On 4/13/05, Peter da Silva <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I developed software on an Amiga 1000 with two floppies, and it was fine. > > Boot up. Load a minimal system into RRD:, reboot into the RAMdisk, now > you've got two floppies to use. > > Running from two floppies I had DMCS, Sculpt-3d, the compiler, and a > terminal program all chugging along. It was a FAR more productive > environment for me than a 7600/180 running OS 8 or OS 9. More responsive, > too, since the OS was inherently multitasking rather than having every > application pass control on when it was good-and-ready.
Well, I bow to your knowledge and wisdom. I never saw an Amiga setup as finely-tuned as that. > Disk I/O was a problem because there were single-threaded botlenecks in > the I/O subsystems. They could have multithreaded or maintained a request > queue in DOS... but the system got killed before they got that far. > > This was also a problem in other early microkernels and why the single-server > model Mac OS X uses caught on. You can get better response with a pure > microkernel but you have to make DAMN sure there's no critical path that > can block on a single thread. >From my minimal experience of such things, conceded. It was a long time - early C21 with a well-specced machine running W2K/OS X - before either my PCs or Macs could be usefully used while formatting a floppy, for example, or while doing intensive disk access. > > Yes, an Amiga could do all the cool multitasking and so on running > > from floppies, but so could a PC if you had the patience of a rock. > > No, a PC couldn't, not in any PC operating system available in the '80s. Desqview 386 on a v5/v6 DOS? Xenix did pretty well too, under heavy load, but not running from floppies, no. -- Liam Proven Home: http://welcome.to/liamsweb * Blog: http://lproven.livejournal.com AOL, Yahoo UK: liamproven * ICQ: 73187508 * MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Compact Macs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/>. Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Compact Macs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/compact.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:compact.macs@mail.maclaunch.com> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/compact.macs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- iPod Accessories for Less at 1-800-iPOD.COM Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal www.1800ipod.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
