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From: jb10320@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Jawaid Bazyar)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Best hard drive combo
Message-ID: <1991Jun23.031308.26419@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 23 Jun 91 03:13:08 GMT
References: <1991Jun22.033627.21891@crash.cts.com> <16490@smoke.brl.mil>
Sender: usenet@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
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gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn) writes:

>A fair comparison of Apple High-Speed SCSI Card vs. RamFast SCSI Card:
>1.  Apple's is less expensive.
>2.  RamFast's on-board caching provides faster effective throughput for
>ProDOS-8 applications; its effect on GS/OS performance is not so drastic.
>3.  Apple's card supports I/O request chaining, which is a big win for
>certain special applications (witness the Star Wars movie demo).
>4.  RamFast originally did not support SCSI devices such as CD-ROM and
>scanners, although by now its firmware has probably been revised to do
>so.  Apple's card carefully conformed to the full SCSI spec.

   RAMFast Rom 2.0 has been out for a couple months now.  It supports
many types of CD-ROM, tape drives.  It has built into the ROM tape backup
software which operates in the background- meaning you don't have to
sit around for an hour while it backs up.

>5.  Drivers are available for use of Apple's card with CD-ROM and SCSI.
>In general, GS/OS releases will certainly support Apple's card, but may
>not fully support RamFast, and Cirtech may be a while in getting new
>drivers released for use with new GS/OS releases.
>6.  Apple's card automatically disables DMA when accessing the "top"
>4MB of the 8MB RAM space, which means that one can utilize 8MB AND DMA
>SCSI I/O at the same time with Apple's card.
  (#6 is trivial to implement- I should ask if they've done it).  What does
this do in a ROM 03? Since the ROM 03 has 5.125 meg of DMA compatible
memory, I mean?

7. The RAMfast has a built-in configuration program, which appears 
automatically whenever the card is moved or new devices are added to the
SCSI chain.

>Generally, I would say that RamFast is preferable if one primarily uses
>ProDOS-8, and Apple's High-Speed SCSI Card is preferable if one primarily
>uses GS/OS.  Special circumstances could modify that basic assessment.

   I'd disagree.  The cards aren't all that different, and the performance
difference isn't so clear-cut (ProDOS 8 performance is TREMENDOUS with the
RAMfast).
--
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! :-)