Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!star.cs.vu.nl!raymond
From: raymond@cs.vu.nl (Raymond Michiels)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: AmigaMINIX HD driver available!
Keywords: Amiga, harddisk
Message-ID: <8700@star.cs.vu.nl>
Date: 9 Jan 91 15:43:41 GMT
Sender: news@cs.vu.nl
Lines: 49



  While most of you were spending time under your Xmas tree, we have been
writing a harddisk driver for AmigaMINIX. Right now it only supports the
standard Commodore A590's internal XT drive, but it might support other
Commodore drives as well. And that's where you come in...

  Because we only have access to an Amiga500 + A590 we would like you to test
our driver on similar systems. We are looking for test results from people
who have:

	- AmigaMINIX,
	- either an A500 or an A2000,
	- a Commodore HD. (A590, A2090, A2091, etc..)

  If you want to test the HD driver, please send me e-mail, and you will
receive a new minix.img file, the new loader and detailed instructions
(approx. 100k compressed tarfile). In return we would like you to write
a small report in which you tell us what did, and what didn't work, exactly
what hardware you used, etc...

  Thanks in advance,

	-Steven & Raymond.


PS: if you're interested in performance figures:

    AMIGA (7MHz A500 + A590 with build-in XT drive):

	through file system (block special device):	73.1 K/sec
	(dd if=/dev/hd2 of=/dev/null bs=27k count=128)

	'direct' (character special device):		138 K/sec
	(dd if=/dev/rhd2 of=/dev/null bs=27k count=128)

	'normal' use: (mounted as a file system):	24.1 K/sec
	(cat /user/bin/* >/dev/null ; #almost 2Mb)

    ATARI (8MHz 1040ST + SH205) under the same conditions:

	39.3 K/sec, 244 K/sec, 19.1 K/sec.

    PC (12 MHz Zenith-AT + unknown drive) under the same conditions:

	47.0 K/sec, N.A., 38.2 K/sec

    It should, however, be noted that the ATARI and PC drivers uses DMA,
    whereas our driver does not.