STAC ELECTRONICS TECHNICAL SUPPORT BULLETIN NUMBER: 005 SUBJECT: STACKER-MISC DATE: May 24, 1991 TIME: 2:57 PM SOURCE: Engineering, User's Manual SUPERCEDES/ SUPERCEDED BY: RELEASE STATUS: Public TITLE: The STACKER device driver's memory requirements. OVERVIEW: The STACKER device driver is a resident program. It loads from the CONFIG.SYS file at boot-time, mounts the compressed STACKER volumes, then shrinks down and remains in RAM until powered off. Starting sizes in bytes, without STACKER cache (/M=0) Coprocessor Software Version Version 1st volume (with 4KB clusters):21,504 30,720 (with 8KB clusters):25,600 38,912 add'l volumes: 3,072 each 3,072 each When STACKER loads at boot time, the size of the driver (both initial and resident) is displayed. ISSUES/COMMENTS: 1) The amount of memory used by STACKER may prevent the launching of programs which ran properly before STACKER was installed. "Insufficient memory" messages may result. 2) When loading both the driver and the STACKER cache into high memory, there may not be a sufficiently large contiguous block of memory. This may result in an error message from the memory manager and failure to load the driver high. 3) In the coprocessor version, 9 Kbytes are allocated for internal buffers by default. RECOMMENDED ACTIONS: 1) If the STACKER cache has been specified, try lowering the /M=xx switch in the "DEVICE=C:\STACKER\STACKER.COM..." line for a smaller cache (see User's Manual, "STACKER Utilites/Commands"). If errors persist even with the driver as small as possible, use a memory manager to load the STACKER driver (and cache, if present) into high memory. 2) Lower the size of the STACKER cache, as in (1), until the driver fits into high memory. Most memory managers include a utility for optimizing the organization of device drivers; optimizing high memory may allow the STACKER driver and cache to fit better. 3) To free up the 9 Kbytes of internal buffers, insert an /M=0 switch to the STACKER device driver line in CONFIG.SYS, as in (1).