From: livigni@bldrdoc.gov (David livigni 303-497-5898)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.desqview
Subject: Re: Upgradable 386 Motherboard
Summary: corrections
Keywords: VEGA, Symphony
Date: 8 Oct 92 18:52:33 GMT

In article <6013@dove.nist.gov>, livigni@bldrdoc.gov (David livigni 303-497-5898) writes:
<stuf deleted>
>    Two new issues did crop up:
>    (1): Manifest reports that the motherboard's shadowing 
> of system and video bios is slower than QEMM's shadowing.  This
> is not the case on my AMI motherboard.  So tonight I will attempt to disable
> the motherboard's shadowing, recover the shadow ram with QEMM, and let QEMM
> do the shadowing.  This has not usually worked in the past since the shadow
> ram is typically non-standard, but if it does the system will be slightly
> faster and I may get 100 k or so of RAM back since all 384 k is not needed
> for shadowing.  
>    (2):  The documentation for the motherboard talks about a jumper 
> that sets the ISA buss clock speed.  They list a table with
> entries like CLK, CLK/2, CLK/4, etc.  But the options in the actual bios
> are 0, 1, 2, 3, etc.  It is presently set to 1 which appears to work for
> the 386-40.  But this setting will probably have to be changed when the
> CPU is upgraded and the crystal is changed.  So my question is how do the
> bios settings relate the the settings given in the documentation?  Any ideas?
<stuf deleted>

   I used the Vega extensively last night and
am pleased.  It has worked flawlessly so far.  First a few corrections,
I figured out what was going on with the Bus Speed.  The maunal lists
settings like CLK, CLK/2, CLK/4, ATCLK, etc.  But the BIOS settings
are 0 to 9.  This lead to some confusion until I pressed the Bios's 
HELP key while on the Bus Clock selection in the Bios Setup.  The
Help system correlates the terminology used in the Docs to the 0 - 9
Bios settings.
   I also figured out the shadow ram problem.
   When the Vega's bios is used to provide the ROM shadowing, Manifest's
First Meg Timings reported that the shadowed ROMs ran with a PC/XT index
of only 12.9 while the main memory ran with an index of 16.2.  When QEMM
provides the shadowing the ROMS run at the same speed as the main memory.
So the Bios's shadowing does not appear to be as efficient as QEMM's.
   Luckily the AMI Bios allows the motherboards shadowing to be disabled,
and the 384K of reserved memory to be released.  To regain the reserved
memory, you must set the "256K/384K Memory Relocation" bios option to
"384K Rel".  Then the reserved memory will simply be added to the 
extended memory.  With the RAM relocated, it will be checked during the
POST memory check (when it is used as shadow ram it is apparently NOT
checked...).  Since QEMM requires only 96K to do the shadowing, the net 
gain in memory is 288K!  However if you are using OS/2 QEMM's shadowing is
probably no more compatable than the motherboard's shadowing.

My normal home config.sys is as follows:

   shell=c:\command.com /E:256 /P
   DEVICE=QEMM\QEMM386.SYS FRAME=E000 EXTMEM=1024 rom=F000-FFFF rom=C000-C7FF 
ram=C800-CBFF ram=D000-D7FF DMA=32
   DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:1 C:\DOS\VDISK.SYS 1024 512 100 /E:4
   FILES=10
   BUFFERS=1
   BREAK=ON
   STACKS=0,0

The QEMM line is most important:

   DEVICE=QEMM\QEMM386.SYS FRAME=E000 EXTMEM=1024 rom=F000-FFFF rom=C000-C7FF 
ram=C800-CBFF ram=D000-D7FF DMA=32

Frame creates the EMS page frame (64K)
the EXTMEM=1024 command reserves 1-Meg as Extended (XMS) memory
   I convert the Meg into ramdisk.  At work where I have more memory
   I reserve 2-Megs as extended memory so that Windows has 1-Meg too.
the "rom" command performs the shadowing
   F000-FFFF is the system bios
   C000-C7FF is the video bios
   Manifest's "First Meg Timings" will reveal the shadowed roms, when 
   shadowed they should run as fast as the main memory.
the "ram" command creates high ram that can be used by loadhi.
   for example, I load VDISK and hi:
      DEVICE=C:\QEMM\LOADHI.SYS /R:1 C:\DOS\VDISK.SYS 1024 512 100 /E:4
   In AUTOEXEC.BAT I also load the Mouse Driver, buffers, and files high:
      c:\qemm\loadhi /r:1 qemm\buffers=30
      c:\qemm\loadhi /r:2 qemm\fcbs=8,4
      c:\qemm\loadhi /r:2 qemm\files=50
      c:\qemm\loadhi /r:2 c:\windows\mouse.com /Y
   At work I need more high ram so reserve the entire D-block (ram=D000-DFFF),
   and Ethernet drivers are loaded:
      device=c:\qemm\loadhi.sys /r:2 d:\ether\WD8003.SYS
      device=c:\qemm\loadhi.sys /r:2 d:\ether\IPCUST.SYS
   Once you have chosen your TSR's, QEMM's Optimize will choose the most
   efficient hi-ram regions to use.  I load the ethernet kernal in a Desqview
   window to maximize the Desqview window size.  Otherwise QEMM's Stealth
   features can be used to free up enough hi-ram to load the Ethernet driver
   high also.  I don't know about the interaction with MSDOS 5.0's ability
   to load DOS high since I use version 3.3.
The "DMA=32" command improves the background performance of format, copy, 
and xcopy when multitasked under Desqview.  It limits the size of DMA
transfers.

   With this home configuration and PCDOS 3.3 I get 606960K free memory in
DOS as revealed by CHECKDISK.  In Desqview, the maximum "First" window is 
589K and the "Other" Windows are 576K.  Shadowed ROM runs with a PC/XT index
of 16.2, as does the main memory.  2096K bytes of Expanded memory and 1024k
bytes of extended memory are available on the 4-Meg machine, as revealed by
Manifest. Before switching to QEMM's shadowing only 1792K bytes of Expanded 
memory was available, and the ROM index was only 12.9.

Hope this helps someone (anyone).  I'm about done wasting bandwidth.

David Livigni

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@   Anything stated here is my opinion only    @
@   livigni@bldrdoc.gov                        @
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Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.desqview