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Text File
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1996-06-01
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19KB
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323 lines
Dear user! v3.3.1 from 01.06.1996
==========
This file contains some information about the new PROGRAMMER's PROCESSOR POWER
PACKAGE called 4P_Vxxx.ZIP from Christian Ludloff, Germany. This software pack
included a text file with knowledge about the 80x86 processors - even with the
undocumented and secret details added in - and some very useful utilities. The
included INFO program can be used to show almost all details about the proces-
sor, and with STAT you can do the performance monitoring on iPentium(Pro) PCs.
Please check also my 4P package website http://webusers.anet-dfw.com/~ludloff.
Please, read this long text until the last line before you try to use the pack
on your PC, because there are some details, you should know, and because there
are some risks too (i.e. crashing the actual DOS session)!
1. this is shareware!
======================
Before describing the details I wrote about above - don't worry! - I will tell
you some words about the shareware concept I used for this software package. I
designed all the software as shareware, which means, that you may and you also
should test the programs during a 14 day trial period.
If you hate the programs after this time, then you may erase them from your HD
or give them to your friends. But if you think, that the software is good and
you plan to use it in the future (more than once a year or so...), then you're
fair when sending me the amount of $10 or 15,-DM as a registration fee. I will
send you a file then, containing your name and a key for your name, which will
make your shareware version becomes a registered version (file WHO.REG).
2. hard- and software
======================
To run the programs included in the 4P software package you need an IBM compa-
tible PC with at least an i8088 processor. To use the STAT program you must be
able to run it on an iPentium based PC - on older processors this software can
not be used due to the lack of some iPentium processor hardware details. There
are two versions of STAT: STAT5 for iPentiums, and STAT6 for iPentiumPros.
I checked, that 512KB of RAM will be enough to run all the programs I included
into the 4P package. Of course you can run the programs from a floppy disk, if
there's no HD available. But using the HD is much faster...
If you run my STAT program in TSR mode, then STAT needs about 105KB to stay in
your memory. Do not cry about so much RAM for such a small TSR - it needs only
16KB for saving the actual screen during the pop-ups, about 8KB for the stack,
then about 75KB for program code (not written with an Assembler) and some more
KBs for other parts, like the Borland Pascal heap. If you use the STAT?FPU.EXE
versions, then you can save about 10KB RAM (no FPU emulation library).
The programs will run on all graphic boards from Hercules up to the newest PCI
accelerator cards with many MBs of VRAM. Nevertheless only the text mode will
be used. Someone asked me for a WINDOWS version? Just run a DOS box - if there
will be PCs without any DOS emulation in the future (next century?), then I'll
start thinking about a non-DOS version of my software.
The only software which is required by the programs from the 4P package is the
good old DOS. You will need a version 3.3 or newer. I checked the programs on
MS-DOS versions 5/6.x and on some DR-/Novell-DOS systems. If you have trouble
with any system software, then contact me, please!
I do not recommend running my software in a WINDOWS or OS/2 DOS box! I tested
these two system and found them to be incompatible to my software. These newer
systems have their own memory managers included in their kernels, not allowing
some special processor instructions due to the fact, that these systems mostly
run in the virtual mode of an 80x86 processor.
If you nevertheless try to run INFO or STAT in a DOS box, then you will get an
error message and the DOS box will be closed (without any other problems). You
can try this without getting into trouble or loosing data. The STAT program is
able to run inside a Windows DOS box since v3.2.0.
I also tried to run my program in the Linux DOS box. Because Linux is a stable
and secure operating system, it does not allow most of the things, I'd like to
test. Therefore most of my programs cause the Linux DOS box to be destroyed. I
am about to write some software which will allow to run the programs under the
Linux operating system in a future version. (For now I included a test for the
DOSEMU, which will stop the programs when you run them under Linux.)
3. the INFO program
====================
There are two different versions of the INFO program: one before march, 20th,
1995 and another one after this date. The older versions have revision numbers
like 2.x.x and the newer versions have 3.x.x or later.
Nevertheless all new versions will include the latest INFO2 program due to the
fact that it is useful even today. The older versions will only have a summary
of single blue screens showing the results of the tests. The newer v3 INFO has
a nice Turbo-Vision desktop and an integrated on-line help.
Both versions include a built-in self-test which is started after you runned a
INFO program. This self-test protects you against getting a virus-infected co-
py of my software and it protects my software against debugging too.
The older INFO program versions support some command line parameters which are
shown after the program start, but before doing any tests. You may read them,
stop INFO by pressing the [ESC] key an run it again with parameters. It is not
useful to describe the parameters here, because INFO tells you, what they will
do (or not) - don't worry - it's very easy to use them!
If you're running one of the following systems, then you should use the listed
parameters to protect the actual DOS session against crashing, if you test one
of the older INFO versions (means: execute INFO2 from INFO v3.x.x):
DOS without any EMM - INFO2.EXE [/R] [/C] - this is true real mode
DOS with its EMM386 - INFO2.EXE /P - use this on iPentium
DOS with its EMM386 - INFO2.EXE - use this on iPentiumPro
Novell DOS 7 EMM386 - INFO2.EXE /P /M - use this on iPentium
Novell DOS 7 EMM386 - INFO2.EXE /M - use this on iPentiumPro
DOS with QEMM v7.04 - INFO2.EXE - supports the iPentium
DOS with QEMM v7.04 - INFO2.EXE - supports the iPentiumPro
DOS with 386MAX v7 - INFO2.EXE /P - use this on iPentium
DOS with 386MAX v7 - INFO2.EXE - use this on iPentiumPro
WINDOWS 3.1 DOS box - INFO2.EXE /P /M - no iPentium support
WINDOWS 95 DOS box - INFO2.EXE - /P /M is assumed by INFO2
OS/2 DOS box - INFO2.EXE /D /T /P /M - not a good DOS box...
The triple fault reset tests and the cache switch will be performed only, if a
parameter /R and/or /C is specified, due to the fact, that they are not compa-
tible with all mainboard or BIOS versions and with all processors. The CPU-re-
set will sometimes enable the internal caches - I do not correct this! Another
little problem is getting the EFLAGS register value after the processor reset,
because the first instruction must disable all interrupts. So the 'IF' bit may
bet set to zero or one - it seems to be impossible to get the correct value.
If the RDTSC instruction for reading the value of the Time Stamp Counter on an
iPentium processor is disabled, then INFO2 trys to read the Model Specific Re-
gister #10h instead, which contains the TSC on all iPentiums and iPentiumPros,
as on clones, like the AMD K5 family.
4. the STAT program
====================
The STAT program did not changed its character since the first version. It's a
very hard task to make this program better. If you run STAT and you use an EMM
memo