RAMDISK SOFTWARE DOCUMENTATION
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     SWP's Ramdisk software is an extremely useful added  feature
of the CO-POWER-88.  This  package allows  the memory of the 8088
to be utilized as a high speed simulated  disk drive for CP/M 2.2
applications.  The ramdisk is not available when running  CP/M-86
or  MSDOS,  since all the memory in the 8088 is being used by the
operating systems in these situations.

     To load the ramdisk software, simply type 'RAMDISK' while in
the  command mode of CP/M.  If you have been running CP/M-86  or
MSDOS  prior  to  this time,  it may  be necessary to  reset  the
computer  and re-boot CP/M 2.2 in order to get the CO-POWER-88 to
reinitialize itself properly.  In any case,  the first thing that
the ramdisk software does after loading is to  display  a  signon
message  and then issue a series of prompts for the various user-
definable parameters of the program.  These are described in  the
following sections.

USER DEFINABLE PARAMETERS ...

1. Drivename (A thru P) to assign to ramdisk .............

    The  ramdisk  may  be installed with any of the  16  possible
drive ID's allowed in CP/M, including one already taken by one of
the 'real' disk drives in your system.  If you assign the ramdisk
to a currently existing drivename, then that drive and any others
above  it are simply 'moved up' one place alphabetically and  the
ramdisk is 'inserted' in the place of the old drive. For example,
in a system with two floppy disks configured to be drives A:  and
B:,  if  you assign the ramdisk as B:  then the  floppy  normally
known as B: will thereafter respond as drive C:.  This process of
drivename reassignment  is done purely in  software and in no way
requires  any  of the physical disk drive select hardware  to  be
changed.

    If you assign the ramdisk to be drive A:  another interesting
thing  happens  besides  all the drivenames being  moved  up  one
place. The ramdisk also has a copy of your currently running CP/M
operating system written on it, so that all future warmboots (the
thing  the computer does when you type control-C) are  done  from
the  ramdisk,  instead of from the normal drive A:.  This greatly
speeds  up normal operation and frees you from always  having  to
keep a 'sysgened' disk in physical drive A:.

2. Erase contents of ramdisk file directory (Y/N ?) .......






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    The  file directory of a CP/M disk must be initialized  to  a
known  state before the disk can be used.  Floppy disk formatting
programs usually do this for floppies, and a similar process must
be performed on the ramdisk.  Answer yes to this prompt  whenever
you are loading the software for the first time since powering up
the computer, or  whenever you load the  ramdisk after previously
running  CP/M-86  or MSDOS.  The directory can  be  left  intact
however,  if  you  need to reload  the ramdisk  software  without
losing any of the data in the 8088's memory. This situation could
arise if you needed to get out of a lock-up situation by pressing
the computer's reset button,  or if you crashed the system with a
whiz bang new program that wasn't quite debugged.

3. Ramdisk driver load address or <CR> to use default .....

   This prompt allows you to define where in the Z80's memory the
ramdisk driver will be loaded.  Use the default option if you  do
not  know  the location of any free space in high memory for  the
software to use.   In  this  case  the  ramdisk  driver  will  be
automatically   relocated  just  below  CP/M's  console   command
processor,  and  the  size  of  the TPA  (free  memory  for  user
programs) will be reduced by 3k bytes to make room.

    If  you  cannot tolerate the loss of 3k from the TPA, a place
for  the  ramdisk driver can usually be created by  generating  a
smaller  CP/M  system  using the utility  programs  'MOVCPM'  and
'SYSGEN'.  The precise operation of these programs varies between
manufacturers,  so please consult your system's documentation  on
how  to  generate a new CP/M system.  Having done that,  you  can
specify  the address of a 1k byte block of memory starting on  an
even 256 byte boundary as the load address of the ramdisk driver.
This address is specified in hexadecimal notation.

4. CO-POWER-88 port address or <CR> to use default .......

     The CO-POWER-88 board communicates with the Z80 processor in
your  computer  through a pair of  jumper-selectable  I/O  ports.
The  ramdisk software for each of the computers supported by  SWP
has  been  set for the correct address for that machine,  so  you
will  usually  respond to this last prompt by typing  a  carriage
return.  If  you  are  using  a CO-POWER-88  in  a  computer  not
specifically  supported by us,  you will need enter the  starting
address of the two ports being used.  The input is in hexadecimal
with valid values ranging from 0 to FE.

    The  I/O port addresses are defined by 4 jumpers on the small
daughter  board  included in the  CO-POWER-88  board  set.  These
jumpers  allow us to define the value of the upper 4 bits of  the
port   address  being  decoded.   The  lower  4  bits  are  fixed
permanently as 1110 ('E' in hexadecimal).  This gives 16 possible
sets  of port addresses in the form 0E,  1E, 2E etc. through  FE.
Some  custom daughter  boards may have hardwired  port  addresses
with values other than these.

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SHORTHAND NOTATION ...

     An  alternate  form of entering the 4  parameters  described
above  has  been  provided to streamline loading of  the  ramdisk
software. It is  possible to include the values for  all  of  the
parameters  on the CP/M command line when running the RAMDISK.COM
file.  Simply type a space after the word RAMDISK and then  enter
the parameters separated  by commas.  If the list of values given
is  shorter than 4,  or if two commas in a row are entered,  then
the default value is taken for the undefined value(s).

For example, the following CP/M command:

A>RAMDISK A,N

has  the  effect  of installing ramdisk  as  drive  A:  with  the
directory not erased, using the default load address and I/O port
setting.

This command;

A>RAMDISK B,,FC00

has  the  effect  of  installing ramdisk as  drive  B:  with  the
directory erased,  but loading the software in the top 1k of  Z80
memory starting at FC00 hex.

One final shorthand command form is possible, namely:

A>RAMDISK *

which  has  the  same effect as typing carriage return to  all  4
prompts.  This  gives  the  default  value  for  drivename  (M:),
directory treatment (erased),  load address (automatic relocation
below  the  CCP)  and port address (FE for  most  machines).  The
default values for all user definable parameters are contained in
a block at the start of the RAMDISK.COM file. These values may be
changed  without notice in versions of the  software  distributed
for special machines or applications.

WHEN THINGS GO WRONG ...

     After  loading,  displaying the signon message  and  getting
input  from either the command buffer or direct from the  console
keyboard,  the ramdisk software will take a moment to communicate
with  the 8088 processor and then exit back to CP/M.  Upon exit a
summary of the settings assigned for drivename,  directory  fill,
load address and port number is displayed. If you get to here you
are  in business,  otherwise some kind of error condition exists.
Most  of  the time this is due to invalid input  data.  When  the
program  cannot make sense of what you typed in the direct  input
mode,  the  prompt  is  simply reissued  and the  input  must  be
repeated.  If  the data was all included on the command  line  as

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described  in  the  previous section,  then  the  program  simply
displays the following message and terminates:

*** invalid parameter in command line ***

     Here  is  the  current list of errors that will get  you  in
trouble in this respect.

a) Drivename outside the range A through P.
b) Response other than Y,N or <CR> to directory fill prompt.
c) Load address not valid hexadecimal,  that is not composed  of
   the digits 0 through 9 or A through F.
d) Load  address  below  BIOS start or  not  on  even  256  byte
   boundary.
e) I/O port address not valid hexadecimal.
f) I/O port address greater than FE hex.

    A  couple  of other conditions may exist that  will  make  it
impossible to load the ramdisk software.  One possibility is that
the  I/O  port  address for the CO-POWER-88 board is  not  really
correct for the actual system being used.  It is also possible to
get the 8088 stuck in a situation where it will not  respond.  In
both cases you will get the following error message:

*** cannot load, 8088 does not respond ***

If  you  see this message,  you should check to see that you  are
using  the right I/O port address for your system,  and that  the
CO-POWER-88 is correctly connected to the computer.  After  doing
that,  press the Z80's reset button,  reboot CP/M and try running
RAMDISK.COM again. Some computers do not have a reset pushbutton,
in which case it will be necessary to turn the power off and back
on again to reset everything.  (The TRS80 model 1 and the Osborne
are two machines that do not have a true hardware reset button.)

    Another  error can occur when using ramdisk as logical  drive
A:.  In  this case the ramdisk software must locate your copy  of
CP/M  in  memory  and  transfer  it to the  ramdisk  for  use  by
subsequent warm boots.  A special mechanism called a CRC check is
used  by  the  software to insure that a valid copy  of  CP/M  is
present  in memory.  If this check fails to verify,  you will see
the following message:

*** not standard CP/M system, cannot load ***

If this happens you will not be able to use the ramdisk as  drive
A:  unless  you  can find what is causing the CRC  to  fail.  The
most likely causes are listed below:

a) The operating system is not CP/M version 2.2,  but rather some
   look alike such as CDOS, TPM, TurboDOS, CP/M+ or MP/M. Consult
   SWP on the availablity of ramdisk software for these systems.


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b) The operating system is CP/M 2.2 but the code has been altered
   in some way for use on your machine. Also call SWP for help.
c) The operating environment of your system has been altered  by
   an  applications program that was run previously.  Any program
   that alters the BIOS jump table or the BDOS vector at  location
   5  should  be loaded after you load the  ramdisk  driver,  not
   before.  Even  if  you reverse the load sequence there may  be
   some  such  programs  that will not  work  with  the  ramdisk.

HOW TO USE THE RAMDISK ...

     The  answer to this question is quite simple.  Just use  the
ramdisk as you would any other disk drive. There is no difference
except  that  floppies (or even some hard disks) are lots  slower
than ramdisk.  You may want to use PIP or some similar file  copy
program  to load the ramdisk up with programs or data files prior
to  starting  work.  Then these programs will run at  many  times
their  usual speed (assuming they are heavily dependent  on  disk
I/O).  At  the  end  of a run,  you will need to do  the  reverse
process,  that  is,  copy any updated files off the ramdisk  onto
permanent media.  Remember that the ramdisk data will be lost  if
the  system loses power or if you switch from running ramdisk  to
running CP/M-86 or MSDOS!






























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                     RAMDISK SETUP TUTORIAL

The SWP RAM disk software is a very powerful tool when used with
the CP/M 2.2 operating system. The following is a suggestion of
how you might use the RAM disk in your daily operation.

A>PIP SETUP.SUB=CON:
RAMDISK D
PIP D:=PGM.COM
PIP D:=*.DAT
D:
PGM
A:PIP A:=D:*.DAT
(type)Control Z(to exit PIP)

     The above example will build you a SUBMIT file that sets up
the RAM disk as drive D:, copies your program from A: to D:,
copies your data files to drive D:, transfers control to D: and
executes your program. The program will now access the data at
the speed of RAM and speed up your operation. When you exit your
program, the remainder of the SUBMIT file will save your data
files to a real disk. To execute the above program, perform the
following instructions.

A>SUBMIT SETUP

     If you're as lazy at the keyboard as I am, you might try
renaming SUBMIT.COM to DO.COM. This will allow you to do the
program by typing:

A>DO SETUP

     The above operation can be performed as any disk drive,
except  drive 'A'. If you try to setup the RAM disk from your
SUBMIT file as drive 'A' the SUBMIT program will stop
functioning. You can over ride this by deleting the 'RAMDISK A'
portion of the SUBMIT file and performing the following commands:

A>RAMDISK A
A>DO SETUP

     Do not forget to change all 'A' disk commands to 'B' in your
SUBMIT file. After 'RAMDISK A' is executed the real disk drives
will be renamed to 'B' and 'C'.


                 Good luck and happy computing.


















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