'll correct me (right Joe). The computer seemed to be a center of interest as after he went up, we saw other people going up and looking at the computer. During the performance, there appeared to be little activity on the screen. I'd guess that the screen did not need a lot of activity for whatever was required of it. Enough rambling, just thought we should have some good news for a change. mike -- Michael A. Reiss | | mike USENET = Mike.Reiss@CambridgeOH.NCR.COM | ------------------------------ Date: 5 Dec 91 10:28:57 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!waikato.ac.nz!comp.vuw.ac.nz!actrix!Roger.Shep pard@arizona.edu (Roger Sheppard) Subject: ZAL To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <9112031656@aslan.en.open.de> sacha@aslan.en.open.de (Sacha Moufarrege) writes: > (Roger Sheppard) wrote: > > Does any one know what ZAL does that was posted to Binaries, Bits removed > UNARJ.TTP. For the others, LZH, ZOO and ARC I would recommend the X_SHELL > 2.9 > > So long, Sacha > -- > Sacha Moufarrege, Bergerstr. 38, W-5810 Witten 1, FR of Germany > eMail: sacha@aslan.ruhr.sub.org ; sacha@aslan.en.open.de > --> Wer 'naemlich' *ohne* 'h' schreibt ist daemlich! <-- I did have a play with X-Shell but found that it did not support Thomas Questers Base Directory when archiving, this is the \ *.* thing, with the space to the right of the \ -- *** Roger W. Sheppard * Roger.Sheppard@bbs.actrix.gen.nz *** *** 85 Donovan Rd * * GEnie. R.SHEPPARD5 *** *** Kapiti At least I don't Flicker, *** *** New Zealand.. * not like a dying light globe *** ------------------------------ End of Info-Atari16 Digest ******************************