CompuServe Thread

#UltraStor 24F

6 messages in this thread
#35748From: Bob KerteszJan 3, 1993 12:07 PM
>>You need a CD device driver for the Ultrastor. This is in addition to uspi24.sys. The corelscsi drivers should work for you. << Hi David. I wasn't aware that the Corel drivers had been certified to work with the 24F yet. I use the drivers I bought from UltraStor for my 24F to talk to the CD ROM. I also got their tape software, although I'm still wavering on what drive to get. The new Archive Turbo DAT sure sounds nice (and fast!!). –Bob
#35755From: David A. Silva, M.D.Jan 3, 1993 1:36 PM
Hi Bob! Long time no chat – and Happy New Year! >I wasn't aware that the Corel drivers had been certified to work with >the 24F yet. I use the drivers I bought from UltraStor for my 24F to >talk to the CD ROM. >I also got their tape software, although I'm still wavering on what >drive to get. The new Archive Turbo DAT sure sounds nice (and Of course you are right, although from what I understand, the 24f should be certified shortly. ( I hope because I would like to get one of them beasts ). Glad to hear the Ultrastor drivers are doing well. Speaking of DAT, that is why I made the plunge into SCSI. I was completely a non-SCSI dude(g), but I got an offer to buy a WangDAT 3200 drive and couldn't pass it up. Much nicer than QIC drives. Besides the fast transfer rate, 20 sec seek to any file on tape is a real pleasure. After seeing the DAT drive in action, I upgraded my HD to SCSI and then my CDRom from prioprietary to SCSI. Haven't seen specs on the Turbo DAT yet – so whats the story? They using nitro(g)? David
#35833From: Bob KerteszJan 4, 1993 12:19 PM
>>Glad to hear the Ultrastor (CDROM) drivers are doing well. << Well, so far so good. I haven't had a chance to test them with a Kodak disk yet. The CDROM I have is not multisession compatible (it's a Toshiba 3301 which can be upgraded for that). I will at some point try to get a hold of one and see if Picture Publisher says there's anything on it <g>. >>Haven't seen specs on the Turbo DAT yet – so whats the story? They using nitro(g)? << Could be (maybe just for maintenance <g>). What they seem to have done is doubled the tape speed and the write density. The result is that with the built-in hardware compression, they claim a xfer rate of from 44 to 88 megs/min, depending on how compressible your files are. Not too shabby. Just started shipping. I'm going to let others cut themselves on the leading edge, but I'm definitely leaning toward that type of unit. If there are no horror stories in the next month or two, I'll probably go for it. I currently use an older 160 meg cassette based system, but I still get 8-11 megs/min with no compression, so anything I upgrade to will have to be at least 22 megs/min. I must confess that the 20-30 seconds to find any file on the DAT units is very appealing. Once all that gets done, it will be time for a new big SCSI2FAST drive to replace the ESDI unit I currently have. It never ends. –Bob
#35923From: David A. Silva, M.D.Jan 5, 1993 1:36 AM
Hmmm Although I had nothing but headaches with Archive VP150 drives ( back to the shop every 3-4 months ) this Turbo unit has peaked my interest. 44 M/min is nothing to sneeze at! I am getting 10 now… If you decide to go for it, keep me in mind for updates on whether it is a go or not…. Bob, once again you have infected me with *technolust*(g). >Once all that gets done, it will be time for a new big SCSI2FAST drive >to replace the ESDI unit I currently have. It never ends. I know(g), I just went that route myself. Got a Toshiba 1.2 gig drive for $1390 – just couldn't resist the price! It's only a 4400 rpm unit, but it is just a zippy as the more expensive 24 Mhz esdi drive it replaced… I am almost totally scsi'ed now! David
#36030From: Bob KerteszJan 5, 1993 10:37 PM
>>Bob, once again you have infected me with *technolust*(g)<< Yes, it's sad. And a terrible burden to bear besides <g>. >>Got a Toshiba 1.2 gig drive for $1390 – just couldn't resist the price! It's only a 4400 rpm unit, but it is just a zippy as the more expensive 24 Mhz esdi drive it replaced… I am almost totally scsi'ed now! << I've been looking at that drive myself. What controller are you using it with? I currently run the MAXTOR 8800E, which is a 24MHz ESDI drive, too, with an UltraStor 22CA EISA caching controller. The speed is OK but not phenomenal. What was REALLY surprising is that before the 22CA I had a Western Digital 1009 ISA controller on the same drive, and going from it to the 22CA (with 8 megs cache on it) made a *very* small amount of difference in almost everything I run (Windows or otherwise). I was quite surprised (and somewhat disappointed). Now I wonder if going to a 10Mhz SCSI2FAST drive with the 24F is going to be just another small increment in (perceived) performance. I'm pretty much locked in to upgrading, though, as I'm running out of space (again!). As for being "all SCSI, all the time" (kinda like a radio station, no?), I'm waiting to see if anyone has that ASPI driver for the HP scanner line working, in which case I'm going to jump right in. –Bob
#36140From: David A. Silva, M.D.Jan 6, 1993 9:16 PM
The Tosh is as fast as the Seagate 4767E 24mhz esdi drive that I ran on a WD1009 controller ( boy, that controller is sweet – the only one I found that let the drive fly, the Ultrastor esdi controller was 30% slower ). I am running the Tosh on an Adaptec 1542B, with DMA at 6.7M/sec and buson time 8ms and busoff time 2ms. Considering that the drives just aren't pumping data across the heads as fast as the max burst rates the newer HA's support, I am not surprised that the fancier HA's don't give too much seat of the pants performance. Looks like we will need 10,000 rpm drives with real time data compression to really get 10M/sec! I have just taken delivery on a 3rd party ASPI driver for the HP SJIIC/IIP. Supposedly is transparently equal to the HP driver on their native card. However my IIC hasn't shipped yet to try it out. I'll let you know! David