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				SpeedyPar 43.1 
	   ========================================================
			  Copyright © 1997 Dave Jones
			Copyright © 2002 Jess Sosnoski
			      All rights reserved
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		    GiftWare - Please send me **anything!**
	   --------------------------------------------------------


		Project taken over by Jess Sosnoski 2002 v43.1

	   --------------------------------------------------------

******
NOTES:
******

Do *NOT* use the included printer.device with OS3.5+, however, you
can, however use the faster parallel.device :)

Note from Jess:
I haven't modified the included printer.device.  It is 

*************
Distribution:
*************
It is forbidden to include this on a magazine coverdisk without first
writing to us to make sure you include the latest version, and also,
We want a copy of the magazine featuring SpeedyPar.
No other limitations are implied on distribution.


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Requirements
************
- Any Amiga with a 68020 or higher CPU
- A printer. (Parallel comms may also be speeded up)


***********
BackGround:
***********

ArtSer,  v34Serialdevice,  8n1,  New8n1, etc.  etc, blah blah blah..  So many
people  have optimised the serial device to hell and back, but why has no-one
thought of rewriting the parallel port driver?

The  only  attempt of rewriting the parallel.device was FastPar (Available at
aminet:hard/drivr/FastPAR1_0.lha)  by Christian Stieber.  This however took a
different approach to the standard device, in that it used polling instead of
interrupts.   (For  plus  &  minus  sides  to  this  argument see the FastPar
documentation)

The printer.device has only seen one non-CBM rewrite.
(Available from aminet:text/print/prt42_50.lha)

SpeedyPar is my own rewrite of these two devices.
Based upon the highest version CBM devices available to me.

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INSTALLATION
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Simply copy the included parallel.device and printer.device to DEVS:
(Remember, if you have OS3.5+, do NOT copy the printer device.

****
FAQ:
****
 Why doesn't it speed up my...

  Printer:
	Dot-matrix  /  bubblejet  printers will probably still take the same
	length  of time to print a page of text/graphics, but it'll use less
	CPU  time,  which  means you can get on with doing something else at
	greater speed.  Plus also you're saving some bytes of diskspace ;-)
	You  may notice some speedup however if you use some sort of printer
	buffer device.

	Laser  printer  users however, may notice some speedup, as they work
	in a completely different way.  As the data is transferred into it's
	buffer quicker, it will print quicker.

  Sampler:
	Most sampler software accesses the parallel port using hardware
	registers,  completely  bypassing the parallel.device, which means I
	never  get  to  know  about  it.  There's no way I can speed this up
	without rewriting the sampler software.

  Parnet/Other parallel network:
	Probably  the  same reason as the sampler, I know Parnet uses direct
	hardware access, but don't know about others.  I'm considering doing
	a parnet rewrite.

********
History:
********

v43.0
 beta 1: Release date 15-8-97
	- First version, just an optimised version of the devices.

 beta 2: Release date 4-10-97
	-  Converted  all  but  one  routine  to  use  inline register-based
	   function calls instead of stack based.
 beta 3: Release date 14-11-97
	- Removed some push/pops that were unneeded.


V43.1	Project taken over by Jess Sosnoski.
	Did a bunch of assembly optimizations, code alignment, deleted
	useless code, and did a bit of inlining.

V43.2	Major bugfixes (it works now..hehe..), more little optimizations,
	code cleanup.

**************
Contact Stuff:
**************

 SNAIL:
	   Dave Jones.
	40,Heol Edward Lewis,
	   Gelligaer,
	   Hengoed,
	   Mid Glamorgan,
	   Cf82 8ej,
	   South Wales,
	   United Kingdom.


	Jess Sosnoski
	651 Hillside Drive
	Mount Carmel, PA 17851-2463
	USA

	Include postage if you require a reply. If you are just requesting an
	update, then I will hold onto your postage until the next release is
	ready. If you are not residing in the Uk, then just send two extra
	disks as payment.

 EMAIL:
	starblaz@ptdprolog.net (use this address)

  WWW:
	http://home.ptd.net/~starblaz