Caluser2000 wrote on 2020-06-07, 20:24:
Jo22 wrote on 2020-06-07, 08:11:
PC/GEOS can use EMS, too, not just XMS. Definitely worth testing, IMHO. (-> Makes me wish PCem/86Box had EMS support in PC/XT machine modes!)
640K is not ideal for doing real work or running multiple programs, I think. That's why EMS was created in first place, after all.. 😁
You mean like writing a business letter, creating a victor graphic, creating a banner, playing Tetris, using the calculator windowed? Oh and have a background wall paper. Try that on Win 3.0 with 640k of ram on a XT class system and it will explode.
Yes. Personally, in DOS, I often ran out of conventional memory with the more demanding type of software.
- When working with painting programs, such as Easel in Win 2.x (GIFs at 640x480@256 and higer res).
- Loading complex technical drawings in AutoSketch for DOS
- Writing large programs (QuickBasic 4.5 vs. PDS Basic 7 with EMS)
- Playing MOD files with more than 8 channels
With EMS/XMS available, all these things worked rather well.
With EMS, AutoSketch 3.0, for example, could display extremely complex graphics in huge (!) resolutions (HD).
To give an idea, have a look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6e3FzI9Tuw
Anyway, my point wasn't whether or not something it possible.
Or that Windows 3.x was more useful than PC/GEOS.
I simply meant that EMS can be quite useful, esp. in XTs.
From my understanding, both Windows and PC/GEOS do benefit from free memory that's contiguous (in a logical rather than a physical sense).
Unlike XMS, EMS also has the advantage that it can map any memory into the page frame (akin to using pointers), it doesn't need to copy memory back and forth each time.
That means, that memory in EMS isn't "fragmented" in the same way it is in XMS (the EMS manager hides the real/physical "mess").
If there wasn't a bottleneck (ISA bus if using EMS boards), it could be less stressing to the PC than "real" memory even (conventional, XMS).
Anyway, I'm speaking under correction here. If something is wrong (to err is human), anyone feel free to correct.
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