{Future Drive Accelerator

{Uses the free memory as a cache, the program reacts

{automatically on changes in memory resources, so that you will always

{get the maximum speed for your drives. Even “resources-hungry“ programs

{will get enough memory.

{

{Version 1.4 (7-May-1999)

by Martin Tauchmann

Copyright © 1998-1999 Martin Tauchmann

This documentation may be copied and spread as long as the copyright note and this copy permission remains unaltered in all copies.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 1998-1999 Martin Tauchmann

Future Drive Accelerator is shareware. In this case, that means that you need a personalized version of the program to use the full functionality of Future Drive Accelerator.

Users get a personalized version when they have registered with me. This personalized version may not be given to anyone else. To give away the personalized version or to use versions of the program which you did not get directly from me for your personal use, is considered sofware-piracy.

The personalized version may not be transfered, sold or exchanged to another person or organization. It is solely for the use of the registered person.

You may not use any “patches“ for Future Drive Accelerator or publish them (regardless whether they are in text, binary or any other form), except with explicit permission by me for the purpose of updating. Using patched or modified versions of this program is considered software-piracy.

NO WARRANTY

There is absolutely no warranty for this software. Although the author has paid attention on security of data, compatibility and speed while developing this software, he can give no warranty that this program is 100% bug-free. You are using this software solely on your own risk. The author cannot be held responsible for any damages or loss of data that may be caused by this program.

DISTRIBUTION

The demo-version package is “freely distributable“. It may be copied on any media that is used to distribute free software, for example: FD-disks, CD-ROMs, FTP-server and BBS systems.

The full version is not to be distributed.

No program, document or file of this software package may, partially or complete, be distributed with another software package without the written permission of the author.

The demo-version may only be distributed complete and unchanged.

To make sure that the archive is in its original state, distributors should only use the original archives:

Aminet: ‘fda.lha
World Wide Web: ‘fdaupdate.lha

Programs and documentation may not be modified The only exception is the use of archiving software like LHA, LZX, ZIP or TAR-GZIP/BZIP2, as long as the files can be restored unaltered.

There is no upper limit for distribution costs (cost for disks, tapes or CD-ROMs, or for duplicating them). Such limits have proven harmful for the idea of free software. In some cases, software has been removed instead of lowering the price of a disk below the limit.

Although the author has not set such a limit, he wants to make clear his opinion on the topic:

RESTRICTIONS OF USE

Future Drive Accelerator may only be used in the way intended by the author, this means it may only be executed on Amiga-computers running AmigaOS. Reassembling, reverse engineering or translation of source code is forbidden.

The documentation and the program texts of Future Drive Accelerator are protected by the same copyrights as the program itself. This means the documentation or program texts may not be altered or translated.

To avoid any misunderstandings: You MAY NOT translate the texts or documentation for Future Drive Accelerator and distribute them. You must be authorized by me as an official translator. Unauthorized translations of texts and documentation are illegal, harm the copyright and will be removed from public software archives.

No program, document or file from this software package may, partly or completely, be used on machines which are


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1 The concepts behind Future Drive Accelerator

Future Drive Accelerator is a disk-cache program.


A cache buffers all data which is written or read from the drive (hard disks, floppy disks, Compact-Disk, removable disk, ZIP…).

If requested data is already in the cache, it doesn’t need to be loaded from the slow disk.


So far nothing new!


Memory is, as we all know, always short. So you better think twice before you give it to programs. No matter how you set it up, you can never make it suitable for all programs. One program runs (thanks to the cache) faster than ever before, another one stops working (due to the lack of RAM).


With all other cache programs, you had to adjust the memory usage. Of course, the more memory a cache can use, the faster it will work. So with old cache programs the memory usage had been set quite high, but because other programs stopped working this was stopped rather quickly. Now the cache is commonly set to an average size, so that all “memory-eating“ programs run.
Or you always had to change the cache-size manually to fit the current situation. But this is not a very satisfactory solution. And this is where Future Drive Accelerator comes in.


The whole free memory, whose size is changing all the time, is used as cache.


With this technique, an Amiga with a 68030 50Mhz processor and 16 MByte FastMemory (Blizzard IV) averages a factor 4 speed up. See section What speed improvements can be achieved with Future Drive Accelerator?.



Write accesses are buffered, and later, while writing back to the drive, the head is moved from the highest to the lowest address.



Another improvement is built-in for people who use exchangable media like disks, CDs, MagnetOptical-disks and ZIPs. When inserting the media again, the still filled cache is used. The media doesn’t need to be accessed again.



Who used a lot of dos-buffers? (1) for the file system, you can now even save this memory.



Not to mention that you help protecting the environment. The motor and the electronics of the drive is used less and thus, energy is saved.
⇒ the nuclear power plants can be shutted down earlier.
You should also keep in mind that the hardware wears out less.


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2 What is required to use Future Drive Accelerator?

Future Drive Accelerator needs at least:

AmigaOS 2.0

or better.

2 Megabyte memory, more memory is recommended.

Additionally, the following software is supported:

DiskSafe

After a reset or system crash, the cache will be written back before restarting the system.

Example installation for ‘s:Startup-Sequence’:

DiskSafe DF1: DF0: HD0: Store: Font: HD2: HD3: HD4: … REBOOT QUICKKEY WAITVERIFY VERIFYREQ LOGFILE=Store:T/DiskSafe.log IGNORE

If this shouldn’t work, try adding RESETKEY.

CopyMemQuicker

See section How to speed up Future Drive Accelerator even more.

FileSystems, Devices

See section Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator.


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3 What speed improvements can be achieved with Future Drive Accelerator?


More (graphical) statistics, which have been created using DiskSpeed can be found in the guide-file ‘FDA-Benchmarks’.


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4 Tested systems

Hardware List

A4000/40/40Mhz PPC 200Mhz + 64 Fast
CVPPC + 8Mb
Zip Drive
Oktagon Controller
1.3Gb SCSI II Hard Drive (1 partition)
4.3GB SCSI III Hard Drive (3 partitions)
Toshiba 12xCD
IOBlix Super Fast Serial Card
Epson GT-6000 Flatbed Scanner
Pace 56 Voice (V90)(ISP=Wirenet)
Micronik A4000 Tower case
Epson Stylus Color 800
External floppy Drive
Minolta 7000 Camera
External Speakers
MicroVitec GPM 1701 Monitor
Tabby (Drawing Pad)
Sound Sampler
Prelude Sound Card

Software Most Often Used

AHI (music to your ears - registered)
All Experimental PPC Software
PFS2 (So so fast)
CybergraphX V4 (Good with CVPPC)
PPaint 7.1 (It`s all in the eye of the beholder)
ImageFX Ver 3.2 (Very stable at this upgrade)
Netconnect (Kiss - Keep It Simple Stupid)
Miami (Works great with my IOBlix)
Turboprint 6.02 (Faster now as it`s using the PPC Module)
PageStream 3.3a (I love it)
Organiser (Who am I)
Opus Magellan II (My god, it's full of stars)
CandyFactoryPro (Good PPC Program)
Zip Drivers (Backup my Backups)
HappyDT (Sometimes crashes Netconnect and other programs)
Elastic Dreams (Game for a laugh)
Cyberview (Registered)
Cybershow (Registered)
AK-Datatypes (Registered)
Quicksampler (Good PD)
MultiCX (Registered)
OxyPatcher (Make Those Programs Burn)
MUI (3.8) (Workbench 4 perhaps?)
Kingcon (No two shells are the same)

Relaxing Software Used

Genetic Species
Foundation
Alternate Reality (RPG)
Bane of the Cosmic Forge (RPG)
Bards Tale (RPG)
Quake
UFO
Dungeon Master 1 & 2 (RPG)
Ultima VI (RPG)
Birds of Prey
Theme Park
Civilisation
Syndicate
Doom
Stratego (PD)
Myst
Colonization
Frontier Elite II
Deluxe Galaga
Shadow Of The First Moon
VChess
JetPilot
Tiny Troops
Blade (Good Iso RPG)
EaglePlayer (Registered)
MrJQuote

Amiga 1200:
 + 2 880KB Floppys
 + 2 MegaByte 32 Bit Fast-Memory
 + Turbo Jet A1230-BOARD ® Harms Computertechnik
   MC 68030+MMU 14.2 MHz Cache Burst VBR=$0
   FPU68881     15.4 MHz
 + WesternDigital Caviar 2850 (850MB)
   - since I have this HD, I had to slow down my MC68030 from 28MHz to
     14.2 MHz. If anybody knows a solution, I would really like to know.
     See section Autor.



 CPU                :MC 680030 50MHz
 Computer           :Amiga 1200
 OS                 :V 3.0
 Controller         :IDE (Buddha)
 Memory             :16MB FastMem
                      2MB Chip
 FileSystem         :FastFileSystem 44.5
 Hard Disk          :1x Quantum Fireball 3.68 GB
 ZORRO-II-Karten    :1x MultifaceIII, 1x Buddha IDE
 other cards        :Blizzard 1230 (CPU-PORT)
 others             :Micronik Tower mit Zorro II Datherborad
 running programs   :Prometheus V2.6, FKey, MouseBlanker, MultiCX V2.78,
                     NewIcons V40.2, PowerIcons V1.0, SleepingPointers
                     V1.0a, Multifax Spooler V3.1, Killclick2


CS PPC 233MHz, 060 50MHz

A4000 MC68040 25MHz 16FastMem


A3000 CSPPS 604/200 060/50
PicassoII running cybergraphics (will soon be CVPPC)
4 different SCSI harddisks of which 3 are SCSI-2 and one UWSCSI
CSPPC-interface.
DAT-tapestreamer, CD-ROM, 70MB RAM and many things I can't remember.


Amiga 4000 with 68040/40Mhz, about 80MB Fastram, most of it
on the turboboard, and 3,5MB Fast on the motherboard.
2nd.scsi.device / scsi.device / ffs/afs/sfs..


Amiga 1200  040/40 2/32MB 2GB TowerhawkII X2 Multiscan
CPU         : MC 68040 40MHz
OS          : V 3.1
Controller  : IDE
Memory      : 32MB Fast, 2MB Chip
FileSystem  : FastFileSystem 43.19
Hard disk   : 1 2GB-Platte with 2 Partitionen (50MB and the rest)
CD          : 1 4fach-CD-Rom (RandyCD-Rom)
DirOpus5 Magellan is used as Workbench replacement.


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5 If you like the demo…

If you like this demo-version you might want to use the full version which features:



Ordering the full version is easy, convenient and comfortable - 24h a day worldwide!


Prices

Ordering

  1. Online in the World Wide Web, SSL encoded.
    • Credit cards
      • - Visa
      • - Eurocard/Mastercard
      • - American Express
      • - Diners Club
    • Wire-transfer
  2. per Phone, FAX or E-Mail
    • ShareIt service.
      • (Program-number 102792)
      • - FAX: +49-221-2407278 (Germany)
      • - Phone: +49-221-2407279 (Germany)
      • - FAX: +1-724-8508187 (USA)
      • - Phone: +1-800-9034152 (USA) free
      • - Phone: +1-724-8508186 (USA)
      • - E-Mail: MartinTauchmann@bigfoot.com
  3. US check
    • Send $15.5 to the address below, include the program-number 102792.
      ShareIt! Inc.
      PO Box 844
      Greensburg, PA 15601-0844
      USA
      
  4. Eurocheque
    • Please fill in the amount in EUR and send to the author.
  5. Bank transfer
    • Transfer the money in EUR or DM to:
      Badische Beamtenbank eG (Germany)
      76119 Karlsruhe
      Bank Location Number: 660 908 00
      Martin Tauchmann
      Account Nr.: 2473135
      Usage: FDA MC68020 <Your E-mail address>
      
  6. Cash (worldwide)
    • Put the money in an envelope and send it to the Autor. (Use an envelope where the money can’t be seen against the light.)

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Free Email

http://mail.yahoo.com
http://mail.angelfire.com
http://www.gmx.de
http://www.dejanews.com (No problems with a “FireWall“)


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Free FAX

http://www-usa.tpc.int/sendfax.html?destnumber=49 221 2407278


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6 How to install and configure Future Drive Accelerator

Please use the included installer script to install Future Drive Accelerator. The AmigaOS Installer V43.3 is required. This version can be found in Aminet.



Future Drive Accelerator can be started in different ways:




Future Drive Accelerator uses the following Workbench Tool Types and Shell parameters:

FROM (Only from Shell)

Specifies the name of the configuration file.

QUIET

Initialising messages are not printed.
This is useful for an installation in the ‘SYS:WbStartup’ directory, or the ‘S:Startup-Sequence’.


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7 How to configure Future Drive Accelerator

Future Drive Accelerator can be configured using the Future Drive Accelerator Preference Editor:


The Preference Editor uses the following Workbench Tool Types and Shell parameters:

FROM (Only from Shell)

Specifies the name of a configuration file to load.

EDIT (default option)

The configuration can be changed.

USE

The new configuration will be saved temporary.

SAVE

The new configuration will be saved permanently.

MAINPROGPATH

Directory of Future Drive Accelerator, e.g. ‘Sys:System/’. The configuration (‘FDA.prefs’) will be saved to the directory. If Future Drive Accelerator loaded before ‘ENV:’ is initialized, which is the case when booting from floppy disk, the config will be found anyway.


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7.1 The Mainwindow

The MainWindow contains a listing of drives. When you select a window, a new window (see section Device Window) will be opened.

<center><img src="FDA-MainWindow.png" width=613 height=350 alt="Main window" border=0></center>



Not used FastMemory

For calibration.
How much of your fast memory shall not be used as cache?
60 kiloBytes is a good value here, because a minimal amount of memory is necessary to send messages. This way, memory can be made available faster.

Not used ChipMemory

For calibration.
How much of your chip memory shall not be used as cache?
100%=No chip memory will be used ⇒ which is the fastest setting.

FastMemory first
View color flash if track moved or deleted

Rem.:This option is useful to calibrate Not used Fast- ChipMemory.

Protect tracks in memory with checksummes

Rem.:This is recommended for Intros, games and badly programmed software which change foreign memory blocks. See section Enforcer-write-hits.
Or if you have bad memory. See section Defekten Speicher.



The buttons at the bottom of the window are used to set the path where the config-file will be saved. The name of the file is ‘FDA.prefs’.

Save

The configuration is saved to the ‘ENVARC:’ directory. The new config will be used automatically by Future Drive Accelerator and will survive a reboot. The preferences editor will quit after saving.

Use

The configuration is saved to the ‘ENV:’ directory. The new config will be used automatically by Future Drive Accelerator but will not survive a reboot. The preferences editor will quit after saving.

Cancel

To quit the preferences editor. All changes will be lost.


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7.2 The Device Window

The following can be set in the Device Window:

When data is written back to the drive, if the data should be verified, how much data should be pre-read and how much of the cache can be used by this drive.

<center><img src="FDA-DeviceWindow.png" width=472 height=333 alt="Device window" border=0></center>



Removeable Disk?

Does this drive contain a removable disk?
e.g.: floppy-, CompactDisc-, ZIP, MagnetOptical or SyQuest-drive.

If Removeable Disk is set to Off, then Future Drive Accelerator does not need to know which FileSystem is used, to recognize a disk after re-inserting.
⇒ The initializing of the cache is faster.

Verify write

The data will be checked if it has been properly written.
⇒ Useful for floppy-disk and old hard-disks.

Write
Async delay

For how many seconds shall the write-back be delayed with Async?

Size of Track

Number of bytes a track (5) requires in the cache.
⇒ How many bytes shall be read ahead?
Reommended values are for harddisks and CDs about 40KB and for floppy disks (2 tracks = 1 cylinder).
If the harddisk is not fragmented, you could achieve a dramatic speed improvement when you set a high value.
If you use two or more harddisks you should use the same value for all unit to avoid the fragmenting of memory. This will be improved in future versions.

Cache usage priority

What priority has this drive compared to other drives for caching?



The buttons in the bottom row of the window can be used to activate or deactivate the cache, and to get informations about the drive

Enable

Cache active.

Info

Shows informations about the drive.

Disable

Cache inactive.


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7.3 Informations about the drive

This window shows informations about the selected drive.

Size of Block

can be modified using the HDToolBox©AmigaInc. or in the mountfile in the directory ‘Devs:DosDrivers’ (SectorSize * SectorsPerBlock). But this is not recommend, because most programs depend on a value of 512 here.

No of Tracks

Number of tracks. Is also the capacity of the partition, floppy … multiplied with Size of Track.

First Track Number

Start postions of the partition on the harddisk.

Root Track

Depends on the FileSystem. Is used by Future Drive Accelerator to recognize a floppy/removable disk only.

Name and Dates Position

The position where the partition-name, the date of creation and the date of the last modification can be found. Is used by Future Drive Accelerator to recognize a floppy/removable disk only.

Unit Number

Hardware Unit Number.

Device Name.

Name of the Software-Device.

Buffer Memory Type

Either Chip- or Fastmemory. If “Need! ChipMemory (slow)“ appears here, you should get more recent Device-Software, or try to set BufMemType=1 in ‘Devs:DosDrivers’, because the drive is slower than it needs to be.

4-GByte ``boundary``

If anything else than “No problems“ appears here, then this partition is beyond the “4 GB boundary“; you should make sure that you use a FileSystem and Software Device that can handle harddisks bigger than 4 GigaByte. See section How to use harddisks bigger than 4 GigaBytes..

New Style Device

Supports the Device-Software the new device standard©AmigaInc.?


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8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator

Future Drive Accelerator can monitored and exited using Future Drive Accelerator View:


The monitor accepts Workbench Tool Types and shell parameters:

KILL-FDA

Writes the cache to the drive (if necessary) and quits Future Drive Accelerator.

FLUSH

Flushes the cache, except for data that has to be written to disk.

UPDATE

Writes the cache to the drive (if necessary).



Future Drive Accelerator View is a by-product, which has helped the author while developing Future Drive Accelerator to find the optimal algorithm (6) for using the cache. The author didn’t plan to release this program, but does it now anyway for the curious ones.
Normally, Future Drive Accelerator View is only required to quit Future Drive Accelerator.




The right part of the window shows the current cache structure (sorted).
Above this is a summary of the list, how many tracks are in memory and how many of them are waiting to be written to the drive. On the left side you can control how the list should appear.
Finally, at the top, you can see how much of the free memory is used as currently as cache (Avail Memory).


A simplier statistic would be of no use, because the cache is always used at 100%.


Sorted by
Location

Lists the memory areas where the cache-parts reside (7).
The whole cache is listed.

  • - Location Start position of the track in memory.
  • - Type Memory Type
  • - Size Number of Bytes a tracks uses in the cache.
  • - Track Number of Track. No. 0 is the first.
  • - Used Number of accesses to the track.
  • - Old Time (in seconds) since the last access.
  • - Parti Logical partition- or drive-name.
  • - DiskName Virtual partition-, medium- or disk-name.


Above this is written how many tracks are in the cache alltogether (all free memory) and how many of that must still be written to the disk.

Track

Lists the cache-parts of a partition, medium or disk.

  • - Track Number of track. No. 0 is the first.
  • - Location Start position of the track in memory.
  • - Type Memory typet.
  • - Used Number of accesses to the track.
  • - Old Time (in seconds) since the last access.
  • - Flags
    • NowBusy Track is read or written.
    • MustWrite Track must be written.

Above this is written how many tracks of the medium (8) are in the cache and how many of that must be written to drive.



The next lines contain

  1. the Unit the medium/partition belongs to, the name of the device and the start postion (track-number) of the partition on the disk.
  2. logical partition- or drive-name and virtual partition-, medium- or disk-name.
  3. When the medium was created (formatted) and the date of the last modification. (Only FastFileSystem)
Page Up

One page up.
<Cursor left, Shift+Cursor up>.

Page Down

One page down.
<Cursor right, Shift+Cursor down>.

Top

Top of the list.
<Key T>.

End

End of the list.
<Key E>.

Before Medium

Jump to the previous medium.

Next Medium

Jump to the next medium.


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9 Where to send bug reports, comments and orders?

The author can be reached through the following addresses:

Postal addresse:
      Martin Tauchmann
      Scheffelstr. 49
79102 Freiburg im Breisgau
      GERMANY
E-Mail:

MartinTauchmann@bigfoot.com

Sometime you can find me in IRC at “irc.uni-stuttgart.de“ in the “#amiga“-channel as NickName “Gaddis“.

There is also a Future Drive Accelerator homepage in the World Wide Web, with cyberlinks to “Super Find Engines“ and many other usefull cyberlinks:

Germany
U.S.A.

The Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) “PublicKey“ is available with Finger, or via WWW.

ICQ, aka UIN is on my HomePage.


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10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator


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10.1 How to use harddisks bigger than 4 GigaBytes.

Type VERSION HD0: into a shell, to find out if version 44.5 or 43.x of the FastFileSystems is installed.



The new FastFileSystem version (9) must be installed into the RigidDiskBlock (RDB) using HDToolBox. Copying to the L: directoy is not enough. (10)

If you have more than one harddisk on your Amiga, the FastFileSystem is loaded only from the Boot-Unit-HardDisk-RDB. So you have to install the new FastFileSystem into the Boot-Unit; but of course doesn’t it do any harm if all Unit-HardDisk-RDB’s are updated.

Reformatting of the partitionen is not required, this means the files remain accessible with the
new FastFileSystem. The new FastFileSystem works of course with IDE-drives, too.



How do you update the FastFileSystem?
Start the program ‘SYS:Utilities/HDTools/HDToolsBox’:

<TABLE BORDER=3><TR><td align=left> Select your Boot-HardDisk, ‘Partition Drive‘, ‘Advanced Options‘, ‘Add/Update...‘, now you can see which version is running in your Amiga, ‘Update File System...‘, enter l:FastFileSystem, ‘OK‘, now it should read Version: 44 and Revision: 5, ‘OK‘, ‘OK‘, ‘OK‘, ‘Save Changes to Drive‘, ‘Exit‘. </TD></TR></TABLE>


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10.2 DataSafety

The datasafety of the FastFileSystem is extended with Write Async in the case of a power cut.



The ProfiFileSystem-2 and the SmartFileSystem provide datasafety even in the case of a power cut, the medium is always “validated“.

The medium is kept “validated“ by saving the structure-organizing data to the disk immediatly.
⇒ You could image this as a tree, whose branches have always to be present, the leaves (files) may grow or fall off without harming the tree itself.
New leaves are written to the “list of existing leaves“ when the completely grown up. ⇒ Of course, files which were saved during the power cut are lost.

To maintain a valid structure on the medium, the FileSystem must not loose control about the moment of writing, this means the structure must be written “syncron“.
Write Async may not be activated, to ensure datasafety during a power cut.

Write Async can be activated, if there is enough free memory available to cache the WHOLE write-process.
⇒ The medium is always “validated“.

In future versions, using a new FileSystem, datasafety will be maintained during a power cut, even with low memory, using Write Async. The important structure data (tree) is written “Syncron“ and the files (leaves) “Asyncron“.


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11 What will happen to Future Drive Accelerator?

The oracle foretells:


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12 Development history of Future Drive Accelerator

1.4, Release date 7-Mai-99
1.2, Release date 20-Aug-98
1.0, Release date 20-Jul-98
0.98, Release date 04-Jul-98
0.96, Release date 25-Mar-98

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13 Other products

From the same author:



From other authors (in Aminet):


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14 The author wants to thank…

The development would have been impossible without the feedback of some Future Drive Accelerator users. Many ideas and features came from these sources…



So I’d like to thank the following persons:


For Alpha-/Beta-Tests, ideas & bug-reports:

Frédéric Laboureur, Michael Kilimann, Denis Zwornarz, Andrew Mowatt, Marc Michael, Herbert Pittermann Kisses for you sweet Kids, Harald Wünsche, Timo Murzo, Jörg Liebelt, Flemming Steffensen, Helge Böhme, Andreas, Carsten.

For the translations:

The Amiga Translators Organization (ATO)
Jens Neubauer jens.neubauer@gmx.de

For proofreading:

Gregor Knechtges
Heiko Hayn Smeagel@gmx.net

Malcolm Harnden

For supporting the PPC Amiga.

Fred Fish

Without your excessive commitment for the Amiga, I hardly would have gotten those bits and bytes to feed my curiosity. Your new GeekGadget Project with the GNU ports is very praiseworthy.
The text you read at the moment has to be partly credited to Fred Fish because it is written in Texinfo.

Reinhard Spisser and Sebastiano Vigna

for the Amiga-port of “makeinfo“.

Michael Marte, Hamish Macdonald, Geert Uytterhoeven, Chris Lawrence,

Joerg Mayer, Martin Apel, Richard Hirst, Roman Hodek, Thomas Kruse, Benjamin (Benni) Lorenz, Odd-Jarle Kristoffersen, Jes Sorensen, Ron Flory … (MC 680xx LinUX)
I can’t find words.

Kamil Iskra, Philippe Brand, Fred Fish, Leonard Norrgard, Hans Verkuil, Gunther Nikl, Anders Wegge Jakobsen (GNU C Compiler)

You made it possible to program for every platform.

Dirk Busse (CopyMemQuicker)

Thanks to your optimising, the cache has become even more faster. See section How to speed up Future Drive Accelerator even more.

Matthew Dillon

Without your DME (programable text-editor) maybe I had never started typing.

Friedjof Siebert

Without your damn-fast Oberon-compiler, it would have been only half as much fun.

Amiga Modula Oberon Klub Stuttgart AMOK

Your enthusiasm dragged me on. Where do you get all these good ideas from?

Niclaus Wirth

Brought light into the darkness, finally one can read the programs.

Jonathan Potter

Please stay with us. From ScreenX to DOpus, you evolved very much.

Ralph Babel

Very dry, interesting book, in which sect are you now?

Commodore, AmigaInc. …

Don’t dare to drop the Amiga like the Hippis the ‘68er. The Amiga is the Harley among the platforms.

Telekom

He, I still don’t have a modem.

Quasar (White Box), CodX (Dialer/UnlimitedAcces)

Really clever how you fooled the Telekom back then.

William Gibson

Great books, I still don’t understand one word.

William Gaddis

Master of the dialogue, pity that your time is over.

Nico François

PowerSnap is just great! RequesterTools anyway. PowerPacker was a must in times when buying a harddisk costed a fortune.

Georg Hörmann XFD

Fixed the old bugs in the decrunchers.

ASDG FACC

Your FloppyAccelerator inspired me.

TURBOBRAIN (D-Copy)

Your D-Copy finally brought X-Copy to an end.

Georg Heßmann

Your PasTeX made the Amiga able to print.

? SoundTracker+

The author is unknown, so I just thank
Tracer and DOCTOR MABUSE and UNKNOWN of D.O.C and MnemoTroN / Silicon League,
TIP of THE NEW MASTERS.

BAMIGA SECTOR ONE, RED SECTOR …

Great intros, just very old.

Kai Nickel (MathX)

Another remnant of AMOK. Abitur (school leaving examination) is impossible without your program.

TRIAD (TitanicsCruncher)

Without your cruncher, one would have to buy RAM all the time.

Bert Jahn WHDLoad, Jean-François Fabre JST

Good work, finally the classic games work with AGA, too, and can be loaded quickly from the harddisk.

BullFrog (Populous, Powermonger…)

It is real fun to play god.

John Matthews (MultiPrint)

What did I have to suffer from print-programs until I found yours! Well, the handling could be easier.

BootX VirusX VirusZ …

I believe it was you who killed these poor viruses; and if not you, then it was OS2.0.

Zeitschrift Computing C-16

I find it impossible to print programs on dozens of pages, which you had to type into your computer to play something.

Commodore C-16 PLUS 4

Was fun, especially because you could press some keys and break and disassemble and debug any given program.

Forum InformatikerInnen fuer Frieden und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung FIFF e.V.
Pretty Good Privacy PGP

Thanks for telling the people about the governmental fooling.

Michael Sinz (MKSoft Development), Bryce Nesbitt

Without DiskSpeed, no one had told me it was getting better.
The Enforcer is absolutly necessary for debugging.

Martin Mares (MJSoft System Software)

Your Resident Module Launcher, and SKick are really good, now you don’t have to buy several ROMs each time.

Valenta Ferenc (Copper-Demon)

Great feeling.

Sylvain Rougier (ParM)

Your ParM is my ToolManager.

Stefan Becker (ToolManger)

I used the structure of your documentation.

Richard Körber (PatchWork)

See section Known bugs.

Thomas Richter (SaferPatches)

DiskSafe is a nice little tool.
Your SaferPatches solved the problem!

Harry Sintonen (HackDisk)

Your HackDisk assembler-sourcecode answered my questions.

Urban Dominik Müller, Dirk Stöcker, Bryan Ford and Christian von Roques

Your XPK-system is without competition.

all users who decided to register Future Drive Accelerator.

[ << ] [ < ] [ Up ] [ > ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

Appendix A How to speed up Future Drive Accelerator even more

So you can make Amiga faster.


Install a CopyMem(Quick) (11) Replacement for your processor type:
68000 68020 68040+ The MCP replacement shouldn’t be used, because it is slower than these versions.


Set the SCSIsynchron-Flag in the RigidDiskBlock of your boot-harddisk with
RDBFlags.


Don’t use ChipMemory as cache, and set not used ChipMem in the preferences, to 100%. See section Das Hauptfenster.


If you use the program PoolMem, start it with the argument NoRamReverse.


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A.1 Better use of ATA[PI] drives

You don’t have AmigaOS 3.1 and want to install the newest update of the (12) scsi.device to get a better performance? (especially together with ATA[PI] drives)

Attention! There is no guarantee for this hack. (13) The modified file may not be distibuted.

The hack works on an 1200 with OS 3.0.

  1. Rename the file ‘a300.ls.strip’, if you use an Amiga 1200 (14) , to ‘scsi.device’, and copy it into the ‘Devs:’ directory.
  2. Load ‘scsi.device’ V43.xx into a file-monitor:
    Search for $0c6c0027. The next value is $0014 6516. Replace $6516 by $6026.
  3. Get
    AddModule.
    In the first line of your ‘s:Startup-Sequence’ write:
    RUN <>NIL: c:AddModule <>NIL: DEVS:scsi.device CLASS 1 PRI 10 INIT ;V43 CLASS xoper e flags

After the second reboot, the new scsi.device is loaded.


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A.2 General speedup for turbo boards

You have a turbo board, e.g. a Blizzard-IV with Extra Fast Memory?



Is the exec.library “function-jump-table“ (AVL) in the Chip Memory? (Can be found out using XOper or FastExec.)

Get FastExec. Start it with:
FastExec SysInfo


Is the output for SysStkUpper $xxxxxxxx a value greater than
$00200000 if you have 2MB ChipMemory, or
$00100000 if you have 1MB ChipMemory?



If not, then the ``supervisor stack`` is in Chip Memory. This slows down the “task-switching“.



Insert this line in your ‘s:Startup-Sequence’, after AddModule (if present):
FastExec REBOOT FASTSSP FASTMEM


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Appendix B How to use bad memory

Do your programs crash randomly?


Then your RAM-modules may be faulty. Especially PS-2 (SIMM) modules are very vulnerable to “static electricity“.
Or you have some unused RAM-modules laying around?



No need to worry, like on a harddisk, you can mark bad memory and exclude it from usage.



But first we have to know where exactly the memory is faulty. For this purpose there is an excellent program called MemTest, which should be started without booting (as much free memory as possible). Beforehand, the “DataCache“ of the CPU should be disabled with

CPU NODATACACHE NODATABURST NOEXTERNALCACHE

. Now start the “Rotate 32“ test and save the result.



Now get Allocate.



Insert at the beginning of your ‘S:Startup-Sequence’:

resident c:Allocate pure
Allocate <>NIL: 68900000 100000
Allocate <>NIL: 68B00000 100000
resident Allocate remove

The hexadecimal addresses should, of course, contain the bad memory areas. (Be generous, don’t be stingy with a few 100KB or MB (depending on the chip).)




This works with LinUX, too:

Create a ‘file’, where you insert all areas which work 100% okay. For example

2097152
0x68000000 9437184
0x68A00000 1048576
0x68C00000 3670016

and start AmiBoot with -m FileName.


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Appendix C How to make the Amiga more stable

Do your programs crash with a Guru 4 (Instruction error) or $1000005 (Memory corrupt) ab?


The reason could be a too small stack. Every System has a different stack usage, because different programs run in the background, and change system-routines.



If several programs change the same system-routines, this may result in an stack overflow

Even if only one program changes a system-routine and doesn’t use stack itself, there are at least 4 Bytes used.



Luckily there is StackAttack, Which gives almost every program a little more stack.

example installation in the ‘s:Startup-Sequence’:

StackAttack ADDSTACK=512

[ << ] [ < ] [ Up ] [ > ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

Appendix D Known bugs

If your think you found a bug in Future Drive Accelerator, please send a description see section description to the author see section Autor.



Here is a list of known bugs and problems:


Bugs:




Not real bugs:



Future Drive Accelerator has been tested intensively with Enforcer/MungWall and PatchWork.


Patchwork has helped to figure out two very resistant bugs.



Problems of other cache-programs


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D.1 New bugr

  1. Which version do you use?
  2. What was set in FDAPref, see section FDAPref? (Removeable Disk?, ...)
  3. What says FDAPref, see section Informations about the drive, about the non-functioning partition?
  4. If other programs do not work as they should, do they without FDA?
  5. If DOS-checksum (Read/Write) error occured, please activate FDAPref <Protect tracks in memory with checksummes>, see section Protect tracks in memory with checksummes. If FDA reports checksum errors, it is not a FDA BUG. Or try to install another FileSystem, if the harddisk has more than 4 GigaByte capacity. See section How to use harddisks bigger than 4 GigaBytes..
    Or remove static dust from your RAM-modules. See section How to use bad memory.
  6. How did the bug appear? How can it be reproduced?
  7. Which hardware/software (Mem, OS, FileSystem, Device-Software) was used?
  8. Was there a Guru-alert (error messages)?
    In FDA are Guru-number (error messages) built-in. These start with $0FDA00##.

    If there was another number, please start SegTracker from the Enforcer-package. Start Tnt or if possible Enforcer or replacement programs like CyberGuard (MC68060). Wait for the bug to show up again.
    Write down the error message.
    SegTracker is important because the author would like to know when the BUG occours. See section SegTracker, Enforcer und Co..

  9. If something like this appears, please start Segtracker before.
    Guru #0005: Division durch 0
    Dx 00007FFF 00000000 08C6FFFF 00000000  7FFFFFFF 00000000 081AAE54 00000000
    Ax 081AADEC 08C5F9D6 08C5F9DA 08C5F88A  081AAE54 08C5FC34 08000AB0 08C5F820
    segment FDAPref
    hunk       0
    offset  0000365E
    sr 0000
    pc 08C553E6
    <RETURN>
    

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D.1.1 SegTracker, Enforcer und Co.

Please read on if you have a processor with MMU, or want to know whether you have.



Needed files

Enforcer supports MC68060,
CyberGuard supports MC68060 DisASM,
MungWall to detect Bad written Programs.

needed to display output (Virtua Terminal) (Work also if the MultTasking is switched off), a replacement for Sushi.


How to run Debugging-Tools?

How to show the output?


[ << ] [ < ] [ Up ] [ > ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

Appendix E Technical data

For curious people, who want to know everything.



[ << ] [ < ] [ Up ] [ > ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

E.1 What programmers should observe…

  1. Data, which shall be written using the DOS functions Read/Write, should be LongWordAlligned (adr MOD 4=0), because the processor can access them faster then. This also applies to data which is sent directly to a device. AllocMem, Allocate… automatically return an address that is LongWordAlligned. So you only have to pay attention if you divide a memory block manually.
  2. Remember: If you use SendIO instead of DoIO, the command is executed Async. Not only reading and writing, but also changeState, motor, protStatus, remove, changeNum … commands.

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E.2 Which values are the defaults?

At the first start and after choosing <Edit/reset to Defaults> from the menu, these values will be used:

Create Icons                                   = FALSE (OFF)

Not used FastMemory                            = 60 KB
Not used ChipMemory                            = 50 KB
FastMemFirst                                   = TRUE  (ON)
View color flash if track moved or deleted     = FALSE (OFF)
Protect tracks in memory with checksummes      = FALSE (OFF)


HD             Async delay                     = 4 seconds
Disk           Async delay                     = 7 seconds

Device| Pri | Settings
---------------------------------------------------------------------
DF0   | 100 | Removeable Disk, Write Async, Verify write
DF1   | 100 | Removeable Disk, Write Async, Verify write
DF2   | 100 | Removeable Disk, Write Async, Verify write
DF3   | 100 | Removeable Disk, Write Async, Verify write
DS0   |  80 | Removeable Disk, Write Async, Verify write
DS1   |  80 | Removeable Disk, Write Async, Verify write
DS2   |  80 | Removeable Disk, Write Async, Verify write
DS3   |  80 | Removeable Disk, Write Async, Verify write
PC0   |  60 | Removeable Disk, Write Async, Verify write
PC1   |  60 | Removeable Disk, Write Async, Verify write
PC2   |  60 | Removeable Disk, Write Async, Verify write
PC3   |  60 | Removeable Disk, Write Async, Verify write
PS0   |  40 | Removeable Disk, Write Async, Verify write
PS1   |  40 | Removeable Disk, Write Async, Verify write
PS2   |  40 | Removeable Disk, Write Async, Verify write
PS3   |  40 | Removeable Disk, Write Async, Verify write
CD0   |  20 | Removeable Disk, WriteRetention
HD0   |   0 | Write Async
HD1   |   0 | Write Async
HD2   |   0 | Write Async
HD3   |   0 | Write Async
DH0   |   0 | Write Async
DH1   |   0 | Write Async
DH2   |   0 | Write Async
DH3   |   0 | Write Async

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E.3 Return values

The return values can be used within a shell-script.

Sys:Prefs/FDAPref ENVARC:FDA-AfterBoot.prefs USE
IF WARN ;FDA is not running
        RUN Sys:System/FDA ENVARC:FDA-AfterBoot.prefs QUIET
ENDIF

Sys:System/FDAView >NIL: Kill-FDA
IF NOT WARN ;FDA is running before
        RUN Sys:System/FDA ENVARC:FDA-AfterBoot.prefs QUIET
ENDIF

RUN Sys:System/FDA ENVARC:FDA-AfterBoot.prefs QUIET
IF $RC GE 5 ;FDA is running before
        Sys:Prefs/FDAPref ENVARC:FDA-AfterBoot.prefs USE
ENDIF
AlreadyRunning          = warn          (5)
PreferenceCancel        = error         (10)
PreferenceFDAnotRunning = warn          (5)
NoDeviceCached          = fail+1        (20 +1)
CanNotCreatePort        = fail+2
ReadArgsError           = fail+3
CanNotReadPrefs         = fail+4
CanNotCreateTask        = fail+5
AllocSignalError        = fail+6
NoMem                   = fail+777-fail

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Index

Jump to:   4  
A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Z  
Index Entry  Section

4
4 GigaByte capacity 7.3 Informations about the drive
4 GigaByte capacity 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
4 GigaByte capacity 10.1 How to use harddisks bigger than 4 GigaBytes.

A
ABackUp Appendix D Known bugs
AbortIO Appendix D Known bugs
accelerate 1 The concepts behind Future Drive Accelerator
active 7.2 The Device Window
AddModule A.1 Better use of ATA[PI] drives
AddModule A.2 General speedup for turbo boards
Addresses 9 Where to send bug reports, comments and orders?
AFS 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
Alert Appendix C How to make the Amiga more stable
Alloc Absolute, mark bad memory Appendix B How to use bad memory
AllocAbs (OS) Appendix E Technical data
Allocate (OS) Appendix E Technical data
AllocEntry (OS) Appendix D Known bugs
AllocMem (OS) Appendix E Technical data
AllocPooled (OS) Appendix D Known bugs
Ami-FileSafe(AFS) 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
Amiga 1200 4 Tested systems
Amiga 3000 4 Tested systems
Amiga 4000 (040) 4 Tested systems
Amiga E (language) 11 What will happen to Future Drive Accelerator?
ArtStudioPro 3 Appendix D Known bugs
Assembler Appendix E Technical data
Async E.1 What programmers should observe…
Async delay 7.2 The Device Window
Async delay (button) 7.2 The Device Window
ATA(PI) 4 Tested systems
ATA(PI) 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
Author 9 Where to send bug reports, comments and orders?
AvailMem (OS) Appendix E Technical data
AVL A.2 General speedup for turbo boards

B
Bank transfer 5 If you like the demo…
Before Medium (button) 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
BeginIO (OS) Appendix E Technical data
Benchmarks 3 What speed improvements can be achieved with Future Drive Accelerator?
Berkeley (NetBSD/LinUX) Fast FileSystem(BFFS UNI\02) 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
BFFS 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
Blizzard-IV A.2 General speedup for turbo boards
Block 7.3 Informations about the drive
Buddha (IDE) 4 Tested systems
Buffer memory type 7.3 Informations about the drive
Bugs Appendix D Known bugs

C
Cache 7.2 The Device Window
Cache 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Cache usage priority (button) 7.2 The Device Window
cache, delete 7.1 The Mainwindow
cache, move 7.1 The Mainwindow
cache, protect 7.1 The Mainwindow
cache-programs, other Appendix D Known bugs
Cancel (button) 7.1 The Mainwindow
capacity 7.3 Informations about the drive
Cash 5 If you like the demo…
change floppy 1 The concepts behind Future Drive Accelerator
Checksum error 12 Development history of Future Drive Accelerator
Checksum error Appendix D Known bugs
Checksum error D.1 New bugr
checksummes (button) 7.1 The Mainwindow
Chipmemory 7.1 The Mainwindow
Chipmemory A.2 General speedup for turbo boards
CloseDevice Appendix D Known bugs
color flash 7.1 The Mainwindow
color flash (button) 7.1 The Mainwindow
CompactDisk 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
Compatibility 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
concepts 1 The concepts behind Future Drive Accelerator
Contac addresses 9 Where to send bug reports, comments and orders?
Convert 13 Other products
Copper 13 Other products
copy 3 What speed improvements can be achieved with Future Drive Accelerator?
CopyMem(Quick) (OS) 2 What is required to use Future Drive Accelerator?
CopyMem(Quick) (OS) Appendix A How to speed up Future Drive Accelerator even more
CopyMem(Quick) (OS) Appendix D Known bugs
Create 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Credit cards 5 If you like the demo…
Credits 14 The author wants to thank…
CrossDOSFileSystem(MSD) 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
CSPPC 4 Tested systems
CVPPC 4 Tested systems
CyberGuard D.1 New bugr
CyberGuard D.1.1 SegTracker, Enforcer und Co.

D
DataSafety 7.2 The Device Window
DataSafety 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
DataSafety 10.2 DataSafety
Default E.2 Which values are the defaults?
delete cache (button) 7.1 The Mainwindow
Device 7.2 The Device Window
Device Software 7.3 Informations about the drive
Device Software 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Devices 2 What is required to use Future Drive Accelerator?
DirOpus5 Magellan 4 Tested systems
disable (button) 7.2 The Device Window
Disk name 7.3 Informations about the drive
Disk name 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
DiskExpander 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
DiskSafe 2 What is required to use Future Drive Accelerator?
DiskSafe 7.2 The Device Window
DiskSafe 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
DiskSpeed 3 What speed improvements can be achieved with Future Drive Accelerator?
DoIO (OS) E.1 What programmers should observe…
Dos-Buffers 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
Drive informations 7.2 The Device Window
drives 7.1 The Mainwindow
Drives (button) 7.1 The Mainwindow
DynamiCache 5 If you like the demo…
DynamiCache Appendix D Known bugs

E
Elevator seeking 7.2 The Device Window
EMail 9 Where to send bug reports, comments and orders?
Email, Free Free Email
enable (button) 7.2 The Device Window
End (button) 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Enforcer Appendix D Known bugs
Enforcer D.1 New bugr
Enforcer D.1.1 SegTracker, Enforcer und Co.
environment, saved 1 The concepts behind Future Drive Accelerator
Eurocheque 5 If you like the demo…
Exec library 13 Other products

F
factor 3 What speed improvements can be achieved with Future Drive Accelerator?
FastExec A.2 General speedup for turbo boards
FastFileSystem V43.20 A.1 Better use of ATA[PI] drives
FastFileSystem V44.5 10.1 How to use harddisks bigger than 4 GigaBytes.
FastFileSystem(FFS) 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
FastFileSystem(FFS) 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
Fastmemory 7.1 The Mainwindow
Fastmemory A.2 General speedup for turbo boards
FAX, Free 5 If you like the demo…
FAX, Free Free FAX
Features 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
FFS 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
File Monitor A.1 Better use of ATA[PI] drives
FileSystems 2 What is required to use Future Drive Accelerator?
first (button) 7.1 The Mainwindow
First Track number 7.3 Informations about the drive
First Track number 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Flags 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
flexible 1 The concepts behind Future Drive Accelerator
Floppy 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
FLUSH Cache (Argument) 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Font 12 Development history of Future Drive Accelerator
FROM (Argument) 6 How to install and configure Future Drive Accelerator
FROM (Argument) 7 How to configure Future Drive Accelerator
Full version 5 If you like the demo…
Future 11 What will happen to Future Drive Accelerator?
Future Copper Producer 13 Other products
Future Drive Accelerator 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator

G
Guide 3 What speed improvements can be achieved with Future Drive Accelerator?
Guru Appendix C How to make the Amiga more stable
Guru-Alert D.1 New bugr
Gurunumbers D.1 New bugr

H
Hack A.1 Better use of ATA[PI] drives
hard disk 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
Harddisk, boot 10.1 How to use harddisks bigger than 4 GigaBytes.
Harddisk, boot Appendix A How to speed up Future Drive Accelerator even more
Hardware Cache 7.2 The Device Window
hardware, less used 1 The concepts behind Future Drive Accelerator
Hardware, UnitNo 7.3 Informations about the drive
HDOff 6 How to install and configure Future Drive Accelerator
HDToolsBox 10.1 How to use harddisks bigger than 4 GigaBytes.
hierarchy 7.2 The Device Window
History 12 Development history of Future Drive Accelerator
Homepage 9 Where to send bug reports, comments and orders?
HTTP 9 Where to send bug reports, comments and orders?
HyperCache 5 If you like the demo…

I
IDE 4 Tested systems
IDE 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
IF (Shell Command) E.3 Return values
inactive 7.2 The Device Window
Info (button) 7.2 The Device Window
Installation 6 How to install and configure Future Drive Accelerator
Installer V43.3 6 How to install and configure Future Drive Accelerator
Installer V43.3 6 How to install and configure Future Drive Accelerator
Instruction erros Appendix C How to make the Amiga more stable

K
KILL FDA (Argument) 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator

L
L: directory 10.1 How to use harddisks bigger than 4 GigaBytes.
languages 11 What will happen to Future Drive Accelerator?
leasing 5 If you like the demo…
LinUX 13 Other products
LinUX Berkeley Fast FileSystem(BFFS UNI\02) 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
Location 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
LongWordAlligned E.1 What programmers should observe…
low memory 1 The concepts behind Future Drive Accelerator
low memory 1 The concepts behind Future Drive Accelerator

M
Mail 9 Where to send bug reports, comments and orders?
MainProgPath (Argument) 7 How to configure Future Drive Accelerator
Medium 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
memory 2 What is required to use Future Drive Accelerator?
Memory corrupt Appendix C How to make the Amiga more stable
Memory Test Appendix B How to use bad memory
Memory type 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Memory, Bad Appendix B How to use bad memory
MessyFileSystem(MSD) 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
MMU D.1 New bugr
MMU D.1.1 SegTracker, Enforcer und Co.
Modification 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Monitor 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
monitor 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
move cache (button) 7.1 The Mainwindow
MSDos 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
MultiCX D.1.1 SegTracker, Enforcer und Co.
MultifaceIII 4 Tested systems
MungFriend D.1 New bugr
MungFriend After Reset/GURU D.1.1 SegTracker, Enforcer und Co.
MungWall Appendix D Known bugs
MungWall D.1 New bugr
MungWall D.1.1 SegTracker, Enforcer und Co.
Must Write 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator

N
nature, saved 1 The concepts behind Future Drive Accelerator
NetBSD Berkeley Fast FileSystem(BFFS UNI\02) 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
NewAlertH A.1 Better use of ATA[PI] drives
news 1 The concepts behind Future Drive Accelerator
NewStyleDevice (NSD) 7.3 Informations about the drive
NewStyleDevice (NSD) 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
NewStyleDevice (NSD) Appendix E Technical data
Next Medium (button) 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
NoRamReverse 6 How to install and configure Future Drive Accelerator
NoRamReverse Appendix A How to speed up Future Drive Accelerator even more
not used memory 7.1 The Mainwindow
not used memory (button) 7.1 The Mainwindow
Now Busy 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Number of Tracks 7.3 Informations about the drive

O
Oberon-2 Appendix E Technical data
Oberon-2 (language) 11 What will happen to Future Drive Accelerator?
Old 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
only 5 If you like the demo…
oo2c 11 What will happen to Future Drive Accelerator?
Orders 5 If you like the demo…
OS 2.0 2 What is required to use Future Drive Accelerator?
overall requirements 2 What is required to use Future Drive Accelerator?

P
Page down (button) 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Page up (button) 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Parti 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Partition 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
PatchWork Appendix D Known bugs
PFS 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
Phone 5 If you like the demo…
PicassoII 4 Tested systems
Picture 13 Other products
PoolMem 6 How to install and configure Future Drive Accelerator
PoolMem Appendix A How to speed up Future Drive Accelerator even more
Postal address 9 Where to send bug reports, comments and orders?
power cut 10.2 DataSafety
Power-LED 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
PowerCache 5 If you like the demo…
PowerCache Appendix D Known bugs
PowerPC 4 Tested systems
Preferences 7 How to configure Future Drive Accelerator
ProfiFileSystem(PFS) 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
ProfiFileSystem(PFS) 10.2 DataSafety
ProfiFileSystem(PFS) 11 What will happen to Future Drive Accelerator?
protect cache (button) 7.1 The Mainwindow
PS-2 Appendix B How to use bad memory

Q
QNX 11 What will happen to Future Drive Accelerator?
QUIET (Argument) 6 How to install and configure Future Drive Accelerator
quit 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator

R
read-ahead 7.2 The Device Window
read-ahead 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
Registration 5 If you like the demo…
Removeable Disk? (button) 7.2 The Device Window
Return values E.3 Return values
RigidDiskBlock 10.1 How to use harddisks bigger than 4 GigaBytes.
RigidDiskBlock Appendix A How to speed up Future Drive Accelerator even more

S
S:Startup-Sequence 6 How to install and configure Future Drive Accelerator
SaferPatches 6 How to install and configure Future Drive Accelerator
Save (Argument) 7 How to configure Future Drive Accelerator
Save (button) 7.1 The Mainwindow
SCSI 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
SCSI (UW) 4 Tested systems
SCSI Device A.1 Better use of ATA[PI] drives
SCSI-2 4 Tested systems
SCSI-direct 12 Development history of Future Drive Accelerator
SCSI-direct Appendix E Technical data
SCSIsynchron-Flag Appendix A How to speed up Future Drive Accelerator even more
Seconds E.2 Which values are the defaults?
SegTracker D.1 New bugr
SegTracker D.1.1 SegTracker, Enforcer und Co.
SendIO (OS) E.1 What programmers should observe…
set size 1 The concepts behind Future Drive Accelerator
SetMan 6 How to install and configure Future Drive Accelerator
SetPatch 6 How to install and configure Future Drive Accelerator
SFS 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
ShareIt 5 If you like the demo…
SIMM Appendix B How to use bad memory
Size 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Size of Block 7.3 Informations about the drive
Size of Track 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Size of Track (button) 7.2 The Device Window
Smart-Power-Technologie 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
SmartCache 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
SmartFileSystem(SFS) 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
SmartFileSystem(SFS) 10.2 DataSafety
Software Cache 7.2 The Device Window
Sorted by (button) 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
speed 3 What speed improvements can be achieved with Future Drive Accelerator?
Stabl OS Appendix C How to make the Amiga more stable
Stack, overflow Appendix C How to make the Amiga more stable
Stack, Supervisor A.2 General speedup for turbo boards
StackAttack Appendix C How to make the Amiga more stable
start position 7.3 Informations about the drive
start position 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Static Appendix B How to use bad memory
statistics 3 What speed improvements can be achieved with Future Drive Accelerator?
Student 5 If you like the demo…
supported devices 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
supported FileSystems 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
Sushi D.1 New bugr
Sushi D.1.1 SegTracker, Enforcer und Co.
SysInfo 3 What speed improvements can be achieved with Future Drive Accelerator?
Systeme 4 Tested systems

T
TeX 13 Other products
Thanks 14 The author wants to thank…
time 3 What speed improvements can be achieved with Future Drive Accelerator?
time 3 What speed improvements can be achieved with Future Drive Accelerator?
Time E.2 Which values are the defaults?
Tnt D.1 New bugr
Tnt D.1.1 SegTracker, Enforcer und Co.
Top (button) 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Tower with Zorro II Databoard (Micronik) 4 Tested systems
Track 7.3 Informations about the drive
Track 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
TrackDisk64 12 Development history of Future Drive Accelerator
TrackDisk64 Appendix E Technical data

U
Umemployed 5 If you like the demo…
Unit number 7.3 Informations about the drive
Unit number 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
UNI\02 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator
UPDATE Cache (Argument) 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
update command 7.2 The Device Window
URL 9 Where to send bug reports, comments and orders?
Use (Argument) 7 How to configure Future Drive Accelerator
Use (button) 7.1 The Mainwindow
Used 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
uses free memory 1 The concepts behind Future Drive Accelerator

V
validate 10.2 DataSafety
vdisk.device (VD0:) Appendix D Known bugs
Verify Appendix E Technical data
Verify write 7.2 The Device Window
Verify write (button) 7.2 The Device Window
ViNCEd Appendix D Known bugs
Virtual name 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
Virtual-Memory-Manager (VMM) Appendix D Known bugs
Virtual-Memory-Manger (VMM) 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator

W
WBStartup directory 6 How to install and configure Future Drive Accelerator
Windows 7 How to configure Future Drive Accelerator
Windows 8 How to quit and monitor Future Drive Accelerator
World Wide Web 5 If you like the demo…
World Wide Web 9 Where to send bug reports, comments and orders?
Worldwide 5 If you like the demo…
Write async (button) 7.2 The Device Window
Write async (button) 10.2 DataSafety
Write for temporary (button) 7.2 The Device Window
Write late as possible (button) 7.2 The Device Window
Write retention 7.2 The Device Window
Write sync (button) 7.2 The Device Window
Write sync (button) 10.2 DataSafety
Write through (button) 7.2 The Device Window

X
XFH 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator

Z
ZIP 10 Compatibility, Features of Future Drive Accelerator

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Footnotes

(1)

A dos-buffer requires (per default) a half KiloByte.

(2)

DiskSpeed Reference: 262144 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer.

(3)

Syncron write-back, or the asyncron delay is started when:
- e.Update-command from FileSystem,
- e.Motor-off-command from FileSystem,
- If a program requests memory, and the cache (the whole RAM) is filled with data that has to be written back.
- Disk removed : “You must replace Volume“
- If DiskSafe is installed : Before a Reset or a Guru.
- or if the cache is full with data to write (at least 7 free tracks)

(4)

The end of the write-access is signalled explicit by the FileSystem to make sure that a device, software- or hardware-cache in the hardisk has written the data completely.
Most harddisks have an internal cache of 64 KB.

(5)

If only a block (part) of the track is read, the hardware copies the whole track into a buffer and passes on only the requested Block.
Future Drive Accelerator makes use of this behavior: It always reads the whole track into the cache. Reading of a Tracks is a little bit slower than reading a block. slow hardware-head, which would be necessary for reading another block.
⇒ And the hardware isn’t stressed because the requested block is already in the cache.

(6)

The used algorithm is required to figure out which tracks is the last in the queue. This is the oldest track, and if there are several tracks of the same age, the tracks with the smallest access counter is killed.
If you know a more effective algorithm, don’t hesitate and let me know.

(7)

The cache is a summary of different tracks.

(8)

A medium can be a partition, an inserted diskette/ a removable harddisk / CD or a removed diskette…

(9)

or SmartFileSystem_SCSIdirect, ProfiFileSystem-2_SCSIdirect.

(10)

FastFileSystem V44.5 is not compatibele with vdisk.device, statram.device, diskspare.device and fms.device

(11)

CopyMem(Quick) is used to copy data between cache and system memory.

(12)

The hack als works with
FastFilesystem V43.20

(13)

The hack removes an alert which informs the user that no OS3.1 is installed.

(14)

If you have another Amiga, please read the ‘readme’ text in the update-archive, to find out which file is the best for you.


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