Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!DMZRZU71.BITNET!Ritzert
From: Ritzert@DMZRZU71.BITNET
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: ratehd
Message-ID: <900226010851.653244@DMZRZU71-UNI-MAINZ--GERMANY>
Date: 26 Feb 90 01:08:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 24

>>RateHD is buggy. The results for the access time can be considered only
>>a *rough* estimate. I found out that there is even a dependence on the
>>partition size.
>>
>Access time is seek time plus rotational delay.  I don't know exactly
>what RadtHD is measuring, but the larger the partition, the further the
>head has to move to get from one end of the partition to the other, so
>it only stands to reason that the average access time should increase.
>This is hardly a reason to call a program buggy.

But on a Seagate st296n with supra hostadapter, ratehd gave slower
access time on smaller partitions (and on larger partitions than 16 M). In
fact the difference to the manufacturer's specification seemed to be
smallest on a 16 Meg partition. I don't demand that ratehd reprodueces
the original spec; the readme file coming with ratehd states that this
cannot be expected. But, anyhow, I'm astonished about that *strange*
dependence which is not directly related to an obvious feature like the
number of cylinders which have to be passed by the head(s). And don't
forget that ICD claims measuring the drive independent on the way it is
formatted. In this light, any dependence like the above has to be
regarded a bug.

M.Ritzert
mjr@dmzrzu71.bitnet