**<>**¢¢ POWER USERS' CORNER¢ by John Kasupski, orignally of¢ WNYAUG, and reprinted by OL' HACKERS¢ AUG, NY¢¢¢ In this article, we will examine¢ hardware and software that is popular¢ among Atari 8-bit power users. A power¢ user is anyone who has done one or¢ more of the following to his or her¢ Atari 8 BIT computer system:¢¢ * Installed a RAM upgrade (256K or¢ more) and USES the extra RAM (either¢ as a RAMdisk, or for programming in¢ BASIC XE, or for running utilities or¢ applications that require the¢ additional RAM)¢¢ * Connected a hard drive¢¢ * Connected an MIO (or Black Box), one¢ of which is basically necessary to add¢ a hard drive anyway, but...¢¢ Anyone who has and uses one or¢ more (or all!) of the above is a power¢ user. Simple? Well, not really. You¢ also need to have the proper software¢ to let you take advantage of all this¢ neat hardware.For most of us, this¢ begins with the right DOS. By far the¢ most popular DOS among power users is¢ SpartaDOS, either the disk-based¢ version (3.2) or the cartridge-based¢ version (SpartaDOS X). It doesn't¢ matter which version you use, as long¢ as you've been weaned from the menu¢ environment prevalent with most other¢ DOS types such as DOS 2.0S/2.5,¢ SmartDOS, MyDOS, etc.¢¢ There is other software available¢ which takes advantage of power-user¢ type hardware, and "Power Users'¢ Corner" will examine theold and the¢ new software, as well as the hardware¢ itself. And, believe me, there is an¢ unbelievable amount of software out¢ there, if you know where to look.¢¢ But for this issue, we're going¢ to look at a piece of hardware,¢ because there might be people out¢ there who are reading this and are¢ feeling left out because they aren't¢ power users, and we want them to be¢ able to join the ranks. So, we're¢ going to talk about the MIO.¢¢ HARDWARE REVIEW¢¢ MIO stands for Multi-I/O and was¢ manufactured by ICD, Inc., a familiar¢ name to power users since they also¢ manufatured SpartaDOS, the U.S.¢ Doubler upgrade for Atari 1050 drives,¢ the R-Time 8 cart, and several other¢ neat toys that frequently show up in a¢ power user's computer room.¢¢ ICD unfortunately has¢ discontinued its line of products for¢ the 8 BIT, but the MIO can still be¢ purchased as a used item (and now from¢ FINE TOONED Engineering), and it is¢ well worth the investment of from $125¢ to $200 you can expect to pay for¢ one.¢¢ Why is a MIO worth that much¢ money as a used item? The key is in¢ what it adds to your system: self-¢ refreshed RAM (either 256K or 1¢ megabyte, depending on the model you¢ get), industry standard RS232 and¢ parallel interfaces (read: printer¢ port and modem port), the ability to¢ reconfigure drives from an internal¢ ROM-based menu, and perhaps best of¢ all, a SASI/SCSI interface that allows¢ you to connect a hard drive to your¢ Atari.¢¢ The MIO has its own power supply¢ and connects to the parallel bus¢ interface on the 800XL/1200XL, or the¢ cartridge ECI ports on the 130XE. For¢ the 130XE you also need an adaptor¢ board, which is about the size of a¢ pack of cigarettes and has two¢ cartridge ports on it. The MIO will¢ connect directly to an XL without the¢ adaptor. The 130XE adaptor for the MIO¢ used to cost about $20.00 from ICD, I¢ got mine along with my MIO so I can't¢ tell you how much it costs used,¢ however, if someone sells you a MIO¢ and they have an adaptor, make sure¢ you get it if you have a 130XE (or¢ intend to get one!!)¢¢ Since the MIO has its own power¢ supply, the contents of the MIO ram is¢ not lost when you turn off your Atari.¢ Only a total power failure (or turning¢ the MIO itself off) will erase the MIO¢ RAM's contents. You can leave the MIO¢ on while the computer is off (the¢ power consumption is negligible - only¢ a watt or two in its active state),¢ and the MIO's refresh oscillator will¢ keep the contents of its RAM intact¢ while the computer is off.¢¢ The MIO RAM can be used as a¢ RAMdisk or as a printer spooler, or¢ both. The 256K MIO can have either one¢ 256K RAmdisk with no spooler, or use¢ both the spooler and a RAMdisk, with¢ the RAM divided between the two in 32K¢ increments. The 1-Meg MIO allows¢ partitioning the RAM into two or more¢ RAMdisks, with or without a spooler.¢¢ The printer port allows¢ connecting any Centronics parallel¢ printer, which can be configured as¢ either P1: or P2: as desired, and the¢ RS-232 port allows connecting modems¢ that use in RS-232 port, allowing the¢ MIO to also take the place of an 850¢ Interface, P: R: connection, etc. The¢ modem port can be configured as R1:,¢ R2:, or R3: as desired.¢¢ The MIO's internal ROM includes a¢ configuration menu that lets you set¢ the parameters for the printer and¢ modem ports and RAMdisk/spooler¢ functions. It also lets you configure¢ the system for up to eight disk¢ drives, which can be floppy drives,¢ hard drive partitions, or MIO¢ RAmdisks. Any physical drive can be¢ configured to respond as any logical¢ drive number, and you can swap them¢ around at will. This lets you boot¢ from ANY drive in your system,¢ including the MIO RAMdisk. You can¢ easily swap drives around and boot¢ from a floppy drive one time, a hard¢ drive partition the next, the MIO¢ RAMdisk another time, and so on as¢ needed by your system requirements.¢¢ As far as hard drives are¢ concerned, the MIO menu lets you save¢ the configuration that you've set up¢ in the MIO Configuration menu to the¢ physical hard drive on LUN 0,0 (if you¢ don't know what this means, you¢ needn't worry about it...though you¢ can find out from your local users'¢ group!), so that you can safely power¢ down the MIO secure in the knowledge¢ that the next time you boot your¢ system, the MIO will load its own¢ previously saved configuration right¢ off of the hard drive during the boot¢ process...saving you the trouble of¢ having to re-enter all that¢ information in the configuration¢ menu.¢¢ The MIO can be used with a¢ variety of disk operating systems, but¢ SpartaDOS is the most highly¢ recommended (either 3.2 or the X¢ cart). The MIO will also work with the¢ better alternatives such as MyDOS 4.5,¢ BUT there is a reason wny most power¢ users prefer SpartaDOS...¢¢ This brings us to the SCSI/SASI¢ port. In addition to all the above¢ features, the MIO also serves as a¢ host adaptor and interface that allows¢ you to connect SCSI or SASI type hard¢ disk drives to your Atari 8 BIT! There¢ have been a few articles in club¢ newsletters in the past extolling the¢ virtues of having a hard drive¢ connected to your Atari, and we will¢ NOT repeat them all here. We will,¢ however, point out that a hard drive¢ represents perhaps the ULTIMATE¢ addition to your system, providing¢ unbeatable storage capacity and¢ instant access to incredible amounts¢ of software and data.¢¢ SOFTWARE REVIEW¢ There is also a ShareWare utility¢ called MIO_INIT.COM written by¢ LVAUG's Ed Bachman, that lets you save¢ and load multiple MIO configurations,¢ which you can then load from a¢ SpartaDOS batch file. The latest¢ version of MIO_INIT will load a new¢ MIO configuration from a batch file¢ WITHOUT terminating batch file¢ execution, giving you the power to¢ load from batch files, custom MIO¢ configurations tailored to each¢ application.¢¢ The value of this is not readily¢ obvious to non-power users. MIO_INIT¢ makes it possible to load one MIO¢ configuration along with your word¢ processor (setting up a print spooler,¢ for example), but use an entirely¢ different configuration with your term¢ program (such as a large RAMdisk to¢ save your capture buffer to). All this¢ can be done from batch files, once you¢ have saved the necessary¢ configurations to your hard drive. You¢ may never need to enter the MIO menu¢ again!¢¢ CONCLUSION¢¢ There are countless MIO utilities¢ available as P.D. or ShareWare. Ed¢ Bachman has written several of these,¢ and they're all useful items to have¢ around. If you use a MIO regularly¢ then I suggest you get on the¢ A.C.U.T.E. BBS and download Ed's¢ utilities if you haven't obtained them¢ already.¢¢ Ed's program range from the¢ simple (a utility to call the MIO menu¢ from the SpartaDOS Command line) to¢ the complex (a HD directory formatter¢ that automatically maps out any bad¢ sectors on that partition by¢ allocating them to a file called¢ SECTORS.BAD), with a number of¢ excellent utilities in between. I've¢ found many of them useful.¢¢ ¢ Editor's Note: This POWER USERS¢ CORNERS is NOT a proprietary column,¢ and I do NOT expect to write every¢ installment. In other words, others¢ are welcome and encouraged to submit¢ reviews, tips and tricks, and other¢ articles pertaining to the subject of¢ this feature. So, all you Power Users¢ out there, fire up your word¢ processors and WRITE!!!¢ **<>** ¢¢
