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1989-09-30
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79 lines
SHAREWARE REVIEW
PROGRAM: CACHSTAT - IBM Cache Status
AUTHOR: Jack Wright
REGISTRATION: None
WHERE FOUND: Sound of Music
RESTRICTIONS: IBM PS2s running CACHE.SYS from IBM
RATING: 9.2
VALUE: S (P)oor - (A)verage - (S)uper
There is a classification of software I like to call "nowhere ware." These
programs are made up of those select TSRs that people say you need, but
you never really know they are there, or even worse, working.
In this category are caches. You know. The programs that are supposed to
increase the speed of your hard drive, but you really can't tell. A few
people have told you that they work, so you keep devoting 64K to it and
cross your fingers.
Unravel those fingers, because you now have a program that can tell you how
your cache is performing, let you see any errors, and reset your cache.
USE: CACHSTAT is to your IBM cache what SYSID is for your system.
Information about that elusive cache is given in detail. The following
is the main screen of statistics:
CACHSTAT V1.00 JKW
Options: /e - Show top of error list. /r - Reset cache.
Getting statistics for IBMCACHE Version 1.0 ...
[stat_ptr = 0E81:0000]
100KB Cache, 4 Sectors per Page.
Total number of Read Requests so far: 425
Total number of Hits so far: 347
Cache Hit Ratio (Hits / Reads) = 81%
No. of times a DISK Read Request was actually issued: 419
Total number of sectors requested by Disk Reads: 438
Average Sectors per Read Request = 1.045346
Note that Read Requests are written to the Cache only if the number of
sectors requested at once (via INT 13) is less than twice the Page Size,
to avoid flushing the cache with large reads.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Notice that the statistics include the important percentage of hits
and reads. This is a very meaningful statistic if you track your
performance.
Another neat feature is the ability to see how many disk reads were
actually issued. You then get two ways to check you cache's showing.
The program also features a screen that details what errors have
occurred during your cache's operation. I have yet to create an error
that will show up on this report.
By far the most useful feature of the program is the ability to reset
your cache. Cleaning it off and starting again before moving to a disk
intensive application helps immensely. The only feature that would
have been nice is the ability modify any cache parameters. (I don't
even know if this is possible....)
SUMMARY: GOOD POINTS BAD POINTS
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
√ Vital ≈ Documentation
√ Information Packed
1----------5---------10:
█████████████████████
9.2
The program fills a void for IBM PS2s that use the provided cache. The
documentation should have been better composed, so as to let a naive user
understand them.
(C) 1989 Patrick Grote