Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!orca!javelin.es.com!blgardne From: blgardne@javelin.es.com (Blaine Gardner) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: Mac and Amiga (Games--Macintosh vs A500) Message-ID: <1991Mar5.152506.8471@javelin.es.com> Date: 5 Mar 91 15:25:06 GMT References: Reply-To: blgardne@javelin.sim.es.com Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation Lines: 34 patrick_meloy@outbound.wimsey.bc.ca (Patrick Meloy) writes: >Blain Gardner writes: >[stuff deleted] >>As to the hard drive speed, surely you jest! Unless someone managed to >>get a dog-slow HD and controller on the Amiga (Possible, there are some >>bad ones out there), the Amiga simply flies compare to the Mac's pokey >>hard drive speeds. With the Quantum and Wren drives I've got on my A3000 >[more stuff deleted] >I think the drive 'speed' complaint has more to do with the display of >drawers/directories then actual transfer rates. Since the Amiga does not use >the same style of 'directory track' that Mac and IBM do (we gain 80k disk >space over the Mac and 160k over the IBM because of it) it has to search out The original complaint was that the Amiga _hard_drive_ was horribly slow. Unless you've got a dog-slow (Seacrate) hard drive, and a dog-slow non-DMA interface, this simply isn't the case. A good DMA interface like the Hardframe, A2091, or especially the A3000's controller is FAR faster than the Mac's non-DMA interface. I/O speed is one of the Amiga's strengths. I don't have all the numbers handy, but I've run one hard drive on the Amiga 3000, an IBM PS/2 70 (80386), and a Mac II. The drive in question was a Fujitsu 1.2 gigabyte SCSI drive. On the A3000 DiskSpeed 3.1 reported a max read speed of 1.9 megabytes per second. The owner of the IBM and the Mac was floored by the speed of the Amiga because the same drive on the other two systems was running at about 1/4 to 1/2 of that speed. -- Blaine Gardner @ Evans & Sutherland 580 Arapeen Drive, SLC, Utah 84108 blgardne@javelin.sim.es.com or ...dsd.es.com!javelin!blgardne DoD #0046 My other motorcycle is a Quadracer. BIX: blaine_g Anticipation, anticipation, is making me late, is keeping me waiting.