A1200 stock free memory for DOS boot

[mcgeezer]

Hi all,

I'm at a cross roads as to make a decision on using a track loader or loading files with the dos library via floppy disk.

On a stock A1200 system with 2Mb chip ram, does anyone know roughly how much actual ram I would have available if I was to boot my project using a floppy with a startup-sequence etc?

or...

Point me to a utility that would give me the info?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Geezer

[ross]

Bare A1200, KS3.0, DF0 solo:
00000400 10 -10 chip memory
Attributes 0703 First 0000d0f8 Lower 00000420 Upper 00200000 Free 1939064
Largest: 00025308-001fe800,00000000,001d94f8 (1938680)

With DF1:
Attributes 0703 First 000147b0 Lower 00000420 Upper 00200000 Free 1912520
Largest: 0002bab8-001fe800,00000000,001d2d48 (1912136)

For +DF2/+DF3 subctract the same difference.

But you can gain various KB with my AddChip bootblock
(that disable DF1-DF3 and make one plane screen).

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by ross

Bare A1200, KS3.0, DF0 solo:
00000400 10 -10 chip memory
Attributes 0703 First 0000d0f8 Lower 00000420 Upper 00200000 Free 1939064
Largest: 00025308-001fe800,00000000,001d94f8 (1938680)

With DF1:
Attributes 0703 First 000147b0 Lower 00000420 Upper 00200000 Free 1912520
Largest: 0002bab8-001fe800,00000000,001d2d48 (1912136)

For +DF2/+DF3 subctract the same difference.

But you can gain various KB with my AddChip bootblock
(that disable DF1-DF3 and make one plane screen).

Excellent Ross, that’s more than i expected so i will go with a dos loader.

Geezer

[roondar]

Note it varies a bit depending on kickstart version. I tried this as well with a DF0: only environment and got 1920000-1930000 and 1950000-1960000 depending on when I called avail (before or after the CLI loaded).

Much nicer than an A500 anyway

[ross]

Originally Posted by roondar

Note it varies a bit depending on kickstart version. I tried this as well with a DF0: only environment and got 1920000-1930000 and 1950000-1960000 depending on when I called avail (before or after the CLI loaded).

Much nicer than an A500 anyway

I have been more brutal: boot without s-s, CLI, then WinUAE debugger and Tm command
It's a rough estimate, but a good one.

[mcgeezer]

I’ll be good if i have over 1700kb free.

I dont fancy writing a track loader to be honest, would comllicate things.

[redblade]

mcgeezer: Will you be reading data at the end of the level or during the level??

[mcgeezer]

Originally Posted by redblade

mcgeezer: Will you be reading data at the end of the level or during the level??

Neither really.

I'll allocate memory and then load all the compressed assets before the system shuts down, everything will then run from ram.

Most assets will be decompressed into their correct locations at run time, others such as the backgrounds will be decompressed at each sanctuary scene, these only add up to around 120Kb compressed so it's worth keeping them in ram as opposed to loading them from disk, it will probably make it easier for a WHDload too.

Geezer

[redblade]

well done. Keep up the good work