DOS ain't dead

Japheth wrote (in other thread):

> However, modern BIOSes supporting SATA usually also support ultra DMA, so an external driver is not necessary.

Indeed ... seems to be pretty fast via INT $13

But how is it done ? They support DMA and USB storage - but where do they take the memory ? DMA drivers always need XMS, DOS USB drivers always have memory problems, and mostly do require XMS, or even worse EMM386

How do the new "dead" BIOS'es do "without" memory ?

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This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

> But how is it done ? They support DMA and USB storage - but where do they
> take the memory ? DMA drivers always need XMS

No. A buffer - in XMS or EMS memory - is only needed if the source/destination address isn't DWORD aligned. And if no such buffer is available, the driver will use PIO mode.

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MS-DOS forever!

Thanks.

> No. A buffer is only needed if the source/destination address isn't DWORD
> aligned. And if no such buffer is available, the driver will use PIO mode.

Do you mean driver or BIOS here ?

Does it mean that BIOS can use DMA for almost no "cost" (RAM) ?

How can BIOS support USB (kbd, mouse, and storage), if it's that memory hoggy when using DOS drivers ?

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This is a LOGITECH mouse driver, but some software expect here
the following string:*** This is Copyright 1983 Microsoft ***

> > No. A buffer is only needed if the source/destination address isn't
> DWORD
> > aligned. And if no such buffer is available, the driver will use
> PIO mode.
>
> Do you mean driver or BIOS here ?

the BIOS

> Does it mean that BIOS can use DMA for almost no "cost" (RAM) ?

Yes

> How can BIOS support USB (kbd, mouse, and storage), if it's that memory
> hoggy when using DOS drivers ?

Possibly there is large space for improvements in the current DOS USB drivers.

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MS-DOS forever!

Would someone tell whether the boards which support USB in BIOS have specialized hardware or do use the CPU to provide the usb engine ?

> Possibly there is large space for improvements in the current DOS USB
> drivers.

Or is it because almost all RAM is used by drivers for executable code ?

OT: Why do you not use your account "jassenna" for posting? Just curious.

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Forum admin