Changes to v2.3 (09/11/95) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Fixed problem with multi-os.device reading some floppys. Made it work with DELL high density drives. * Enabled serial support. You should now be able to use modems and serial printers with the emulation. * New uuibios.library. * Corrected problem with multiple memory nodes. * Added more hardware setup (required on some systems that do not reset properly). ************************************************************************** Changes to v2.2 (08/15/95) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Fixed several problems with emulated instructions. * New empser.device. Attempted to help out with 230.4K connections. * New uuibios.library. * Corrected problem with some applications identifying the CPU type improperly. All applications that look at the CPU ID and Step should report the CPU to be a 586 compatible. * Re-wrote interrupt handlers. All interrupts are handled by native code. * Corrected a few problems with PC MMU emulation. * Added a new environment variable for empdisc.device. Along with 'CD_Control', we have added 'CD_Type'. Some discs have both MAC and PC formats. Currently, empdisc.device trys to find HFS (MAC) format first. So, if a disc has two formats, you would not normally be able to see the PC compatible files. By setting the environment variable to "PC", all HFS (MAC format) data disc files are ignored. The syntax for the set environment is: SetEnv CD_Type "PC" Place this line somewhere in your startup-sequence (like after 'SetEnv CD_Control "xxxx.device'). Remember, the quotation marks ("") are REQUIRED. If you do not set the environment variable, then empdisc.device will look for HFS format first, then ISO9660 format. * Fixed a problem with multi-os.device. If a single sector was accessed and it had an error, the error was not returned. * New VGA video driver. Improved speed with 16 color graphics (such as used with Windows). Faster text out routines. Added graphic text for modes $0D-$13. Added clear screen routines for modes $0D-$13. * New AGA specific video driver. You can have one of three monitor modes supported with a new environment variable 'PC_Video'. This driver will not show up in the available video drivers list if you do not have an AGA capable machine! The three possible modes are: MULTISYNC - For use with Multisync monitors. Give best overall video sizes and depths. VGAONLY - For use with 31.5Khz (VGA only) monitors. No mode will drop into the NTSC (15Khz) range. NTSC - For use with 15Khz monitors. The syntax for the set environment is: SetEnv PC_Video "MULTISYNC" If you do not setup an environment variable, then NTSC will be used as the default type. You will NOT be able to use this driver (VGAVideoAGA) with mode (Pause)...More(y/n/ns)? ns promotion to video boards!! * New keyboard handler. Corrects problems with stack overflow problems on really slow machines. * New mouse handlers. Added BUS MOUSE support. If you do NOT enable the mouse support in the BIOS setup, then BUS MOUSE type of mouse support is enabled. If you DO enable the mouse support in the BIOS setup, then PS/2 type of mouse support is enabled. We HIGHLY recommend NOT enabling the mouse support in the BIOS setup (therefore using BUS MOUSE). The BUS MOUSE generates fewer interrupts and will result in very smooth mouse movement when used with Windows and other programs that use graphical mouse pointers. You WILL need a MOUSE driver. With DOS 6.2 and later, MSMOUSE is included. This is MicroSoft's mouse driver. This driver will automatically detect BUS MOUSE or PS/2 MOUSE setups. * Made audio hardware-level instead of device level. The priority is set low enough that MOD players and such can steal channels away from the emulation. Using low-level hardware techniques greatly improves the performance of PC speaker sounds. * Added Turbo feature. Some machines have memory that is so slow that things can get bogged down to the point of hanging an application (stock A4000s with 80ns+ memory are prone to having this problem). Three different CPU Turbo modes are available: Turbo Off - Normal operation. Turbo Level 1 - may increase the speed of the emulation in REAL mode and will definately increase the speed in PROTECTED mode. Turbo Level 2 - less performance in REAL mode and optimal performance in PROTECTED mode. It is recommended that machines with slow memory or 68020 processors always use this mode. You lose no compatibility by using Turbo mode, however, some things may not appear to be as smooth as with Turbo 'Off'. Windows runs in PROTECTED mode, so using a Turbo Level 1 (good) or Turbo Level 2 (best) will speed things up quite a bit. DOS4GW games (DOOM, DOOM II, Dark Forces, etc.) all run in PROTECTED mode. Using Turbo Level 2 will make these games many times faster. Games like Wolf3D run in REAL mode and will run slower with Turbo Level 1 or Turbo Level 2. Use Turbo Off. ************************************************************************** Changes to v2.1 (06/12/95) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Corrected problem with hard drive size limitation... however... ALL AMIGADOS PARTITIONS *MUST* BE RE-FORMATTED AND SETUP. Unfortunately, there is no way around this. HardFiles still work as before.. this effects ONLY standard partitions. You can create a HardFile, backup your existing partition(s) using the older (v2.0) software, install this new version, setup the partition, and then restore the original files from the HardFile to the newly setup partition. Yes, it is a pain, but there is no way to implement the new (better) code without this hassle. * New empdisc.device. Due to various problems with users trying to setup a controlling SCSI device with empdisc.device, things have changed to make it easier. In your s:startup-sequence, locate the line 'BindDrivers' and add the following line BEFORE it. setenv CD_Control "xxxx.device" ...where the "xxxx.device" is the name of your SCSI controller's device driver. Examples would be: setenv CD_Control "warpdrive.device" ...for WARP Engine boards setenv CD_Control "gvpscsi.device" ...for GVP SCSI controllers setenv CD_Control "IVS_SCSI.device" ...for IVS SCSI controllers setenv CD_Control "scsi.device" ...for CBM SCSI controllers It is VERY IMPORTANT that you put double-quote ("") marks around the device name. * Added parallel port (printer) support. You can now print under DOS and Windows, including PostScript (requires appropriate printer driver software for the PC side). * New uuibios.library. Added enhanced support for CD-ROM drives. When using EMPCDROM.SYS (our PC sided CD-ROM driver), the I: option is no longer required. If you do not specify a controlling SCSI device driver, the default driver setup with the SETENV (see above) will be used. This allows SCSI device drivers that have names that are both upper and lower case to work. Unless you want to deliberately over-ride the default controlling SCSI device driver, we recommend that you omit the I: option. * New EMPANSI.SYS. Corrected a problem with ANSI color sequences. * New EMPCDROM.SYS. Added support for using default SCSI device driver when the I: option is not used. * Corrected problems with EMM386. MemMaker works properly now. If you can help it, do not use EMM386. There is NO advantage of using it other than having slightly more standard memory. The speed of the emulation will drop to 30% of the normal speed when the PC's MMU is enabled. We are going to start using the Amiga's MMU to emulate the PC's MMU, which will return the speed back to normal (but that *will* require a machine with an MMU). * Seperated MMU and protected mode code. Any application running in protected mode (DOOM, DARK FORCES, WOLF3D, etc.) will run faster than before. * Corrected interrupt swamping problem. Those that had 'Internal Stack Overflow' messages should be thrilled. :-) ************************************************************************** Changes to v2.0 (05/22/95) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Complete rewrite (port) of emulation based on PowerPC version. * Enhanced VGA support. * New FPU-less version called, "e586SX". If you don't have an FPU in your Amiga, you *must* use this version. * Removed 238mb hard drive partition size limit. You should be able to use partitions in excess of 1 gig. ************************************************************************** Changes to v1.1 (03/14/95) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Forced CMOS settings to reflect current system setup. This allows auto- matic setup of all BIOS functions (including MOUSE support). * Added checking for devices that should not be used as virtual hard drives (e.g. anything controlled by mfm.device, multidos, messydos, etc.). * Corrected potential problems with crashing... some configurations would crash due to the routines used to compress the main emulation file. No more compression is used, and we suggest that you do NOT compress the main emulation file (this can cause severe memory fragmentation)!