Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!apple!chuq From: chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware Subject: Re: Cache Cards Message-ID: <51377@apple.Apple.COM> Date: 10 Apr 91 15:25:33 GMT References: <40808@netnews.upenn.edu> Distribution: na Organization: Dottie I's Private Eyes Lines: 55 warden@grad1.cis.upenn.edu (Robert Warden) writes: >Hi, I've been thinking of purchasing a cache card for my IIci >and had some questions. > 1. Does anyone out there have a cache card and do > they think the performace increase is worth the price? I installed one in my IIci and definitely noticed a difference. I haven't done any timing, but the machine is definitely perkier. > 2. Which card is better - Apple's newly released card (64K I think) > - DayStar's Fast Cache IIci (64K) > - Technology Works IIci cache card (64K) I use the Apple card (hmm. wonder why). Not having tested it against others, I can't say, but it works fine. > I also remember reading somewhere about a 128K cache > card - anyone remember the name? Great to impress the friends -- unlikely to really help performance. The cache card holds a working set. Increasing the size of the card will rarely (very rarely) help -- you just use the cache less effectively. > 3. I once heard that people had problems with crashes on some > programs that didn't expect the cache to be there. Technically > I think a cache should be transparent, but who knows what is > actually done? Early Apple cards had technical glitches. They're fixed. I wouldn't worry about it. > 4. Is the "RAM cache" control in the Control Panel only for > an added cache card, or does it refer to something else? This refers to an area of your regular memory used as a disk cache. It's completely separate from the IIci cache card. > 5. Is the IIci cache an instruction cache, a data cache, or > both (unified). What type of performance increase are we > talking about. I want to speed up my IIci, but > I'm not really excited about buying an accelerator since > I don't need that much speed. It's a memory cache -- it sits between the CPU and the memory, and if the cache has a specific memory location in cache, it intercepts the memory request and gives it to the CPU very quickly. -- Chuq Von Rospach >=< chuq@apple.com >=< GEnie: CHUQ >=< AppleLink: CHUQ SFWA Nebula Awards Reports Editor =+= Editor, OtherRealms Book Reviewer, Amazing Stories ---@--- #include Recommended reading: XENOCIDE by Orson Scott Card (with reservations, August); GOBLIN MOON by Teresa Edgerton; BONE DANCE by Emma Bull (May)