UltraSpeed Plus OS / Operating System / commercial
From: Michael Current (aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 05/15/92-06:26:47 PM Z
From: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
Subject: UltraSpeed Plus OS / Operating System / commercial
Date: Fri May 15 18:26:47 1992
Reprinted from the Pandora BBS (614)-471-9209
UltraSpeed Plus OS
by Jeff Kyle
Do you use an expanded 1050 or an XF551? Do you have more than 64K? Do you use
a translator often? If so, or even if not, then you need the UltraSpeed+ OS
package from Computer Software Services (CSS), sold for $69.95.
The US+ OS is a collection of 3 OSs for your XL or XE machine. It contains the
standard XL/XE OS, the UltraSpeed+ (US+) OS, and the XL-Fix+ OS (XLF+).
The XLF+ OS is an OS that is as compatable as is possible with the 400/800 OS.
This lets you use all the programs that would normally require a translator by
just flipping to the XLF+ OS. By the OS being ROM, it is also possible to use
400/800 cartridges that normal translators can't handle.
Some commercial programs won't work with a ROM-resident translator, though. An
example of this is the older Electronic Arts programs. However, by booting up
and holding down SHIFT, the OS will be copied to RAM as if it were a standard
disk-based translator, allowing these programs to run also.
Also included in the XLF+ OS is a built-in Mach Ten Menu and writer. This is a
program like the public domain Fenders that will load and run binary files from
disk. When you boot up with SELECT held down, you'll enter it. It will let you
load any of the first 22 files on a disk, get a directory from any drive, and
write out a shorter form of Mach Ten menu to the disk. The shorter version will
only let you load files from drive one.
The OS also reverses the standard use of OPTION, in other words, to enable
Basic, hold down OPTION, to disable Basic, don't hold down OPTION. It also
speeds up the keyboard response.
The UltraSpeed+ OS is much more. However, all cassette routines, the 1200XL
function key routines, RAM and ROM check at bootup, the international character
set, and the relocating handler routines have been erased to make room for more
features. You'll probably never need them, but if you do, just switch down to
the standard OS.
If you have a high-speed drive, the US+ OS will automatically enable the high
speed on 1050s with a Super Archiver, Happy Enhancement, US Doubler, Duplicator,
Klone, and Density Doubler, or the unmodified XF551 drive. If you have one of
those drives and are not using the high speed, this alone is worth the price of
the OS. Now you can use UltraSpeed with any unprotected disk you own, and use it
in any DOS you use. This allows you to do things like take an Infocom adventure
and copy it to a high-speed formatted disk and run it in high speed, speeding up
the disk access by approximately 3X. Once you've used UltraSpeed for a while,
you'll never go back.
The OS also gives you flexible command over the high speed. Pressing SELECT-
OPTION will disable the high speed, and START-OPTION will reenable it. Also,
holding SHIFT or SELECT when formatting will format the disk in standard slow
skew instead of high speed skew.
If you've expanded your XL or XE to 256K or beyond, the US+ OS will
automatically configure your RAM as a standard, configurable single or double
density disk. The nice thing about this is being able to have a standard
RAMdisk, compatable with anything. It's easy to format it and write out DOS to
it, so whenever you want DOS, you can boot from RAM. Also, it is set up to use
the standard 130XE 128K RAM banks last. What this means is that, if you have
320K or more, you can have a full RAMdisk and run a program that uses 128K (such
as Video Blitz, 130XE Koala Viewers, AtariWriter Plus, etc) without worrying
about damaging anything in RAM.
As in the XLF+ OS, the US+ OS reverses the OPTION key, speeds up the keyboard
response, and darkens the background color. However, now you may change some of
these along with doing some of the things the 1200XL owners could do with their
function keys with your US+ OS, by using CONTROL-n or SHIFT-CONTROL-n. This is
what you can do:CONTROL-8 will lock or unlock your keyboard, in case you don't
want people messing with it. CONTROL-9 will toggle the internal Basic. This
command only goes into effect upon RESET. CONTROL-0 will restore the normal
background colors and slow cursor. SHIFT-CONTROL-0 will turn them back. SHIFT-
CONTROL-7 will toggle the disk I/O noise on and off. SHIFT-CONTROL-8 will turn
the screen DMA off, speeding up most processes by 30% or so. Any other key will
reenable it, preferable SHIFT-CONTROL-A, which causes no character. SHIFT-
CONTROL-9 toggles the keyboard click.
There are other custom keyboard functions with the US+ OS:one is the
modification to press SHIFT-CONTROL-Clear instead of SHIFT or CONTROL-Clear to
clear the screen. The only problem is that with Action!, SHIFT-CONTROL-Clear
will normally bring you to the left side of the screen. This will no longer work
in the OS. If you need it, just flip to the standard XL/XE OS, then switch back
after you've used the key.
Also, you may now press CONTROL-4, 5, 6, 7 as well the CONTROL--, =, +, and *
to move the cursor up, down, left, and right. Also, by pressing CONTROL-Caps,
you not only can use the normal graphics characters, but also use the cursor
keys without holding down CONTROL.
By either pressing HELP-RESET or pressing SHIFT-ESC then pressing RESET, you
can force a cold start of the computer. This is useful when you've got important
files in the RAMdisk and the computer won't let you RESET out from a program
normally.
One powerful feature of the OS is it's ability to reconfigure drives for
different numbers and boot from any drive, including RAMdisk. When you hold down
START after a RESET (warm or cold start), you'll enter a menu that has lists
drive 1-9 and what each is assigned as. Normally, they are all assigned to
themselves, except drive 4 which is normally RAMdisk. Say you wanted drive 4 to
be drive 1 and drive 1 to be drive 4. You'd press RESET and START. You then
press C for configure, enter the original drive (1), then the drive you want it
to be (4). Then you repeat the procedure for drive 4. It's that easy!
With this menu, you can also change your RAMdisk number just with R for
RAMdisk, then enter whatever drive you want it to be.
Also built into the menu is a small sector copier, mainly for drive-to-RAMdisk
or RAMdisk-to-drive copying. It will read the density, format the destination in
the density, and copy the disk a sector at a time. If you want, you can do
normal drive-to-drive copies, but because of the one-at-a-time approach, it
won't be as fast as a standard sector copier.
If you've entered the menu from a coldstart, you may also temporarily boot from
any drive, just by pressing the drive number. This will swap the drives. By
pressing SHIFT-CONTROL-6, you can "unswap" the drives and restore the drives to
the original configuration. This won't reset everything, it just swaps back the
drive you booted from. For instance, if you booted from drive 3, you could still
use drive 1 if you referred to it as drive 3. Pressing SHIFT-CONTROL-6 will
reset it so that drive 3 is drive 3 again and drive 1 is drive 1 again.
Occasionally in the standard OS, an OSS "supercartridge" can be ignored due to
it's bank selecting. The US+ OS sends a command to "wake it up" to eliminate
this problem.
You can also easily install an external switch to swap the RAMdisk and drive 1.
With this switch, you can make RAMdisk drive 1 at any time.
Unfortunately, if you use SpartaDOS, the reconfiguring will have no effect due
to it's using custom routines, bypassing the OS. Also the Virtuoso player will
always go to the "real" drive 1 instead of whatever is configured as drive 1.
Also SpartaDOS will not boot from RAMdisk, allow the keyboard functions (without
a KEY OFF command), or allow high speed with the XF551 drive. But if you MUST
use this DOS, it is easily modifiable with a built-in patch called by a simple
USR command that will modify SpartaDOS to allow these things.
The new OS has removed the standard Self-Test routines and put in a RAM check
supporting up to two megabytes. This is also the FASTest RAM checker I've ever
seen. Also, in the same vien, the US+ OS frees up pin 17 on the PIA for easier
one-and two-meg upgrades. Doing so will disable the self test and the standard
XL/XE OS, but it will work.
Before the OS, there was a problem is you turned your machine off and back on
very quickly, because of the way the high-density RAM chips retain their memory
for a few seconds after the loss of power. With the new OS, this problem has
been eliminated.
The US+ OS also supports a seperately sold RAMdisk write protect switch which
will protect either your RAMdisk memory or all of the extended memory from
writes.
The documentation that comes with the OS is satisfactory. It explains all the
functions in detail with many examples. It explains the functions and the
installation completely. It would be nice if it told more of the technical
information, but it is better than most information that comes with other custom
OSs.
Installation? I can't really say about the difficulty as I had mine installed
by the author. But looking through the instructions, mainly it should be easy on
the 800XL. On the XEs, most of the time the OS is not socketed in, but soldered
in. If it is soldered in, you must desolder the OS, which requires a bit of
soldering skill. Other than that, it is mainly soldering a few wires to some of
the chips, plus drilling a 1/4" hole for the 3-position switch to switch between
the OSs.
And that's the OS! I have found very few compatability problems, but when they
do arise, it's as easy as switching back to the regular XL/XE OS. Having all the
special functions available is handy, as well as being able to boot from RAM.
However, there have been problems when switching from the standard XL/XE OS to
the XL Fix+ OS. Becuase of different locations, switching can occasionally make
a program point to an something that can screw up your RAMdisk. This is rare,
but it is a good idea to back up your RAMdisk before just jumping into the XLF+
OS.
Other than that, I've had very few problems with the OS. It works as stated,
and the keyboard functions work with most programs. At $69.95, it's a great buy.
So if you'd like high speed with your drive, better RAMdisk control, or just
plain more power over your computer, don't wait. Buy this OS!
--
Michael Current, Cleveland Free-Net 8-bit Atari SIGOp -->> go atari8 <<--
The Cleveland Free-Net Atari SIG is the Central Atari Information Network
Internet: currentm@carleton.edu / UUCP: ...!umn-cs!ccnfld!currentm
BITNET: currentm%carleton.edu@{interbit} / Cleveland Free-Net: aa700
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