Horizon Ramdisk Questions

[rgjt]

Has anyone setup a Horizon 4000B together with the latest IDE card DSR?

I currently have the IDE card at CRU >1000 and I'm wondering if it's better to have the 4000B at >1000 and put the IDE card at another CRU address, say >1200.

Since the 4000B is faster, it would make sense to have recognized at the fist device.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[+FALCOR4]

On 6/14/2021 at 11:18 AM, rgjt said:

Has anyone setup a Horizon 4000B together with the latest IDE card DSR?

I currently have the IDE card at CRU >1000 and I'm wondering if it's better to have the 4000B at >1000 and put the IDE card at another CRU address, say >1200.

Since the 4000B is faster, it would make sense to have recognized at the fist device.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I currently have the HRD4000B at CRU >1000 and my IDE CRU at >1900.  Honestly, they're both pretty fast (for a 4A).  I typically do baseline work on the HRD then save to the IDE and HDX to backup my files at the end of the day.  My HRD has been super reliable but not so much me so, the backups have saved me a lot of rework.  Once burned, twice shy! ?  Point is, backing up from the HRD to the IDE is relatively zippy and I don't see any reason to change the CRU addresses for how I use the cards.

[rgjt]

25 minutes ago, FALCOR4 said:

I currently have the HRD4000B at CRU >1000 and my IDE CRU at >1900.  Honestly, they're both pretty fast (for a 4A).  I typically do baseline work on the HRD then save to the IDE and HDX to backup my files at the end of the day.  My HRD has been super reliable but not so much me so, the backups have saved me a lot of rework.  Once burned, twice shy! ?  Point is, backing up from the HRD to the IDE is relatively zippy and I don't see any reason to change the CRU addresses for how I use the cards.

With my setup, I have the IDE card at >1000 and the HRD4000B at >1500.

On the HRD, the DSK numbers start from 4 to 8. The rest is RAMBO.

While copying from DSK4 to IDE Partition #3, it corrupted both DSK4 and my Partition #3 with very large file sizes.

Luckily I had backups. Not sure what caused that glitch. 

I was under the impression that directories and sub-directories were allowed on the HRD4000B, but that's not what I found out. Kind of disappointed about that.

FYI, I discovered that any directory and sub-directory name that has the character / or : in their names, I was not able to access them within a saved image file using Ti99Dir 8.2c. 

I created the image file using Win32 Disk Imager in Windows 10.

The image file is successfully created. Using Ti99Dir, I can access any partition that I have on the IDE drive off that image file, except for directories and sub-directories that have the / or : in their names. A DSR error 7 occurs. That error does not occur for filenames that reside in other directories. 

I had to rename all of those directories and sub-directories on my IDE partitions and then make a new image file backup.

I'm not sure if it's just my system or if there's a bug in Ti99Dir.

 

 

[+9640News]

1 hour ago, rgjt said:

The image file is successfully created. Using Ti99Dir, I can access any partition that I have on the IDE drive off that image file, except for directories and sub-directories that have the / or : in their names. A DSR error 7 occurs. That error does not occur for filenames that reside in other directories. 

I had to rename all of those directories and sub-directories on my IDE partitions and then make a new image file backup.

I'm not sure if it's just my system or if there's a bug in Ti99Dir.

I don't think it is a bug, but I would not call it a feature as well.  I've mentioned the issue to Fred myself in the past, but I am not sure if it is somehow a limitation to the programming language or software he is using.

 

 

[rgjt]

17 minutes ago, 9640News said:

I don't think it is a bug, but I would not call it a feature as well.  I've mentioned the issue to Fred myself in the past, but I am not sure if it is somehow a limitation to the programming language or software he is using.

 

 

Well, it's good to know that others also had the same issue.

Regardless, whether it's a bug or not, going forward all of my directory and sub-directory names will not include those characters as it does play havoc with listing those directories and sub-directories on Ti99Dir when viewing them from an image file.  

[+9640News]

11 hours ago, rgjt said:

 

I was under the impression that directories and sub-directories were allowed on the HRD4000B, but that's not what I found out. Kind of disappointed about that.

FYI, I discovered that any directory and sub-directory name that has the character / or : in their names, I was not able to access them within a saved image file using Ti99Dir 8.2c. 

 

Directories and subdirectories are allowed on the HRD4000B when used and formatted on the Geneve.  I may be wrong and @InsaneMultitasker can correct me, but I did not think directories were allowed when used on a TI-99/4A configuration.

[rgjt]

4 hours ago, 9640News said:

Directories and subdirectories are allowed on the HRD4000B when used and formatted on the Geneve.  I may be wrong and @InsaneMultitasker can correct me, but I did not think directories were allowed when used on a TI-99/4A configuration.

And now I know why I'm not able to create the directories under a TI-99/4A setup, HDR4000B simply doesn't support it.

Just wondering if the TI99/4A works with the IDE card, then why not with the HDR4000B.

I suspect it's related to legacy code that goes back to the original HRD design.

We can only hope that a future ROS release will include directory/sub-directory support.

 

 

[+9640News]

6 minutes ago, rgjt said:

And now I know why I'm not able to create the directories under a TI-99/4A setup, HDR4000B simply doesn't support it.

Just wondering if the TI99/4A works with the IDE card, then why not with the HDR4000B.

I suspect it's related to legacy code that goes back to the original HRD design.

We can only hope that a future ROS release will include directory/sub-directory support.

 

Each individual device has its own DSR.  The IDE DSR has the directory support while the last version I ever ran on a 4A, did not.  I'm guessing, though I could be proven wrong, that it is unlikely to ever have directory creation capability as it is much more than just creating a directory.  There would be a significant rewrite of code and I seriously doubt it would fit into 8K.  Only the HFDC which has a 32K DSR supported floppies with directories.

 

With the Geneve, it was one "master" DSR for all the devices.  On the Geneve, the "master" DSR is like 96K in size that supports all floppy drives, RS232 cards, TIPI, IDE, SCSI, and HFDC.

[+InsaneMultitasker]

4 hours ago, 9640News said:

  I may be wrong and @InsaneMultitasker can correct me, but I did not think directories were allowed when used on a TI-99/4A configuration.

The ramdisk operates as a "floppy" style device, there is no support for directories in this configuration.  It operates the same as a TI, CorComp, or Myarc floppy controller in this regard. 

 

25 minutes ago, rgjt said:

We can only hope that a future ROS release will include directory/sub-directory support

Adding sub-directory support would require a rewrite of the device service routine for the card.  I have contemplated the time needed to undertake this project, and it has always been more than I am willing (and able) to commit.

 

11 minutes ago, 9640News said:

There would be a significant rewrite of code and I seriously doubt it would fit into 8K. 

The Horizon 4000x series (and 3000?) do provide more DSR memory in the form of a 32K chip, however, there are only two 'windows' into each 8k bank (6k and 2k), and bank switching trampoline code would be required.  Certainly not impossible as we know the HFDC code lives in 16K and manages both hard and floppy devices, but with different memory access windows for buffering and management.