CompuServe Thread

#Access 13 Times Faster

14 messages in this thread
#40496From: allanNov 13, 1991 11:17 PM
I have been looking for a way to speed up the loading time of some of my PC programs. One of the longest took 195 sec. It has been reduced to 15 sec. that right, it loads about 13 times FASTER. Greg Civler (76702,647) of CBMSERVICE came up with the answer. And here it is : Increase your addbuffers on the drive where your Psuedo Drive is located. The rule of thumb is 20 buffers for each MB of the Psuedo Drive. So a 10MB AutoBoot Virtual HD drive should have an Addbuffers 200 command in the startup-sequence. I have a 60meg psuedo drive. I'm using 800 buffers. Allan Baer ( Be part of the solution, not part of the problem. )
#40521From: Ken CooperNov 14, 1991 6:15 AM
Allan, my dh1: is a 760 meg Maxtor with a C partition of 285 megs. At 20 buffers per meg – that works out to be – Addbuffers dh1: 5700 Currently it is set to 50 buffers. Guess I'll have to try it 🙂 Ken Cooper – Vancouver
#40601From: RON TROYNov 14, 1991 10:45 PM
addbuffers 5700? I wouldn't. Ron
#40748From: allanNov 15, 1991 11:35 PM
Ken, my dh1: is an 80 meg Seagate of which 60 is configured as a Pc HD. Well that would mean 1200, but I'm using only 800. Please let me know at what addbuffer you see a mark improvement. Allan Baer ( Be part of the solution, not part of the problem. )
#40600From: RON TROYNov 14, 1991 10:45 PM
Allan, I cache my Amiga's bb partition with blitzdisk. Amazing what it does for performance. Ron
#40604From: Bruce HoinsNov 14, 1991 10:56 PM
Allan, Doesn't that eat ram. If you aren't using movssp in an A2000 machine that is Chip ram you are using or did I misunderstand the Addbuffers command. Bruce H. -Via Whap!
#40749From: allanNov 15, 1991 11:36 PM
Bruce, My available chip mem is 900,000 out of the 1 meg. So I guest that the addbuffers is taken from FAST. Allan Baer ( Be part of the solution, not part of the problem. )
#41088From: Bruce HoinsNov 19, 1991 6:50 AM
Allan, How much memory does the buffers use? Are you running WB2.0 or 1.3? If You are running 1.3 are you using movssp? I'm asking because the solution sounds to good to be true. Bruce H. -Via Whap!
#41432From: allanNov 22, 1991 10:10 PM
Bruce, The memory useage is about 400,000 bytes, that is 800 buffers times 500 bytes. Last Friday I pickup WB2. The same holds true wheather you are using 2.0 or 1.3, the buffers are used to hold the information being read for the HD. What is movssp? I have a 5meg machine so the memory usage for now is no problem and it is as good as it sounds. Allan Baer ( Be part of the solution, not part of the problem. )
#41562From: Bruce HoinsNov 24, 1991 7:31 AM
Allan, Movssp is a program that moves your system stack pointer to FastRAM. Some things use Chip when they could be using FastRAM under WB1.3. Under 2.0 it uses Fast anyway. I always thought that addbuffers was one of these commands that uses Chip. It significantly speeds up some operations. I think I found it somewhere here. If you are using 2.0 you don't need it. Right now my BB is in my A2000 which only has 3megs but soon I hope to move it to my A3000 with 6Megsso I won't be so worried about memory. Besides on the A3000 you can always add more. (Well until you run out of slots or get to 1.6 GigaBytes.) Bruce H. -Via Whap!
#40609From: John PendergrassNov 14, 1991 11:36 PM
allan, when I was using PC's a lot (a few years ago), I ran into all sorts of problems with memory intensive programs when the buffers or files command was increased substantally. Those buffers take up memory you know! Some progs (Paradox, Lotus) really want all the memory in your lower 640. Also, was your 13X faster on your FIRST load, or subsequent loads? Naturally the 2nd/3rd/etc loads will be faster, cause the data is in the ram buffers. But I'd wonder why the FIRST load would be faster, cause it still needs to be read off the HD to begin with? Just curious? –jp–seattle–
#40662From: Kelly JordanNov 15, 1991 9:41 AM
John, The ADDBUFFERS is on the Amiga side, not the BB side. 73, Kelly
#40707From: John PendergrassNov 15, 1991 8:18 PM
I was thinking that you were talking about the 'files' and 'buffers' commands in the CONFIG.SYS file (on the MS-DOS side). Sorry. –jp–seattle–
#40750From: allanNov 15, 1991 11:36 PM
John, these buffers are on the Amiga side. And yes, this is the first load. Allan Baer ( Be part of the solution, not part of the problem. )