6386 memory question -- 384k - I want it!

[John Breeden]

In article <1990Apr13.044707.20088 at usenet.ins.cwru.edu> david at cwlim.INS.CWRU.Edu () writes:
>the 640 and 1024 is marked as "dedicated."  This drives me nuts!  I just bought
>QEMM's 386 memory manager, wanting to use one of its features to load TSR's
>and device drivers into "hi memory"  This being that mysterious 384k.
>The problem is these AT&T's ROM appear to not allow ANY use of the 384k.
>I have heard mixed opinions of what he 384 is being used for, but I don't
>want it to do what it is doing.  I want it!  I need to be able to load
>TSR's and possibly drivers into this 384k.  Can anyone offer any suggestions,
>or is this just impossible?

I have a 6386 at the office and have been running QEMM (4.0, 4.01 and 5.0). It
maps available memory above 640k just fine. I can't really tell from your
posting, but you may be under the impression that you should have ALL 386k
available for himem loading, that's not the case. Most of that 384k is dedi-
ated to system ROM and video - it leaves as i recall a 64k and 32k mappable
hi-memeory regions available, the rest IS dedicated and can't be used (this
seems to be a fairly typical amount of mappable hi ram available for '386s,
I've installed it in 386s other than AT&T and always got more or less the 
same amount available - the limitation on amount of available RAM is not
caused by the hard-wired shadowing of the 6386 - it's just typical of 386s
in general).

As I recall, my config.sys entry is "device=qemm ram rom", that freed up 
the two chunks of memory. If you have an EGA or VGA and don't use graphics,
you can use the exclude switch to grab parts of the unused video memory but
if you do LOTS 'O testing should be done otherwise REALLY WEIRD results
can occure. Sorry I can't be more specific, I'm doing this from home. my
'386 is at work.

>I have a hand full of machines with >>1 Meg.  If anyone can recommend a
>program to load TSR's and possibly drivers into the memory above 1024k,
>I would also appreciate the suggestions.  My Qemm program doesn't appear to
>have this capability, just the load into 384 option.
>

As far as I know, a program must be written to run in expanded memory to 
do this - I've never seen anything that allows a non-expanded program to
load and run in expanded memory - but then I thought Sony Walkman would
never sell either :-)

BTW, the LOADHI trick that QEMM uses dosn't load programs into expanded
memory - it's really loading and running the programs in the first meg
of memory - the HIGH end - not expanded.

-- 
 John Robert Breeden, 
 netcom!jbreeden at apple.com, apple!netcom!jbreeden, ATTMAIL:!jbreeden
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 "The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose 
  from. If you don't like any of them, you just wait for next year's 
  model."