PC-TASK V3.00 68020_60 Version by Steve Bolton 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 !¡ 43 Last issue went over my first impressions and initial tests of PC-Task 3, but now I've had a better chance to get used to it and run all sorts of goodies through it. So now I'll add some more to my initial review. First off, the performance. At the bottom of this review you'll find an output from a program called SysChk. I found this to be a great system information package, though the processor speed was suspiciously large considering the speed of PC-Task. Most system information programs report that the emulator was running at over 100MHz on my A4000/040 which seemed far too high considering the true working performance (responsiveness, screen refresh rates, etc) of PC-Task. SysChk reported a system throughput speed of around 3MHz but this is smaller than what PC-Task really performs but generally everything performs at the same rate as a standard 286 (16MHz) without FPU does. This may seem incredibly slow by todays standards where 486s and Pentiums at 100MHz are widely available but it is still adequate to perform work on. Screen updates in Windows is no slower than on a standard 68000 machine with 2 or 3 windows open. I've now had a good chance to use a number of IBM CDROMs with PC-Task and found I don't like IBM CDs! Why bother using CDROMs when they copy half their files onto your hard drive anyway in order to be able to use it? It's really pitiful. As for PC-Task's access of the CDROMs, it's fine. Regardless of whether you have a PC or Amiga CDROM in the drive PC-Task will still read it just the same. I've tried several cover CDs from PC magazines containing a wide variety of programs. Some of the packages claimed to require a minimum of a '386 to run but they ran (a bit slow perhaps) just fine. One major point about the initial release of PC-Task 3 is the lack of ANY sound. An undiscovered bug meant that the PC speaker sound wasn't working. That should be fixed by the time you read this and an upgrade patch will also be released into the public domain. One of the biggest markets for PC software is games and most of the latest games won't run. Even games such as Doom and TFX just won't run and those that do aren't playable enough. However games which require turns rather than real time action will be playable enough. I found some great PC role playing games on the internet which were very involved and had heaps of character actions and details, and these ran just fine. A great feature of PC-Task is that you can limit the number of bitplanes which PC-Task uses. This means that even packages with 256 colours can be run just fine on non-AGA machines, PC-Task uses dithering to simulate the extra colours. This can also be used to improve performance on unaccelerated machines. While PC-Task can't really be used for fast paced games or heavy duty software (such as sound or 3D rendering) but there are still many packages which are more than usable. Also students who have Amigas but no PC should get PC-Task and a few packages such as Windows and MS Word. To get any decent jobs these days then thorough knowledge and comfort when using these packages is a major bonus. With PC-Task you don't have to spend big bucks to get a halfway decent PC and you don't need to find a place to put the horrid thing, so this is a great value for money package. Anyone who uses a PC at work can also use PC-Task at home for occasions when they must finish off something at home. Great thanks to Quasar for the review copy. Available from Megadisc for $129. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Advanced Personal Systems SYSCHK Information Printout Sunday, Dec. 18, 1994 Version: 2.40 PROCESSOR---------------------------------------------------------------------- Model: Industrial AT 7531/2 Processor: 80286-126 MHz Coprocessor: No Extended BIOS data area: Unknown DMA Channel 3 used: No Slave 8259 Present: No Real Time Clock: No I/O Bus Type: Micro Channel SYSTEM BIOS-------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Unknown Version: Not Found Date: 02/23/92 Plug and Play support: No BIOS Extensions: (none) INPUT/OUTPUT------------------------------------------------------------------- Keyboard: 84 Key Standard Mouse Driver Installed: Microsoft 2 Button (Unknown Type) Mouse Interrupt: Unknown Mouse Version: 0.02 Game Port: No, and NOT set in BIOS Parallel Ports: 0 Serial Ports: 2 Device Base Addr. Interrupt UART COM1 3F8h IRQ ? 8250 COM2 2F8h IRQ ? 8250 HARD DISK DRIVES--------------------------------------------------------------- Disk # Tracks Heads Sectors Size CMOS Controller ------ ------ ----- ------- -------- ---- --------------- Disk 1 783 4 26 39.76 MB SCSI Unknown SCSI Adapter Disk 2 417 4 32 26.06 MB SCSI Unknown SCSI Adapter LOGICAL DRIVES----------------------------------------------------------------- Drive Total Used Free Volume Name ----- ---------- ---------- ---------- ------------ C: 39.53 MB 18.32 MB 21.21 MB MS-DOS_5 D: 25.92 MB 3.54 MB 22.37 MB CROWLEY OTHER DISK INFO---------------------------------------------------------------- Floppy Disk 1: 1.44 MB 3«" Floppy Disk 2: 720 KB 3«" Disk Cache: Microsoft SMARTDrive Version 4.0 Cache Size: 1024 KB Hits: 56 (44%) Misses: 71 VIDEO-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Active Video: VGA + Analog Color Monitor BIOS Source: No Copyright found MEMORY------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conventional Memory: 640 KB (527 KB Free) Extended Memory: 0 KB Expanded Memory: 4912 KB (4912 KB Free) EMS Version: 4.0 Page Frame: 03D7 RESIDENT PROGRAMS-------------------------------------------------------------- Lower Memory Block Mem Segmt Size Type Owner Name --------- ---- ------- ---------------------- 025C-14F6 74K Config DOS 5.0 kernel 14F7-14FB 1K Resrved DOS 5.0 kernel 14FC-1590 2K Shell COMMAND.COM 1591-1595 1K Free DOS 1596-15A6 1K Sys Env COMMAND.COM 15A7-15AB 1K Free DOS 15AC-1C35 26K TSR SMARTDRV 1C36-1C3D 1K Envnmnt SYSCHK.EXE 1C3E-9FFF 527K Free DOS Available Memory ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES---------------------------------------------------------- COMSPEC=C:\COMMAND.COM PROMPT=$p$g PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\DOS;C:\UTES1 TEMP=C:\DOS INTERRUPTS--------------------------------------------------------------------- IRQ # Active Device Name ----- ------ ------------------------------ IRQ0 Yes System Timer IRQ1 Yes Keyboard IRQ2 Yes Cascade->IRQ9 IRQ3 Yes COM2 IRQ4 Yes COM1 IRQ5 Yes Unknown IRQ6 Yes Floppy Disk Controller IRQ7 Yes Unknown IRQ8 Yes Real-Time Clock IRQ9 No IRQ2->Cascade IRQ10 No Open IRQ11 No Open IRQ12 No Open IRQ13 No Open IRQ14 No Open IRQ15 No Open WINDOWS INFORMATION------------------------------------------------------------ Windows Path: C:\WINDOWS Computer: MS-DOS System Display: VGA Mouse: Microsoft, or IBM PS/2 Keyboard: PC/XT - Type keyboard (84 keys) Language: English (American) Code Page: English (437) Network: No Network Installed Permanent Swap File Drive: No Permanent Swap Drive Permanent Swap File Size: No Permanent Swap Drive 32-bit Disk Access: Unknown Default Printer: SPEED-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Video Speed: 1155 char/sec Hard Disk 1 Seek: Immediate Seek Hard Disk 1 Transfer: 281.99 KB/Sec Transfer Rate Hard Disk 2 Seek: Immediate Seek Hard Disk 2 Transfer: 314.44 KB/Sec Transfer Rate System Throughput Speed: 2.95 MHz SysChk Rating: 62.8 SysChks CPU Clock Speed: 128 MHz    .:-=++++++++o++++=-:.   . :=++++=:.. .:-=++=+=-.   o@++: ..-=========+====------:.. .-+++=:+:   .=8@. .:==--++oO0@@##########@@08oo+==--:. -8@=   0= .+-+0######@008OOOO88000@########0Oo---: 0=   -@ +=+#####8+#O80@######################@:o.-+@   Oo+.o:@###################################oO@8:#   @-O00-####################################@O#: #-   .#.=o.o@###@+..o@##################O- :@#@+.O8 #=   :# @. -O@##0o: -0#############8-:+8@@o-. -#= @+   =# O0 ::: .=o8@@8=+@#########8o8@0O+: -:..#+= @+   =@ =88 .::: .:+o@==##@-Oo=:. .. .@#=+ #=   -# ==8@: ... :+O-.+.-#:.: 8O+. : :.@#0=+ .#-   .#: -++##o.::.:.:00O@- @. :..8O@@:-::-@##++- :#.   @+ O:####o:: ..::O@0 =#.::o@@O+-..-0####=+ o#   o0 +=O#####@O=-:. -+O0O@=-:. -.:o0@####o== 08   .#= .o:O8oooo==++=+=-.....:+OOOOo=--=-=+=-+ .#-   =@ :+O@8Oo.- . o@   o8 =#o:O+ = ..:::::...:.::::::::.:...: .#-   O8 .=O8=--:::. .. ..... .. 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