Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!cbmvax!andy
From: andy@cbmvax.UUCP (Andy Finkel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Hard Drive Questions (XEBEC) (longish)
Message-ID: <3376@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 26 Feb 88 14:23:15 GMT
References: <883@isrnix.UUCP>
Reply-To: andy@cbmvax.UUCP (Andy Finkel)
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 33
Keywords: DMA A2090 Filesystem XEBEC

In article <883@isrnix.UUCP> greg@isrnix.UUCP (Gregory Travis) writes:
>  1) The drive is rated (according to the Xebec manual) at over 150K
>     bytes/second.  Actual read transfer rate, going flat out, to my Amiga
>     seems to be around 25-30K, which stinks.  I realize that the slow

The FastFileSystem should help, yes.  Assuming your Xebec software
is a device that lets you use the Mount command to mount the
filesystem, it should work.  (I don't have the Xebec, so it is a
bit of speculation; but it should work...)

>  2) I have noticed that when WRITING to the disk (say from Emacs
>     or a utility program) the activity light on the disk is
>     only on about 10-15% of the time spent writing - which indicates to me
>     that the software is not able to keep up with the turtle-powered
>     drive!  What could be going on?  I 'addbuffer' about 100 buffers for
	Adding buffers is not expecially effective under the standard
file system.  FFS does much better, adding buffers makes a big difference.

>  2) Is there any possibility that the drive will work with a
>     A2090 DMA controller?  I may buy a 2000 some day and I would like to
>     keep the Xebec.  It is a "modified SCSI" (whatever "modified" means).

I've talked to 2 people who tried...neither with much success, though.
We don't know how they modified SCSI, though.

-- 
andy finkel		{ihnp4|seismo|allegra}!cbmvax!andy 
Commodore-Amiga, Inc.

"Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle."
		
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