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Memory Usage
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tommytravolta
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1. Memory Usage
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Got a problem with the memory usage of OS/2 Warp4 or ECS.
I´m using an old software called Polymod2. This software has a problem accessing more the 64Megs of memory.
Means, that if I insert a 512mb Module, my Software is really slow in writing and reading from my HDD. If I reduce the memory, it speeds up.
As it is impossible to get a 64MB DDR2 Module, I´m looking for a way to let OS/2 or ECS just use 64MB, even if there is 1GB installed.
Maybe there is a way to limit it ? Config.sys ?
Maybe there is a way to limit it just for the software ?

Thanks for ANY reply !

Date: 01 Sep, 2006 on 13:36
abwillis
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2. Re:Memory Usage
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What is VirtualAddressLimit set to? If it is set to high I know that Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.1 preview from Innotek will begin to flow like molasses on a cold January morning.
I would try various settings:
I would try 1536 first as it seems the best overall setting so far from all the reports I have seen. If no help then I would rem it out, then try setting it to 512, and finally if these settings don't help I would go the other way and set it to 3072 and see if that helps (that is a setting I know will cause problems with the Adobe preview but maybe it will have the opposite affect on your program).
Date: 01 Sep, 2006 on 16:21
tommytravolta
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3. Re:Memory Usage
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Value is set to 2048, as I discovered STANDARD for ECS1.2
So I tried 1536, 512 and 3072 -->
Always the same ... Size doesn´t matter !

Any other ideas ?

Date: 01 Sep, 2006 on 17:26
Gregg
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4. Re:Memory Usage
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Have you tried loading a virtual disk and then sizing it to reduce available memory to 64 meg?
Date: 01 Sep, 2006 on 17:41
Fahrvenugen
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5. Re:Memory Usage
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Is it one of those systems where if you had the old Warp kernel then memory above 64 megs wouldn't get recognized (unless the loader got patched)? If so, you may be able to accomplish this by reverting to a really old kernel (Fixpak 1 or 2, or if you have it, the original Warp 4 kernel).

Just a thought.

Date: 01 Sep, 2006 on 18:35
tommytravolta
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6. Re:Memory Usage
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Virtualdisc was of no use, the memory allocated to the virtual disk was not taken from the main amount and therefore it remained at 1024 MB.

Older kernel is not possible because USB and harddisk drivers are needed.

Maybe there is a device driver/ virtual disk that reserves memory in a way so OS/2 doesn't "see" it anymore?

Date: 01 Sep, 2006 on 18:55
abwillis
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7. Re:Memory Usage
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tommytravolta (01 Sep, 2006 18:55):
Virtualdisc was of no use, the memory allocated to the virtual disk was not taken from the main amount and therefore it remained at 1024 MB.

Older kernel is not possible because USB and harddisk drivers are needed.

Maybe there is a device driver/ virtual disk that reserves memory in a way so OS/2 doesn't "see" it anymore?


Do you have to have the newer kernel to operate your bootdisk? If not I would suggest trying the older kernel just to see if it helps. I can't think of a reason for more memory to affect the speed of the application negatively. I could see it not working at all but I can't think of why it would slow the app.
One thing that this is reminiscent of is a problem that was eCS technical and nb2discuss. When the memory was increased from 256 to 768 the pcmcia modem quit working. It turned out that the memory and pci resources were being allocated differently. If this were the case though I would think that all the apps would have a slow down.
Andy

Date: 02 Sep, 2006 on 05:29
RobertM
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8. Re:Memory Usage
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last updated at 02 Sep, 2006 19:55 (2 times)
.
One more suggestion... if your BIOS has a memory/boot option for "OS/2" and "Non-OS/2" set it to "NON-OS/2" as the "OS/2" option is for ancient versions of OS/2 that havent been around for 15 years.

-Robert

Date: 02 Sep, 2006 on 19:54
tommytravolta
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9. Re:Memory Usage
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Well,
Older Kernel is a big problem ...
I´m using ECS1.2 but the problem was also with warp 4.5 ...
I discovered the Problem when updating from 3.XX to 4.0.
But, that was the time were 64MB Modules were no problem.
Now it´s impossible to get such a module.
As I´m in need of USB etc. I must use a newer kernel...

It´s funny, I have two 512Meg Modules installed.
If I just use one Module, my Application speeds up 100%.

Anybody got an Idea to let OS/2 or ECS know, that there are only 64MB´s installed ?

Date: 03 Sep, 2006 on 14:13
Gregg
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10. Re:Memory Usage
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If you have Virtual PC or SVista try creating a virtual machine with 64 meg of memory and installing eCS/Os2.
Date: 05 Sep, 2006 on 01:46
Fahrvenugen
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11. Re:Memory Usage
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I think part of it is that there is not any command (or setting) at least that I'm aware of which can limit OS/2's overall memory. If the program was a DOS application, sure - you can limit the memory available to a DOS session without any problem. But I've never heard of such a setting for an OS/2 application.

But then it surprises me that the application would respond the way it does. It makes me wonder if something else is going on, like in the old Pentium 1 days with those motherboards which would disable the CPU's onboard cache for no reason at all if you installed more then 64 Megs. But that wasn't an issue with OS/2 - it was (as I recall) an issue on old BIOSes...
.

Date: 05 Sep, 2006 on 03:49
phaelonimaire
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12. Re:Memory Usage
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You could always cheat and put the swapfile on a ram disk. Even if it does start hitting the swap, it'll be ram...
Date: 05 Sep, 2006 on 05:50
tommytravolta
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13. Re:Memory Usage
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Alright, thanks for all your replies ...

Here we go :

1. I tried VirtualPC yesterday. Above 64Megs, the performance is getting linear smaller when you double the ram size to 128, 256, 512, 1024 ... This is strange, < 64Megs, speed is same or a little bit slower !

2. I´ve tested some benchmarks ...
I have to explain, The software I´m using AND the software that makes the problems ... is normally a BasicInterpreter, called MemDos. It´s integrated in a MultiuserProg called Polymod2. And so I´ve written a program which measures Speed writing like a Database to
a: HDD and read it
b: RAM and count only the Entrys

Funny is, that in A everything´s like I explained and in B full Performance is there. It´s a PentiumD with 3,5GHz ...
So, I think problem must be with Ram / Hdd ?

3. I´ll try the Swap thing today ...

Date: 05 Sep, 2006 on 07:41
tommytravolta
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14. Re:Memory Usage
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Ok, tried that swapthing ...

Doesn´t matter, performance the same.
Well, that means the swapper is not interesting ...
Other Ideas ?

Date: 05 Sep, 2006 on 10:59
Fahrvenugen
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15. Re:Memory Usage
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last updated at 05 Sep, 2006 17:57 (2 times)
If I understand correctly, the problem is when you're writing to and from the HDD.

What file system are you writing to and from? FAT (hopefully not FAT, but...), FAT32, HPFS, HPFS386, or JFS?

And second, what are your file system cache settings? Also, is Lazy Write turned on or off?

If I recall correctly there was an issue with JFS where the performance slowed down on some machines when the Cache was set to larger then 64 MB. If you're running JFS (or you can try this if you're running HPFS386 too) reduce the file system cache to 64 MB (or less) and run your benchmark again. Also it might be worth trying to change the setting on the lazy-write just to see if that makes a difference.

If you're running plain old HPFS, then your maximum cache is 2 MB ( 2048 )

Also, is this an EIDE, SATA, or SCSI drive? If it is either eide or SATA, be sure you're running the Danis506.add driver instead of the ibm1s506.add. You can find the Danis driver at:

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?key=danis506&pushbutton=Search

IBM's driver is really not very good and does suffer performance issues on some systems.

Date: 05 Sep, 2006 on 17:52
tommytravolta
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16. Re:Memory Usage
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Well, I´m using hpfs and DaniS506. Runs pretty stable.
I´ve tested all settings, so speed depends on the Danis506 settings, too. BUT:
That doesn´t solve the memory problem...
I think it must be some kind of addressing problem ...
As I told before, til Warp 4 memory size didn´t matter.
Bios option for 64Megs OS/2 solved the problem. Option disabled --> Everything was ok !
But ... in later OS/2 Revisions, maybe they did an override of the old Bios Option !
Any suggestions ?

How to limit available amount of memory ...
Maybe before OS/2 starts ...

Date: 06 Sep, 2006 on 07:30
Cliffdaddy
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17. Re:Memory Usage
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Hi Tommytravolta,

I have a couple things you can try.

Go to this web site

http://ru.ecomstation.ru/projects/configtool/cfgdat01.php#Key010

and go to the New Mothorboard section.

The patch file can be found here.

http://www.warpupdates.mynetcologne.de/english/base_fixpak40.html

Try the mem test as they suggest. If this is the problem, the patch may fix it.
I know you already know this, but I will point it out for others. Copy the old loader file (OS2LDR) to another dir. , so if you need to restore it, you can boot from the CD and use the console to copy it back over the modified file.

If the BIOS is not the issue, perhaps the software has a timing loop that is not being execuated properly. Try disabling all the caches on the CPU, this will slow it down.

Sounds like you have a very fast machine. Is the CPU a duel core? Have you tried the SMP kernal with it yet?

Good Luck
Cliff

Date: 07 Sep, 2006 on 13:00
tommytravolta
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18. Re:Memory Usage
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Well, it is a DualCoreCpu.
It´s a Pentium D940, 1GB DDR2 Ram, Asus MB ...

But I didn´t try that kernel.
You got more informations for me ?

I´m administrating OS/2 since 2.XX. So I think I´m not a real newcomer, but ECS WAS new to me. But I was tired about installing all that FIXPacks and on and on ....
So there were no other options.
ECS1.2 runs pretty good and stable. Also, my problem is not coming from ECS. It´s the same with WARP 4.5X or
Warp 4 with Fixpack 13+.

I´ll try your ideas on Sunday ...
Thanks you

Date: 08 Sep, 2006 on 22:11
Cliffdaddy
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19. Re:Memory Usage
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Per your request, info on the SMP kernel

Symmetric Multiprocessing

When you got your Duel Core Processor, you got a multiprocessor computer. The normal kernel that is provided with OS/2-eCS is a single processor kernel. On your machine you are only using one of the two processor cores when you use the standard operating system packages. IBM provided the SMP kernel with their server packages, (Warp Server for eBusiness) for example. Serenity Systems sells a multiprocessor package for eCS. The OS/2-eCS SMP kernel supports 2-64 CPUs and is one of the best SMP kernels at resource management. If you install the SMP kernel, you should see an increase in performance. The eCS package costs about $130 US.

Your Duel Core CPU also supports Hyper-threading. OS/2-eCS currently does not support Hyper-threading ( although there is a test patch that gives the support). With Hyper-threading each core supports two threads simultaneously. Your Duel Core CPU would look like four virtual processors to the operating system. If you had two single core computers running at the same speed, one with Hyper-threading enabled and the other disabled, you should typically see the enabled computer run multithreaded programs faster than the computer with Hyper-threading disabled. Your Duel Core CPU with SMP enabled and Hyper-threading disabled, should typically run multithreaded programs faster than a single core CPU computer with Hyper-threading enabled. This is because two virtual processors sharing resources would not be as fast as two real processors each with their own resources. One would think that your Duel Core CPU with SMP and Hyper-threading enabled (four virtual processors) would be faster yet. In the future it might. Currently most multithreaded programs are optimized for two processors. From the tests that I have read, depending on the program that is being tested, most of the time, your Duel Core CPU will run multithreaded programs faster with just SMP and no Hyper-threading. You may want to turn off Hyper-threading in your BIOS.

Cliffdaddy

Date: 12 Sep, 2006 on 02:00
tommytravolta
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20. Re:Memory Usage
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Well, tried that SMP Kernel,
Runs fine,
CPU Speed is going up ...
But doesn´t matter for my problem ...

OK, my problem depends on os2ldr.
If I could replace the os2ldr to an older version or patch it, that just 64Megs are recognized, my problem is solved.
Mmm, just a workaround, but doesn´t matter !

Date: 12 Sep, 2006 on 17:25
Memory Usage
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