Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!ut-sally!husc6!think!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!ICASE.ARPA!csrobe From: csrobe@ICASE.ARPA (Charles S. Roberson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: RE: fast multi-sector floppy I/O with interrupts (question) Message-ID: <8707211216.AA01884@work1.icase> Date: Tue, 21-Jul-87 08:16:23 EDT Article-I.D.: work1.8707211216.AA01884 Posted: Tue Jul 21 08:16:23 1987 Date-Received: Wed, 22-Jul-87 07:22:41 EDT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Distribution: world Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 45 >From: mcvax!philmds!nlgvax!johan@seismo.css.gov (Johan Stevenson) >Subject: fast multi-sector floppy I/O with interrupts (question) >To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu > >To speed up I see the following options: > > - improve the driver, so that the interrupt caused by the first sector > is in time to start the transfer of the second sector > > - use a non-standard floppy disk formatter that gives physically > consecutive sectors the following relative sector numbers: > 1, 6, 2, 7, 3, 8, 4, 9, 5 > > - perform the same trick as above in the driver itself Johan- Have you seen the Summer Edition of STart magazine (and/or the Spring edition). David Small used the "non-standard" TWISTER file format to speed up access times and increase disk capacity. This was presented in the Spring issue. Well, in the summer issue they have an alert box about a minor bug, and they say the Atari is "adopting the twister file format" [a very loose recall from memory.] This may solve some of your problems (i.e. The format will no-longer be "non-standard".) Now, I haven't seen any official words on this other than the magazine, but I never had a reason to doubt the magazine. Their reputation is solid. If you can't get a copy of the magazine, let me know and I will photocopy the article and the alert box and SMAIL to to you. Good luck and i eagerly await MINIX ( I have the book, now i'm waiting for the movie). PS. How hard would it be to put a graphic interface around MINIX? If you have ever worked with SUN Workstations, that is what I'm looking for...A nice big screen with bitmapped graphics and *NIX! -chip -------------------------------------------------------------------- Chip Roberson ARPANET: csrobe@icase.arpa 1105 London Company Way BITNET: $csrobe$wmmvs.bitnet Williamsburg, VA 23185 UUCP: ...!seismo!gmu90x!wmcs!csrobe -------------------------------------------------------------------- "No matter where you go, there you are!" --Buckaroo Bonzai