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From: jb10320@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Jawaid Bazyar)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: RamFAST SCSI Card in ProDOS 8
Message-ID: <1991Jun21.084841.3386@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 21 Jun 91 08:48:41 GMT
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unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (The Unknown User) writes:

>	Apple's DMA card has a maximum throughput of 1 meg/second. That's
>what the documentation says, to tell you where I get my stats.

   The RAMFast also has a maximum theoretical transfer rate of 1 meg/second.
Ya know why?  The Apple II bus runs at 1 MHz.  DMA can transfer 1 byte per
bus cycle, thus the 1 meg/second.  Whether or not you can actually achieve
1 meg/second transfer depends HIGHLY upon the application and GS/OS.

>	I thought that the RamFAST was supposed to be faster under ProDOS 8
>too.

   The RAMfast under ProDOS 8 is tremendous. When I first got my RAMfast,
I was eager to test it out (my Quantum hadn't yet arrived) so I went over
to Rob K's place and plugged it into his generic SCSI drive.  Anyway, something
was wrong with his installation of GS/OS at the time so I booted into Prodos 8.
For some reason or other, after running a few things from Prodos 8, I shut
the drive off.  Then for an equally obscure reason, I continued to run 
things from Prodos 8.  Everything I'd run was in the RAMfast's cache- Prodos,
Basic.System, and a couple applications.  It was neat (if not surprising).
    Anyway, Prodos 8 is speeded up so much compared to GS/OS because Prodos
8 doesn't have built in caching like GS/OS.

--
Jawaid Bazyar               |  "Twenty seven faces- with their eyes turned to
Graduated!/Comp Engineering |    the sky. I have got a camera, and an airtight
bazyar@cs.uiuc.edu          |     alibi.."
   Apple II Forever!        |  I need a job... Be privileged to pay me! :-)