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OVLSIZE
The main PCBoard executable file is overlaid. This means that only a portion
of the executable is in memory at any given time. How much of the executable
can be held in memory depends on two factors: 1) How much of it is resident
(not in the overlay) and 2) How big the overlay buffer is. You can determine
how big of an overlay buffer you want to set for each executable using this
utility.
A setting of 16 sets up a 64K overlay buffer. This setting allows PCBoard to
swap pieces of the executable file in and out of memory keeping up to 64K of
it in the overlay buffer.
Syntax
OVLSIZE [filename] [buffer size]
[filename] = This is the filename you want to update the overlay
buffers on. Enter the location of your PCBOARD.EXE
or PCBSM.EXE. If OVLSIZE cannot find the file you
specify, it will print unable to open file specified.
[buffer] = This parameter represents the new buffer size. See
Buffer Sizes for a list of valid buffer values. If
you do not specify a buffer size, the current overlay
buffer size will be printed to the screen.
Buffer Sizes
The following chart in this section will show you the valid
buffer sizes that you may select:
Value Size Value Size Value Size Value Size
----- ---- ----- ---- ----- ---- ----- ----
1 4K 9 36K 17 68K 25 100K
2 8K 10 40K 18 72K 26 104K
3 12K 11 44K 19 76K 27 108K
4 16K 12 48K 20 80K 28 112K
5 20K 13 52K 21 84K 29 116K
6 24K 14 56K 22 88K 30 120K
7 28K 15 60K 23 92K 31 124K
8 32K 16 64K 24 96K 32 128K
A higher value allows more of the executable file to be held in memory. The
highest possible value, of course, would simply load the entire executable
file into memory and would never access the hard disk. An overlay buffer of
this size would be wasteful of memory.
Lower values may hurt performance by causing PCBoard to continually swap
code in from disk - creating more disk activity than would otherwise be
necessary.
You may want to use a smaller value such as 16. This lets PCBoard pull in
the code that is running, when it is needed, and leave the rest of the code
on disk until it is needed.
Allowing you to pick the buffer size allows you to tune your system to meet
your memory and performance needs. If you need more memory, go for a lower
overlay buffer size. If you need more performance, go for a higher buffer
size.
NOTE: The minimum value that you should select is 14 for PCBoard to operate
properly. If you plan to execute any PPE files, the minimum value you should
select is 16.
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Written by Dave Pearson