Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    Hi Don!
    
    I think you need the "patch" for Transformer, to make it work with
    extra memory under 1.2.  I think it's call PSTransformer (may be
    PSTRANS.ARC?) and it should be around the Enet somewhere.  Let me
    know if you can't find it...
    
    -Kip

    Trans V1.2 works okay on V1.3 WB too! And, it works just fine on
    my Amiga 2000. BTW, if you don't have the drives setup correctly
    using the utility they supply, the Transformer and MS-DOS software
    won't boot up correctly. You will get a guru.
    
    There is also a way to set the Transformer up so that drive C: and
    D: format as standard 720K+ IBM drives rather than the default
    320K. C: and D: basically are phantom drives for devices DF0: and
    DF1:
    
    Anyway to get Transformer to recognize a hard drive?

    
    Yup, with the PSTransformer, I have had Transformer running on my
    A2000, even with the CMI 16 MHz Processor Accelerator.  Works just
    fine.  However, IBM drive A: wants to be Amy drive df1: and IBM
    drive B: wants to be df0: which is funny since I configured it opposite
    of that with SETATPREFS.
    
    Anyway, it does work.
    
    Ed.

    Any benchmarks for us Ed RE: the CMI board?
    
    How much? How fast?
    

    
    Do you mean Transformer benchmarks or just increases in general?
    
    It's a little hard for me to benchmark.  This is because my CMI
    board would only work when I hardwired it to high speed.
    
    There are two jumpers on the board; one selects hardware or software
    speed control, the other selects an A500/2000 or an A1000.
    
    The board I received will not allow the machine to boot at low speed,
    so I have it jumpered to high.  As a result, I can't software toggle
    the speed.  I'm at 14 MHz all the time.
    
    CMI has acknowkledged some problems in early boards with various
    flavors of expansion memory.  They are promising a trade as soon
    as they can sort out all the various combinations of hardware that
    are giving problems.
    
    I see an average speedup of 10-20%, with spurts of up to 40%.  F/18
    runs a bit smoother, but it may be my imagination.
    
    The CMI board is a good investment if only for the math socket.
    12 MHz 68881s are around $60 these days.
    
    Programs that seem to scream are X-Cad, MaxiPlan, ProWrite, and
    PixMate.  The image processing functions really go.
    
    All in all, not a bad investment for $169 (the Software Shop), and
    I've had this math chip sitting around for a while.
    
    Ed.

    I've got the same problem as in .0  When ever I start to load in
    MS-DOS I get gurus of 8.00C01570, the machine is an A2000 witth
    2 3.5 in disk drives.  The local repair center came up empty handed,
    so if it's hardware I'll have to find it by swapping parts with a
    friend's machine (His run TRANSFORMER ok).
    
    Does anybody know what this guru address mean or what TRANSFORMER
    is trying to do when it died at that address?
    
    Don

    re: .6
    
    it means that the Transformer was written to run on 512K, KS 1.1
    Amiga 1000s.  The new version from Commodore, available in theory
    from your Amiga dealer in exchange for your official Transformer
    disk, is supposed to run on Amiga 500s.  It should also run on A2000s
    with the newer keyboard (not the one with the small function keys).
    
    The other alternative is that PSTransformer mentioned in previous
    notes that patches the Transformer to fix some problems: like teaching
    it about fast memory and KS 1.2.
    
    -Dave

    I fall into that group that needs MS-DOS compatibility on my A500 a
    VERY SMALL percent of the time.  I'd buy the Transformer (preferably
    WITHOUT the 5�" drive) if I could, but I've had to settle for acquiring
    a copy by "other means".
    
    With one exception, it does EXACTLY what I want and isn't unduly slow. 
    That exception is access to my Star SG-15 printer, which works just
    fine from the Amiga environment using the Epson MX driver.  From within
    MS-DOS (and I've tried two different releases thereof), I get a message
    "Write fault on PRN" (or words to that effect) when I use ^P to cause
    echoing of the keyboard/screen dialog to the printer or when I execute
    a program that wants to open the printer for output.  COPY and PRINT
    work sometimes, but I get doubled characters on the page.
    
    The same effect occurs under both Transactor and PSTransactor, which
    worked fine on the A1000 from which I obtained them.  Does anyone have
    an idea where to look?  (For that matter, I'd settle for an easy way to
    assign PRN: to an MS-DOS disk file so I could print the output from the
    Amiga environment.  The application isn't smart enough to do so.)
    
    General comment:  I'm sure glad I don't have to live or die by MS-DOS! 
    If it weren't for my need to run my wife's test generation application,
    I'd be happy to forget the whole thing.

    re .8:
    Try hunting in CSCMAS::SYS$MSDOS:[PRINTER]
    LPT2DSK.ARC and LPTX700.ARC seem to be standard ways of redirecting
    printer output to a disk file under MS-DOS.
    
    dennis
    

    Re .9:
    
    Thanks muchly.