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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:AMIGA NOTES
Notice:Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:HYDRA::MOORE
Created:Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5378
Total number of notes:38326

3256.0. "Available Memory and Mountlist" by CADSYS::KOSLOW (Doug Koslow,HL02-1/G11,DTN 225-6377) Fri Dec 22 1989 12:54

Hi fellow Amiga lovers,

I have recently purchased a 2000HD.  (Yeah!)

However, I may have a problem.  I am a little concerned about the
available memory I have after the machine starts up.  After
everything loads, I only have about 725K of memory available.
(Using the AVAIL command I do see that I have 1MB of total
memory.) After clicking open a few icons, I'm down to 675K.

I thought I bought a 1MB machine!

I added a slew of AVAIL commands to my startup-sequence to see
where the memory was being eaten up.  At the beginning of the
startup-sequence, I have about 900K of memory.  So, AmigaDos
seems to be taking 100K.  The big hit appears to be the mounting
of the hard disk partitions.  After that occurs, I'm all the way
down to 780K.

I checked out the MOUNTLIST file, and the each buffer size was
set at 50! According to my Amiga Companion book, this is
multiplied by .5K to figure the actual buffer size.  So, for my 2
partitions I was using 50K of memory.  I changed both buffer sizes
to 25 and I did save 25K of memory, but I'm still left with only
750K available after startup.

Is there something wrong with my Amiga or my setup? Do other
2000HD users experience the same memory usage?

- Doug
T.RTitleUserPersonal
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3256.11 meg on a hard drive system is not enoughCSC32::K_APPLEMANFri Dec 22 1989 14:0737
    Don't worry.  Available memory in the range of 750K is normal for hard
    drive systems with 2 partitions.  As you noted, the buffers for each
    partition take up a sizeble chunck of memory by themselves.  
    
    Memory is consumed by the system at boot time by many different
    processes.  First are the buffers for all disk drives and partitions. 
    You will find that at the start of your startup-sequence file, there is
    an AddBuffers command that will reserve memory for df0:. This value
    should be fairly small.  You will also notice that in the startupII
    file, certain AmigaDos commands are made "Resident" in memory.  You
    might want to check to be sure that they are removing these commands
    from memory if you really or concerned about total memory availible.
    
    Probably the biggest user of memory is Intuition which is basically the
    WorkBench and its activities.  The bit-plane that the WorkBench screen
    is displayed on takes a good chunk, plus any object that is displayed
    on that screen will take up some more, the size depending on the size
    of the object (each disk drive and partition will display a disk
    object).  Also, each time a window is opened, more memory is needed to
    display the icons in the window.  The larger the window and the greater
    the number of icons, the greater the memory usage. 
    
    A machine as sophisticated as the Amiga needs plenty of memory to
    operate.  We're not talking Apple II or C-64 here.  The Amiga is a
    full-blown multi-tasking computer system.  I think the dealer that sold
    you the 2000HD did you a disservice only putting 1 meg of memory in a
    hard drive system.  1 meg is considered minimum now in just a
    bare-bones 500.  Adding a hard drive and especially a hard drive with 2
    partitions, is going to suck up enough memory that some programs won't
    run efficiently.
    
    My suggestion is to go back to the dealer and see if you can make a
    deal on another meg.  I have a 500 with an A590 hard drive and just
    upped mine to 3 meg.
    
    Ken
    
3256.22meg incrementesSALEM::LEIMBERGERTue Dec 26 1989 04:5115
    Avoid the pretty hacks also.I come from a line of A1000 deprived
    systems.Back when you only had 512k.To this day(3meg)I find myself
    avoiding programs that give eight color workbench screens etc.I
    do use virusx in my startup sequence however.Also in response to
    removing the resident commands,if you use some commands frequently
    you may want to leave them resident so they do not have to be loaded
    in by each calling program.I am not sure if you can add a meg to
    the 2500hd controller card or not.Some controllers like the GVP
    offer you the option of 2meg expansion.(never realized why until
    now)You may have to buy a ram expansion card for the 2500.At any
    rate they come 0k,and go upward in 2meg increments.I do not think
    you can add one meg at a time.My eight meg card from cbm will only
    allow 2 meg increments,and the last 4meg has to be put in all at
    once,I believe.
    							bill
3256.3TALLIS::MCAFEESteve McAfeeTue Dec 26 1989 12:348
    Hi Doug,
    
    One other thing to remember is that the system doesn't flush libraries
    until it needs the memory.  The ARP avail command allows you to
    flush them.  I don't remember offhand if CBM's avail allows you to
    do this...
    
    - steve