-read.me                                                  8/18/86

                   TurboROM Version 3.4 Notes



Since  the release of the TurboROM in November 1985,  there  have 
been  a number of changes and additions to this product.   A full 
description  of  these changes and  additions,  plus  details  of 
accessory   software  is  contained  in  a  TurboROM   newsletter 
available  from  Plu*Perfect Systems.  A summary of the  TurboROM 
information is listed below.

The  currrent  version of the TurboROM  is  3.4.  Prior  versions 
distributed were 2.6,  2.9 and 3.0.   New features of the current 
ROM:

1.   Provision  for integrating external device  drivers  -- e.g. 
     MicroSphere and SWP ramdisks.

2.   Support for more formats in MultiCopy's TURBOSET.

3.   "Skipmap" patch that greatly accelerates warm boots for hard 
     disk systems that are using Plu*Perfect's CP/M enhancements. 

4.   New version of MAKTURBO to automatically install the skipmap 
     patch.

5.   New  version of TURBOMAP that indicates the type  of  floppy 
     drive  (48  or 96TPI) and has support for the  new  external 
     device drivers.
  
6.   Changes  to the Advent RAM disk driver that results in  more 
     efficient file storage for RAM disks larger than 1 Mb.

"Bugs" fixed by the current ROM:

1.   Bug  fix  for '83 Kaypros with hard disk drives.   This  bug 
     only  appeared when using the ADVFMT hard disk formatter  on 
     unformatted hard disk drives.

2.   A  quirk  in  some of the floppy disk controller  chips  re-
     sulting in periodic floppy disk write errors.   This problem 
     is not very common; we have seen it in less than 5 Kaypros.

3.   Fix  to  the WordStar patches supplied  with  the  TurboROM.  
     Early versions of the WSKEY patches tended to break WordStar 
     3.3's Run command ("R" at the opening menu).

4.   The ZCPR1 command processor was re-assembled.  Control char-
     acters  are  echoed to the screen during error  messages  to 
     match the behavior of Digital Research's CCP.



                     SPEEDING UP DISK RESETS
               WITH TurboROM AND P*PS ENHANCEMENTS



Purpose:

The  CP/M operating system disk reset function causes the alloca-
tion  table for drive A and the currently logged in drive  to  be 
rebuilt.  For  a large hard disk with many blocks this can take a 
substantial amount of time making the system appear very sluggish 
during warm boots. The SKIPMAP.REL patch on this disk allows this 
shortcoming  of  CP/M to be removed for those who have  both  the 
TurboROM and Plu*Perfect Systems operating system enhancements. 


Installation:

The  MAKTURBO.COM  utility  included  with the  3.4  (and  later) 
versions  of the TurboROM will automatically install the  skipmap 
patch  (SKIPMAP.REL)  during  the  initial  construction  of  the 
TurboROM  operating (TURBOSYS.PRL) system if  Plu*Perfect's  CP/M 
Enhancements  are detected.  If the skipmap patch is not desired, 
the SKIPMAP.REL file must be modified with a text editor and  all 
but  the  last  line ";0000000000" of the file  must  be  deleted 
before running the MAKTURBO.COM utility.


How it Works:
The  Advent  TurboROM reserves the high bit of the first byte  of 
the extended DPH as a flag which specifies whether the allocation 
table  of this drive requires rebuilding.   The  ROM  initializes 
this so that all drives require building.  Only those drives with 
a  zero length checksum vector are assumed to have non  removable 
media  and only these are candidates for avoiding the  rebuilding 
of  the allocation table.   Drive A is a special case as the must 
still be scanned for the occurrence of '$$$.SUB', this process is 
still considerably faster than actually rebuilding the vector.
 
The skipmap patches are internal to the CP/M BDOS but require the 
space   available  as  a result of the installation of  the  P*PS 
enhancements.  

CAVEAT:

     Any  program  which  plays tricks with  the  allocation  map 
     should   ALWAYS  reset the high bit of the extended  DPH  so 
     that the allocation will be forced to  rebuild.  Plu*Perfect 
     Systems utilities  such as PUTDS (version 1.2 and later) and 
     PUTBG  (to  be  released)  always do this.  If you  are  un-
     familiar  with the extended DPH  please refer to  the  notes 
     available on the TurboROM developers support disk.   

     The  public  domain utility,  DUPEUSER,  is an example of  a 
     program  that can result in messing up the  allocation  map.  
     DUPEUSER  creates  multiple directory entries for a file  so 
     that  it  "appears" in several user areas  without  actually 
     making  multiple copies of the file.   If DUPEUSER  is  used 
     create a set of "duplicate" files and one of the "duplicate" 
     files  is  erased  then the space allocated to  all  of  the 
     "duplicates" will be lost (as well as the data).


TURBORST.COM

The  utility  program,  TURBORST.COM,  is provided to  force  the 
rebuilding of the allocation maps.   As an example,  TURBORST can 
be  used  to prevent the loss of data that can occur  when  using 
DUPEUSER  by  running  the  TURBORST  utility  IMMEDIATELY  after 
erasing  any of the duplicates created by DUPEUSER.   The use  of 
TURBORST  will  force  the  re-building  of  the  allocation  map 
ensuring  that  the  space  (and  the  data)  allocated  to   the 
"duplicate" files will not be lost.



                     TurboROM Support Disks


We  have  a several disks available to  support  TurboROM  users.  
Much  of the information of contained on the diskettes are avail-
able from Kaypro bulletin boards and CompuServe.   The disks  can 
also  be  obtained from Plu*Perfect Systems or  Advent  Products, 
Inc.


The following is a brief description of each diskette:


1.   Developer's  Diskette 

     Software notes and tools for writing programs for the Turbo-
     ROM.  Source code for the TurboROM BIOS,  ZCPR1 source code, 
     hard  disk  parking  program,  Warm Boot speed  up  patches, 
     XON/XOFF  printer  driver,   etc.   Notes  on  the  internal 
     structure  of the TurboROM and suggestions on how to  select 
     and install hard disk drives.


2.   Applications Patch Diskette

     Menu-driven  program to modify "U-ROM" application  programs 
     for  compatibility  with the  TurboROM.  Also,  patches  for 
     AUTOMITE, MASMENU, and FASTBACK.  Source code included.


3.   External Driver Diskette

     Software  notes and tools to write external drivers for  3.4 
     and  later  TurboROM.   Includes drivers for SWP and  Micro-
     Sphere RAM disks.


4.   RAMDisk Utility Diskette
 
     CHGDISK utility to dynamically modify the block size, number 
     of directory entries, and reserved tracks used by the Advent 
     RAM Disk running with the TurboROM.
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