Here is the technical paper I was referring to on Softram 3.0:
The Resource Management module in SoftRAM 3.0 (beta) B-1
A White Paper and Review by David Klausner, 8/28/96
I have consulted extensively throughout the computer industry for many years, and am a member of
Syncronys Softcorp's outside Technology Advisory Panel chaired by Professor James Storer. In
that capacity, I am reviewing the test environment and beta testing the upcoming release of
SoftRAM 3.0 (formerly designated as SoftRAM96).
This white paper briefly describes the resource management module in its external beta version
(B-1) of SoftRAM 3.0 and reviews its performance. The beta version of the SoftRAM resource
management module tested was 3.0 B-1and was supplied to me by Syncronys Softcorp for the
purposes of evaluating its correct operation and its management of Windows resources.
There are a variety of resources in the form of memory stacks and heaps managed by Windows.
When, as a result of opening several applications, these Windows memory-based resources become
depleted, Windows may fail to open any more windows or applications successfully. This depletion
of resources is usually accompanied by a message to the user that there is "Low Memory, close one
of your windows and try again", or something to that effect (depending on whether the message is
issued to the user by Windows or by the application that has found itself short of memory).
Windows does not allow the memory spaces for these stacks and heaps to grow to meet the
demands of the user. Syncronys Softcorp designed the SoftRAM 3.0 B-1 resource management
module to efficiently manage several of these critical resources so that more of these resources are
available to open more windows and allow additional applications to be started. The resources
managed by the SoftRAM beta 3.0 B-1 resource management module are the menu heap (part of
USER memory), the menu strings (part of USER memory), and the GDI heap (GDI memory).
These three resources appear to be among those depleted first by typical user applications, and they
are key contributors to the "out of memory" messages that users often encounter.
All testing was done on Microsoft Windows using a Windows for Workgroups 3.11 system on a
machine with 8MB of (hard) RAM.
My testing proceeded by creating a sample application mix, and running it on the machine without,
and then with, the SoftRAM 3.0 B-1 to see the effect on Windows resource management. I chose
applications that I knew to be "resource hogs" and that are typically those that I use. I used the
industry standard Norton Utilities Version 8 SYSWATCH.EXE program to measure the resources
available. The table that follows lists the results I found. I started with a simple Windows Program
Manager window without starting any applications. After I started Norton's SYSWATCH.EXE, I
recorded the resources available. I continued to record the resources available after starting each
additional application. When the last application completed, or failed, I rebooted with the SoftRAM
3.0 B-1 resource management module active. I then ran the same applications again, and I ran
additional applications, as well.
----------------------- WITHOUT SoftRAM 3.00b1 / WITH SoftRAM 3.00b1
----------------------------- Percentages After Application Loaded
Name of Loaded Application ----- UserMem GDI -- UserMem GDI
----------------------------------- % --- % ------ % --- %
SYSWATCH -------------------------- 84 -- 81 ----- 84 -- 83
LapLink for Win 6.0b -------------- 23 -- 65 ----- 84 -- 63
Quattro Pro Win 6.02 -------------- 14 -- 47 ----- 39 -- 50
Norton SpeeDisk Win V8 ------------ 12 -- 39 ----- 39 -- 40
Microsoft Word 2.0c --------------- 04 -- 31 ----- 32 -- 42
WinFax Pro 4.0 -------------------- XX -- XX ----- 18 -- 39
Quicken 4.0 ----------------------- XX -- XX ----- 04 -- 39
The table above shows that without the resource management module of SoftRAM 3.0 B-1,
Windows ran out of resources and failed to load WinFax Pro. The table also shows that with
SoftRAM 3.0 B-1 loaded, the SoftRAM 3.0 B-1 resource management module automatically
activated its resource management for the "User memory" while LapLink was loading to increase the
available resources when that "User memory" resource was low. With SoftRAM 3.0 B-1 loaded,
my Windows system's resources were increased significantly. Windows was able to load WinFax
Pro successfully and had enough resources to also go on to load Quicken successfully.
I have concluded that the SoftRAM 3.0 B-1 resource management module increases Windows
resources to enable Windows to load more applications. This improvement should work on any
Windows 3.X system since it applies to the Windows stacks and heaps that are fixed in size by Microsoft's implementations.
BOB |
