PicLan - Networking for Pick
(C) Copyright 1990-1998 Modular Software Corporation. All rights reserved.
Version 2.0.0.17 - February 28, 1998
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- UPBOARD
- This section deals with the PicLan for UPBOARD implementation only.
The PL-UPBRD.EXE DOS executable program is used to make DOS network device drivers available to the UPBOARD Pick Operating System. It must be executed in place of the UPBOARD.EXE program that is supplied with the UPBOARD operating system. Actually, the PL-UPBRD.EXE program is a small driver that then shells the original UPBOARD.EXE program. The format of the PL-UPBRD.EXE program is:
PL-UPBRD {PicLan options} UPBOARD {UPBOARD options}
UPBOARD options include /ex for extended memory, etc. They are described in the UPBOARD documentation.
PicLan PL-UPBRD.EXE options are used primarily to setup network connection control blocks and buffers. Each PicLan connection, whether a terminal session or a file-transfer or printing function, requires a connection control block and connection buffer space. Connection buffer space is further divided into inbound and outbound buffer space. The PL-UPBRD.EXE program defaults to the following space allocations:
- 8 terminal user connections.
- 4 file transfer, printing, and server poll connections.
- 128 bytes of inbound buffer for terminals (typeahead area).
- 1024 bytes of outbound buffer for terminals.
- 1024 bytes of inbound and outbound buffers for transfers.
- PicLan buffers in real (640K) memory.
These default values will produce good performance for systems with up to 8 terminal users (attaching to 8 ports) and up to 3 file transfer and remote printer concurrent users. If your installation is larger than this, you will need to specify the following options when you execute the PL-UPBRD.EXE program.
/mt=## MaxTerm - Change the number of terminal connection control blocks to the number specified. Minimum is 1 and maximum is 128.
/mx=## MaxXfr - Change the number of transfer connection control blocks to the number specified. Minimum is 1 and maximum is 128.
A maximum of 256 total control blocks is allowed.
When you establish a connection control block with these options, the PL-UPBRD.EXE program will allocate space (memory) for the control block, and will also allocate buffer space for that control block to utilize. Within the 640K DOS memory area, a number of program must load and allocate memory. These program include:
- DOS itself
- Device drivers such as HIMEM.SYS, DOS Disk Cache programs, Mouse Drivers, EMS Drivers, Network drivers, etc.
- The PL-UPBRD.EXE program.
- Control block and buffer space the PL-UPBRD.EXE allocates.
- The UPBOARD.EXE program
- Other device drivers that UPBOARD.EXE uses.
- Control blocks and buffer space that UPBOARD.EXE allocates.
It is possible (even likely) that allocating the maximum number of connection control blocks within PicLan will use up enough memory that the UPBOARD.EXE program will not have enough room to run. Even if you reduce the number of connections somewhat, the UPBOARD.EXE program may not have enough memory to run efficiently (when the UPBOARD.EXE program is low on memory, it cannot allocate and use as much extended or expanded memory disk cache). If is for these reasons that you should conserve DOS memory. You should take the following steps when you are executing with large numbers of PicLan connections with the Sanyo/Icon UPBOARD:
- Only allocate the number of terminal and transfer connections necessary for your configuration. Extra connections only waste memory.
- Do not increase the buffer size on connections if there are many allocated. Increasing the buffers size on terminal connections rarely helps performance. Increasing the buffer size on transfer connections can help performance somewhat but memory is precious.
If you are running low on memory, the UPBOARD may allocate less disk cache buffer memory than you would expect. If you think this is the case, try running the UPBOARD.EXE program without the PL-UPBRD.EXE driver and see how much disk cache memory is utilized. If the amounts differ, consider the following guidelines:
- The UPBOARD requires 8 K of DOS memory to manage 1 Megabyte of disk cache memory. If you have insufficient DOS memory, less disk cache memory will be managed.
- The UPBOARD's use of disk cache memory is much less important to Pick system performance than is disk cache memory on R83 Pick. If the UPBOARD cannot access 8 Megabytes of disk cache memory with PL-UPBRD.EXE loaded and only uses 3 Megabytes instead, this is probably not a problem.
If you believe that you are still running into memory problems, you may wish to configure your system to make the maximum amount of DOS memory available to PL-UPBRD.EXE and UPBOARD.EXE.
- Use MS-DOS 5.0 or 6.0 and load DOS "high".
- Run Pick on an 80386-based system and use the DOS 5 LOADHI function to load device drivers (such as network drivers) into "high RAM".
- Buy QEMM or 386^MAX (two DOS 386 memory managers) and use their functions to optimize your system's memory usage by loading devices into "high RAM"
- Use QEMM's VIDRAM function to map DOS RAM into memory areas normally occupied by video graphics display memory. This can add 64 K to 96 K additions memory to the 640K DOS memory area.
- Avoid loading DOS device drivers that you do not need.
Unfortunately, all of these suggestions are not compatible or practical with all systems so you may have to experiment with them to find the mix that works best. Remember, the UPBOARD implementation is a DOS program on the host PC first, and you can use most DOS memory enhancement methods with good success. Also remember that you have a host PC that has more hardware installed into it than the norm, so you must be careful to configure memory management software so that it recognizes the hardware that you have added (network cards and co-processor board) and does not conflict with the hardware's memory addressing (shared board memory).
The PL-UPBRD.EXE program can optionally use Expanded or Extended memory for PicLan control block and communications buffers. The advantages of using this type of memory are:
- Large amounts can be allocated without using up 640K DOS memory.
- The UPBOARD.EXE program will have more DOS memory for it's data structures.
Disadvantages to using Expanded or Extended memory are:
- Expanded Memory is slower than 640K memory.
- Extended Memory is much slower than 640K memory.
- Incompatibilities and stability problems can be encountered with various combinations of PL-UPBRD.EXE, UPBOARD.EXE, memory managers, network drivers, etc.
If you wish the PL-UPBRD.EXE program to allocate it's communications buffer and control block memory in expanded memory, add one of the following command-line options to the PL-UBPRD.EXE command:
/exp - Use Expanded Memory
/ext - Use Extended Memory
It is highly recommended that use of Expanded or Extended memory be thoroughly tested on your installation before allowing live users to use the system.
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