Path: utzoo!censor!geac!jtsv16!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!shlump.nac.dec.com!frambo.enet.dec.com From: balzer@frambo.enet.dec.com (Christian Balzer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: A.L.F.? Message-ID: <4451@shlump.nac.dec.com> Date: 31 Aug 89 13:51:31 GMT Organization: DEC SWAS Frankfurt/W.Germany Lines: 37 Summery: Cheapo HW, nice SW. In article <4726@brains.UUCP>, michael_dinn@brains.UUCP (Michael Dinn) writes... >A.L.F.? : > > Anyone out there ever heard of Prespect Technics? They sell a >hardware/software combo called the A.L.F. (Amiga Loads Faster). It lets you >use IBM hard drives with any Amiga. They offer a package deal... HD, ALF, and >power supply for $630 US. The HD is a 40 meg with an RLL card; not sure of >the make. Any ideas? Anyone ever order from them? They claim a 460K/s >transfer rate, can anyone verify it? Uh, I know I'm late with the release of the next revision of my HD controller review, but I'm still waiting for some data to arrive here (do ya hear me Blaine??? ;-). Within this review, I do have some few lines on the A.L.F. stuff. To put it short, the A.L.F. is a (not too) low cost HD controller solution. It's based on a design by the German computer magazine c't, which uses an IBM style controller, like the WEDGE. While this solution is relativly inexpensive, it of course lacks DMA or controller based caching. So although rather high transfer rates using RLL drives (about 450 KB/s) are possible, these will suck up all CPU resources. The A.L.F. software has a nice user-interface and seems to constantly enhanced and maintained. Summary: If low on cash and not too considerate about multitasking during data transfers, go for it. However the best controllers these days seem to be IMHO the Microbotics HardFrame and the CBM 2091... if you can afford them. ;-) Hope that helps, - -- _ _ / / | \ \ aka Christian Balzer - The Software Brewery - // < < |-< > decwrl!frambo.enet!CB -OR- unido!decum!frambo.dnet!CB // \ \_ |_/ / I-Net: CB@frambo.enet.dec.com | E-Net: FRAMBO::BALZER \\ // ------------ PMail: Im Wingertsberg 45, D-6108 Weiterstadt, F.R.G. \X/