Ian,
On Mon, Jun 12, 2000, at 09:28 PM, you wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> > RAM, I was not saying that I was expecting that I would achieve more
> > Graphics RAM, I was referring to the idea that, instead of everything
> > being loaded into Graphics RAM, until it burst, that some could be
> > off-loaded to a disk file and later accessed, as room permitted, or
---- snip ----
> Hm, ok. In principle, what you are talking about *is* virtual ram, as
> I'm sure you realise by asking the question. :) Unfortunately, the
> chip ram is accessed by DMA hardware as well as the cpu. In order for
> VM to work, the cpu has an MMU which effectively "knows" the ram image
> is on disk, enabling you to load it before you need it. The DMA
> hardware has no such facility so the info has to be there all along.:(
>
> However, for moderate resolution and colour depth, 2 megs is a fair
> amount of memory. Much of the data that gets put in chip ram is not
> actually required to be there, and it is this that quickly causes the
> loss. It's there because the Blitter chip can be used to transfer it
> around without the intervention of the cpu. On slower machines this
> is fast. On faster machines, the cpu can actually do it faster than
> the Blitter. This is why FBlit works. If the software was correctly
> programmed enough to indicate that the data was not for direct
> display, FBlit will stuff it in fast ram instead. When the Blitter
---- snip ----
> I do recall, a long while ago, a program (on Aminet?) which tried to
> track all memory allocation made by a program and you could manually
> swap the whole lot in and out to disk, chipram included. May be worth
> looking into, but I recall it was rather unreliable.
>
> Uh, no-one's said it yet, but its only a matter of time before
> somebody points out (correctly) that, if you can justify your proposed
> purchase, a real gfx card is infinitely better than any other
> workaround. :-/
>
> Cheers,
>
> Ian
> ===
I accept all you have graciously and in-detail explained; and, I do
understand this. My purpose for posing the question, in the first place,
was for a general idea of how Chip/Graphics RAM is used. According to
a number of messages, on this list, several who have stated a problem of
the sort I mentioned, also do have gfx cards. My understanding of how
the gfx cards work does not necessary avoid the crashing I read about
and experienced. If I am wrong, I apologize, in advance, but if I am
correct, what can be done? I intend to upgrade my A3000 with a PPC
board with either 040 or 060 with more than 50 megs (ideally, 128 megs),
gfx card with at least two megs.
Any thoughts on my ideas? I do hope I am not totally "out to lunch"
on this one.
Julian.
--------------------------------------------------------
"When you need to manage your time, manage your workers, organize the
workflow, determine how to store what you need, or use a computer (from
advising you on your computing needs to programming to training people
how to properly use the computer and the programs and computer files),
contact me. Remember, when you need things to work the right way, the
first time, contact me."
Julian Aronowitz. Tel.: (718) 654-1681; E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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