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Table Of Contents

Rev. A02

DSS-10549-00

October 1996

AM-PC 4.2 Release Notes

These Release Notes describe the new capabilities incorporated into AM-PC 4.2, and document basic

compatibility information and other important features of this release.

This document assumes you are already familiar with the AM-PC software and want a brief description

of the changes in AM-PC 4.2. We do not include a full description of AM-PC; if you are not familiar

with AM-PC, see the Falcon Owner's Manual.

We discuss:

• Compatibility information and requirements

• New and changed features

• Important features introduced in the AM-PC 4.x releases

• Related documentation

A READ.ME file containing any changes made after these Release Notes were printed may be included

on the AM-PC release

please see that file for important installation or operator information.

COMPATIBILITY INFORMATION AND REQUIREMENTS

• AM-PC 4.2 comes with AMOS 2.3, which contains all AMOS patches included in the 10/96

patch release. The previous AM-PC release included a special version of AMOS for the Falcon,

AMOS 2.2C(453). This special release is no longer necessary. The correct version of AMOS is

included on the AM-PC 4.2 diskettes and copied to your hard disk during installation. AM-PC

4.2 will not work with AMOS 1.X.

• AM-PC 4.2 also includes AlphaNET 2.4 and AlphaTCP 1.3B.

• AM-PC 4.2 requires the same PIC code as the previous 4.x releases. Therefore, for upgrades, no

new PIC is necessary, unless you are increasing the AMOS user count. Since AM-PC 4.2 uses

AMOS 2.3, a single PIC enables AMOS, AlphaTCP, and AlphaNET.

• AM-PC 4.2 requires at least an 80386 processor or above in your PC. XT type computers cannot

be upgraded to AM-PC 4.2.

• You must have at least 15MB of free space on your disk drive.

• You must use DOS 5.0 or later to use AM-PC 4.2.

• • AM-PC works with VESA compatible VGA controllers. Older CGA, Hercules, and EGA

controllers are not compatible with AM-PC 4.2. Some VGA controllers require you to load a

TSR for complete VESA compatibility. This should be done prior to running AM-PC 4.2. The

following limitations exist in the terminal emulation capability:

1. Underlining is not supported due to the limitations imposed by various VGA controllers.

2. You cannot use the blink characteristics and the high intensity function at the same time.

Summary of content (10 pages)

PAGE 1
DSS-10549-00 October 1996 AM-PC 4.2 Release Notes These Release Notes describe the new capabilities incorporated into AM-PC 4.2, and document basic compatibility information and other important features of this release. This document assumes you are already familiar with the AM-PC software and want a brief description of the changes in AM-PC 4.2. We do not include a full description of AM-PC; if you are not familiar with AM-PC, see the Falcon Owner's Manual.
PAGE 2
Page 2 AM-PC 4.2 Release Notes • AM-PC 4.2 works only with the Falcon Application Co-processor (the AM-113-10), and does not work with the older AM-113-00 Co-processor. • AM-PC 4.2 includes network support for AlphaNET 2.4 and AlphaTCP 1.3B or later software versions. • For network applications, a minimum of 2 MB of Falcon memory is required, with 8 MB recommended. • Also for network applications, you must choose a PC network interface card that has a Clarkson compatible software driver available.
PAGE 3
AM-PC 4.2 Release Notes Page 3 hardware-specific programs, and the STRxxx streaming tape utilities, which have been superseded by MTUxxx. Other than this improved version of AMOS, there are no features in 4.2 which did not exist in 4.1. For your convenience, the following sections describe the enhancements which were in AM-PC 4.1. Full Network Support AM-PC 4.2 has been enhanced to include full Ethernet networking support. With AM-PC 4.
PAGE 4
Page 4 AM-PC 4.2 Release Notes • AMOS can invisibly take advantage of PC-based disk compression utilities such as Stacker® and DriveSpace®, reducing the amount of hard disk space needed for AMOS files. • You can back up AMOS using any tape backup package supported by the PC. While you don’t get the file-by-file backup that is expected on an AMOS system (because the AMOS disk is a single file to the PC), you do get full backup of the entire AMOS disk.
PAGE 5
AM-PC 4.2 Release Notes Page 5 follow the “Corrective Action” procedure below. To prevent this problem from happening again, or from happening to you at all, follow one of the suggestions in “Preventive Measures.” Corrective Action First, do not try to write to the AMOS disk! Then, log to OPR: and use DSKANA on each logical device. (See your AMOS System Commands Reference Manual for instructions on using DSKANA.
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Page 6 AM-PC 4.2 Release Notes DSK = C:\AMPC\AMPC.DSK NONFAT This statement causes AM-PC to use an alternate method to find DOS cluster numbers for equivalent AMOS disk blocks, avoiding the FAT search. Without using the NONFAT option in a DOS environment, the performance of AM-PC will degrade as the AMOS disk size increases. Using the NONFAT option, the performance degradation should not occur with increased AMOS disk size.
PAGE 7
AM-PC 4.2 Release Notes Page 7 file saves, using MTUSAV. All hardware and software components in this configuration are available from, and fully supported by, Alpha Microsystems. If you install the Adaptec EZ-SCSI and Sytos Plus software yourself, you should keep one point in mind. Adaptec EZ-SCSI and Sytos Plus both contain drivers for Tandberg tape drives. When you load the software, use the Adaptec driver. The Sytos driver should be removed from the CONFIG.SYS file.
PAGE 8
Page 8 AM-PC 4.2 Release Notes • The latest version of ASPI (and Corel SCSI) supports multiple SCSI interfaces. Currently, AMOS supports only one SCSI interface per system and therefore AM-PC 4.2 can access only one ASPI interface. Any SCSI peripherals to be used by AMOS must be connected to the first ASPI card you define under DOS.
PAGE 9
AM-PC 4.
PAGE 10
Page 10 AM-PC 4.2 Release Notes • Falcon AMOS Application Processor Installation Instructions, Revision A01 or later, PDI00113-10: Tells you how to install the Falcon AMOS Co-processor in your PC and build terminal cables to attach additional terminals. • Upgrading from AMOS 1.X to AMOS 2.X, DSS-10408-00: If you’re upgrading from an AM-PC version using a 1.X version of AMOS. • The AMOS 2.3 Release Notes, DSS-10555-00: Describe the enhancements in AMOS 2.3. Rev.