Controller confusion
24 messages in this thread
I've been wanting to upgrade to an auto-booting HD controller and put my
trusty old 2090 in retirement. But lately there has been a rash of new
and/or improved controllers to hit the market. The 2091, ICD's, GVP's
Series II, etc. If anyone has any experience with the latest controllers, I
would be interested in getting your comments. I'm using a Quantum 105s, so
if you are using a Quantum drive, I would especially be interested in
getting Diskperf results along with information on ease of setup, other
features, etc.
Thanks!
John Gager
I think the ICD one is the best, personally. Drop me your address in email
or call and 815-968-2228 voice or 815-968-2229 BBS or 815-968-6888 FAX and
I will send you some literature, including some DiskSpeed 3.1 test results.
Craig
You have already sent me some literature Craig, but I still haven't been
able to make up my mind. It is understandable that you feel that the ICD
controller is the best, but I want to get some points of views from the
rest of the users also. There have been a few times that I have purchased
some hardware, and then ended up wishing that I had bought something else
instead. You need to shop around and get the best value just as if you were
buying a new computer. That's why I bought the Amiga in the first place 8^)
John
Oh, sure, take your time. You don't want to rush into anything. Get all
the info and compare them all. Then you will by the ICD anyway. 😉 That
should be "buy", not "by".
Craig,
You seem awfully confident of yourself…..
john
supra
Yup.
Can an ICD mount any device. like a Omti or Adaptec scsi to St506
controler. Most controlers get all the mounting info from the harddrive.
And will not mount from the devs mountlist. I got a large st506 harddrive
and don't want to give it up.
All the mounting info will be stored to the drive if it is connected to a
separate controller (Omti or Adaptec), too. Both of those are supported by
our host adapter. You just select the controller from the list of devices
found, then the drive from a list we supply (you can add yours to the list
if it isn't already there). You still won't have to mess with the
mountlist. After formatting the drive with separate controller will work
just as embedded SCSI drives do.
Craig
And things will probably be less confusing by defining Controller as the
device that allows an ST506/412 type drive to be connected to a SCSI bus,
and a Host Adapter a device that allows the Amiga to act as a host on a
SCSI bus. The ICD AdSCSI 2000 is a host adapter. The Omti and Adaptec
boards are controllers.
Craig
I know, but not all scsi host adpaters talk the same. At work no body can
get an omti an amiga 2090 or gvp to work. But an adptec will. Now is scsi
scsi or are some host 1/2 scsi.
John.
John,
The SCSI "standard" has lots of things that are optional. Some
manufacturers implement them, others don't.
Don
I wish manufacturers would say what they support and what they don't. It
would save a lot of wasted time an money.
John.
The Omti is a lot more "standard" than the Adaptec. The Adaptec takes
special treatment.
Craig
Like what? The ATN pin 32 is not supported by the Omti.
John.
GVP is running an upgrade promotion now. Your old C= controller + $90 =
New GVP SCSI controller. Call 'em up. — Art
Yeah, I saw their upgrade offer. Its tempting but I would like to see some
performance figures and comparisons of their Series II controllers. I don't
mind spending a few extra bucks to get what I want. — John
I just got my GVP II controler. It will do 700K bytes with DMA and CPU
contenion on. Note this is a real DMA controler this time.
Hmmm….funny they don't mention that its a DMA controller in any of their
ads. I know its asking alot, but if you have enough room on one of your
partitions, would you run Diskspeed on that partition with DMA and CPU
contention off, save the results to disk, and post them here. Hopefully, I
will be able to return the favor 8^)
John Gager
As soon as I get this anim up an runing i will. Frame 20 and 200 to go.
John.
Thanks John, I appreciate your help. You might let me know what kind of
hard drive you are using. — John
I am useing two St506s, a Tandon 262 and a Okidata 526, and one Syquest
555. The adaptec 4000 that controled the Okidata died. So now im down to
two drives.
John.
Hmmm….If you are getting 700KB/sec reads on the ST-506s and the Syquest
then that's pretty respectable. I'm not too sure about the Tandon because
I'm not familiar with it. By the way, I noticed in your last message that
you are doing animations, so I have a feeling that you are running an
accelerator card. If so, is there any way for you to switch the Amiga back
to the stock 68000 before you run diskspeed? .. John
No no! I get that speed from the Syquest not the st506. Im runing the st506
on a A2090. No way am i going to get that speed from a A2090 and a st506.
What i need is a good scsi to st506 adaptor. So i can put this A2090 in
cold storage. Turn off my 030 🙁 . Well it's about 400k in the slow mode.
John.
GVP is coming to our user group meeting tonight. I'll let you know if I
hear anything useful. — Art