RAM DISK EMULATION

5.1

Chapter 5

R A M D I S K E M U L A T I O N

The MultiRam C Card can be made to look like a high capacity disk drive to DOS 3.3, ProDOS, and Apple Pascal operating systems.

After MultiRam C is setup as a RAM disk, it can be used like any disk drive except it will work many times faster since it is RAM based and has no mechanical parts. Depending upon the type of operating system and commands used, disk access times can be forty times faster than normal.

To transfer a program to a RAM disk, the program must be available on disk as an unprotected file, a file that can be cataloged using a normal, unmodified operating system. Most copy protected programs cannot be transferred to a MultiRam C RAM disk although some may be able to use the RAM disk as a fast data disk.

DOS 3. 3 RAM DISK

The MTULTIDRIVE.DOS program converts your MultiRam C Card’s memory and the 64K auxiliary memory of the //c into fast electronic disk drives for the DOS 3.3 operating system. The DOS RAil disk drive is used as up to two slot 3 disk drives.

Specifications

MultiRam C memory and the 64K auxiliary bank of the //c is allocated by the RAM disk program to provide up to two large capacity disk drives with MultiRam C’s full 512K of memory. With a 256K standard RAM configuration, the RAM disk program creates one 320K RAM disk (256K MultiRam memory + 64K //c auxiliary memory = 320K). With 256K in Bank A, 64K in Bank B, and 64K auxiliary memory on the //c, one 384K RAM disk is created. With a 512K MultiRam C, one full 384K RAM disk and one partial 192K RAM disk are crested.

Maximum RAM disk capacity

:

384K

RAM disk sizes possible

:

320K, 384K, 192K + 384K

Maximum number of drives

:

2

Sectors per track

:

32

Tracks per 64K

:

8

Maximum tracks per drive

:

48

Slot assignment

:

3

Apple 5 1/4 inch floppy drives have a total usable memory of 128K (140K total less four tracks reserved by DOS) so that MultiRam C’s full 384K disk drive is the equivalent of three standard Apple floppy disks,