Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!ira.uka.de!sun1.ruf.uni-freiburg.de!seifert
From: seifert@sun1.ruf.uni-freiburg.de (Ulrich Seifert)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: HPFS and cache controllers
Keywords: HPFS cache
Message-ID: <1990Sep6.141036.11041@sun1.ruf.uni-freiburg.de>
Date: 6 Sep 90 14:10:36 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Rechenzentrum der Universitaet Freiburg, Deutschland
Lines: 26

In the near future I am going to upgrade my system to OS/2 vs. 1.2 and
I will also get a new hard disk. While shopping around I saw the DPT 
SmartCache controllers. I don't know if I want to buy it but it raised a
quite general question which I would like to post here.

Within HPFS there is already the possibility to configure a cache system.
Does anybody know how it works exactly? Is it a kind of cache that just
looks if it has the requested sector in memory or does it also some read-
look-ahead or a kind of ordered write back to disk...?
Let us assume we put a cache controller into the system. This may do all 
those things like buffering the most frequently used sectors, read-look-ahead
of a few sectors, and optimized write back to disk (I believe these are the
main features of the DPT). Does it help anything?

Is somebody running a system with a cache controller who could give us an
idea if works faster/just the same/even worse?

I hope that this question hasn't been addressed in a magazine or so. In this
case I have to apologize but unfortunately I have only access to very few
U.S. magazines (which sometimes makes you feel like living on the back of the 
moon).

Thanks,

    Ulf