Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    How much was that card??  Supra's ads claim that they have memory
    cards which will fit in the scsi controller case.  Have you considered
    that??  Is anyone out there using supra memory expansions with their
    supra drives?? I would be very interested in hearing what they think...
    
    brad

    FIXHUNK will cure your problem. Just about every program that utilizes
    Amiga graphics needs to be FIXHUNKed for them to work on an expanded
    memory system.

    two things:
    
    re. .2 
    	I don't agree that "Just about every program that utilizes
    Amiga graphics needs to be FIXHUNKed for them to work on an expanded
    memory system."  I recently ran the Sublogic flight simulator, which
    ran fine, and then rebooted my workbench without powering down,
    and vd0: (ASDG's recoverable ram disk) was still intact.  
    
    re. .0
    	I get the impression that you expected the 1 Meg add-on to expand
    chip ram.  Only "plug in the front" 256k ram expansion boxes can
    expand chip ram; "slap on the side" boxes add to fast ram only.
    Your window resizing problem is due to Intuition's inability to
    acquire memory for the operation, which is needed for temporary
    rasters, etc. (could someone more astute elaborate?).
    

    >>    I get the impression that you expected the 1 Meg add-on to expand
    >>chip ram.  Only "plug in the front" 256k ram expansion boxes can
    >>expand chip ram; "slap on the side" boxes add to fast ram only.
    >>Your window resizing problem is due to Intuition's inability to
    >>acquire memory for the operation, which is needed for temporary
    >>rasters, etc. (could someone more astute elaborate?).
           I understand the differences between chip and fast ram and
    that there are only enough address lines in the custom chips to
    use 512K.  I was stating that after 256K or so of chip ram being
    used the machine wouldn't even resize a window.  I don't understand
    why it did that.  I also noticed that when I did use close to 512K
    of chip ram and tried to do something else, the machine did not
    put up a requester saying out of memory.  Instead it crashed.
    
    	I will try the fixhunk on my programs that use graphics.  Thanks.
    
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    	Gotta keep smiling so I don't get angry enough to put the
            machine in the blender.   :-> :-> :-> :-> :->
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------

    First of all, very few programs need to be churned through 'FIXHUNK'
    to run properly.  Some early efforts (notably Textcraft) were not
    properly 'ATOMIZED'.  FIXHUNK merely does what the programmer should
    have done in the first place.
    
    Developers who read their documents properly should have been well 
    aware of the differences between CHIP and FAST ram.  In fact, in
    the past nine or ten months, I have only encountered one new title
    that was not properly atomized (the first release of Faery Tale
    Adventure), and the publisher fixed the problem immediately.
    
    I strongly suggest that there is something wrong with either your
    Amiga or your AMega board.  I have been using a 2 meg Starboard
    for about nine or ten months, and honest, I hardly ever guru my
    machine these days.  Really, I run for weeks with heavy multitasking
    and never crash!
    
    There have been many complaints on the nets of defects in the design
    and manufacture of the AMega.  C Ltd promplty blamed CBM for using
    faulty PAL chips on the expansion buss, but every other manufacturer's
    buss add-ons seem to work fine.  I personally know of over a dozen
    users of the MicroBotics StarBoard, and a half dozen or so who use
    the Starboard with ANOTHER device on the buss.  No problems on either
    old or new Amigas.
    
    I'd really suggest you try to trade in for a higher quality product
    like the Starboard or the Alegra (if you don't need pass through).
    
    This issue went back and forth on USEnet, Plink and CIS, and the
    problems always seemed to have one common denominator... C Ltd's
    AMega board.

    Out of curiosity, I tried rinning the 'ROBO CITY' demo when I got
    home; it definately needs to be fixhunked... this is understandable,
    since ROBO was about the first demo ever done for the Amiga, which
    makes it over two years old, long before the expansion buss was
    even fully defined.
    
    I maintain my earlier stance; I challenge anyone to name five
    commercial products that need to be FIXHUNKED to run properly.
    
    As to running out of CHIP ram, some programs may still not follow
    the rules of ettiquette needed to function in the Amiga environment.
    The first commandment is 'Thou shalt give back a resource when finished
    with it'.  Many early demos and PD hacks refuse to give up CHIP
    ram.  These programs are also generally inconsiderate enough to pass
    a message to the OS warning it that it is out of memory.
    
    If you can be specific about exactly which processes you were running,
    I (and others) can try to duplicate the same tasks.  If we can all
    pull it off, then that would be a strong hint of a hardware problem
    (most likely in the AMega).
    
    My intent is not to make derogatory remarks about the AMega; C Ltd
    has shown nothing but extraordinary support to the Amiga community.
    But the record will show that they have a real history of problems.
    
    Ed.

I agree with Ed in .6.  Chip versus Fast memory allocation problems
are pretty much a thing of the past.  They only crop up when you run
really old software.  Even almost all of the public domain stuff that
has come out in the last few months makes the proper distinction
between chip and fast memory.

By the way, I have never seen RoboCity (well, I saw the stills in the
original Amiga article in Byte).  Any kind soul willing to upload it?

    
    re: .1
    
    I have a Supra 4x4 20mb Drive and before buying I had asked about
    how to upgrade the controller to 4mb of RAM (as advertised).  They
    indicated that Supra sells the upgrade for $349 a megabyte and they
    believe that the drive may be upgraded by mearly plugging in 1mb
    DRAMs into empty sockets on the motherboard.
    
    I liked this because I don't depend on any third-party hardware
    company to stay in business very long and I don't like the idea
    of having to buy some sort of Supra-specific (npi) daughter-board
    before plugging in more memory chips... Also, the Supra controller
    is powered off of the Wini...
    
    I will get around to cracking the case on the controller card one
    of these days and will check out the pc board to make sure...
    
    -Tom