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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: motorollin on December 12, 2005, 09:32:13 AM
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Does a buffered interface give any performance increase over the standard IDE interface on an A1200? I currently have a cable with one 44pin connector and two 40pin connectors. This cable plugs directly in to my motherboard, HDD and CD-ROM.
It works fine, but I am wondering if a buffered interface with two separate cables would work any better.
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moto
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Hum,
Yeah,
But i doubt that you'll notice.
It will free up some CPU time too...
The main reason given to use a buffered interface given is to protect against surges that'll blow the IDE interface.
The price differences between Unbuffered and buffered is too small to take the (fabled) risk...
If you got the cash then do it....
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I don't need any more than 2 devices... so do you think it's worth doing?
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moto
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Hum,
if it`s working now
then i wouldn`t bother.
Up to you really...
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Thanks, I'll give it a miss then :-)
One last question... I want to replace my IDE and floppy cables with those round ones. Any ideas if the floppy cable will work with an Amiga drive?
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moto
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Hum,
Round ones look cool (if you can see them...)
Make sure they are IDE, rather than SATE or something made of string
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blobrana wrote:
Make sure they are IDE, rather than SATE or something made of string
:lol: yeah, data transfer rates with bits of string would be pretty shoddy.
I'm guessing floppy cables are standard?
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moto
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get a buffered one... there is a perfomance increase!
amiga ide: 920kb/sec
vob4x ide: 2.8 MB/sec
measured back then when I had a 1200/030-28 + 8MB fast
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Does a buffered interface give any performance increase over the standard IDE interface on an A1200?
No. (This is my experience, ymmv)
The transfer rate of A1200 IDE interface is capped by the 16-bit register all data must go thru. This register is as slow as any other custom registers. Actual IDE devices could transfers a lot more, even in PIO mode.
Thus buffering can't really improve the peak performance, nor free any CPU time.
It works fine, but I am wondering if a buffered interface with two separate cables would work any better.
No.
If it ain't broken, don't fix it.
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but I got the info I posted with sysinfo... perhaps the buffer produced fake results? :-?
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@keropi
I wouldn't trust SysInfo for any benchmarking.
Anyway, you had absolutely the same environment, HDD, drivers etc except non-buffered / buffered interface? If there was any other changes, the results are useless for comparision.
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yeah, the same enviroment, only the 4x interface was added... though it had direct support from idefix for the buffer, if you did not select it from the list of the 4x interfaces, and left it as "Generic 4x interface" then it was like having no buffer/interface at all, it achieved normal a1200 ide port speeds...
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Hi,
Perhaps a better way to ask the question would be:
How much is a buffered IDE Interface compared to a replacement A1200 Motherboard ?
A1200 users have claimed to run with un-buffered IDE interface without problems, but, is is really worth the risk ?
Also, later on if/when you plan on upgrading you can use four IDE Devices with IDEFix97 software from Aminet.
"IDEfix97.lha 3.5 disk/misc 404K 1999-10-31 m68k-amigaos Use ATAPI devices (CD-ROM) with IDE port - (readme)"
"QUOTE"
"IDE-fix:
Enhance your IDE-port! Faster transfer, faster booting, less CPU use! No MaxTransfer troubles, set MaxTransfer as big as you like!
TD64 & NSD commands supported, use IDE drives bigger than 4 GIG with your Amiga (requires FileSystem with TD64 and/or NSD support). Patches into the system "on the fly", no reboot required.
Use 4 IDE drives with your Amiga (with additional 4 drive adapter)!!!
Supports removable IDE units (SyQuest or ZIP IDE drives) without trouble!
PlayCD: Full featured Audio player for SCSI-II and ATAPI CD-ROMs.
Programmable, requires only small amount of memory.
CD32: Turns your Amiga 1200 or 4000(T) into a CD32 with the press of a button!
Supports SCSI-II or ATAPI CD-ROMS! Includes playing of CDDA from CD32 Titles!
AutoParkPrefs: Completely rewritten AutoParkPrefs, intuition based.
Allows parking of IDE harddisks after a defined time of inactivity.
UnInstall: Removes the whole package if you don't like it.
Documentation is included in english and german.
Restrictions of unregistered version: Nag requesters, otherwise full
functional."
EyeTech had an advisory page on their Web Site about buffered IDE Interfaces and the reasons why they make good sense, the page may still be there.
Regards, Michael
aka rockape
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there no gain at all.
The 4Way active adapter (the so called "buffered") its a simple IC/circuit that squares (trigger) only the data lines (nothing related to a real buffer).
You can use longer cables sometimes required in an towerized A1200 (not always anyway).
@keropi
the little gain you noticed, is due the IdeFix scsi.device
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@keropi
So you used IDEFix software even when the interface wasn't installed?
It's funny if you get different speed, as the buffering has nothing to do with data transfer...
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I'm not convinced about this "my hard drive and cd-rom blew up my motherboard" thing. Sounds like a scare story invented to sell buffered interfaces :lol: Has anyone here ever actually experienced problems with their IDE interface with two devices connected directly to it?
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moto
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@motorollin
No problems whatsoever.
I even built my own IDEFix hardware for 4 devices, without any buffering. Worked just fine for years, until I retired the system.
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@Piru
mhhh . . just noticed that keropi own a VOB 4Way adapter.
I have no direct experience about those strange/rare adapter. (theres a special setting in IDEFix).
Could it be "really" buffered? (intended with a real small buffer memory chip)
The difference in his benchmarks is huge.
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If there's no significant performance boost, then I'm gonna take my chances ;-)
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moto
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http://www.amiga.org/gallery/index.php?n=828=10
erm . . "looking" at the picture, seems a TTL IC.
Keropi . . . whats on the chip? serial-code etc?
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Four connectors? :-?
1*44pin
+
(3*40pin)*2 devices
=
7 devices???!!!
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moto
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Ok, to clear things up, I did the test this way:
1st test: os3.9 BB2 WITHOUT adapter or idefix 97 installed
2nd test: adapter + idefix installed + setting on idefix
it did made a huge difference, it was noticable!
here are some photos I posted back then, but they are blury (taken with a nokia 6600)
I don't have this now, I sold it!
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On replacing floppy cables with round ones... they can be used, but not without adjustment.
I recently replaced the IDE and floppy cables in my A4000 with round ones. I encountered two problems.
One, the IDE cable had a key pin, so it would not plug onto the motherboard. After researching the pinout, and making absolutely sure that I had the cable in the correct orientation, I decided to gently break the interfering pin off.
Then I realized that the cable had a confusing indicator for pin 1 and I had the cable reversed, and had actually broken off the wrong pin! Fortunately, that pin was just a ground (whew!). So I reversed the cable and broke off the correct pin. Then it plugs on and everything is working fine.
Just a note... after you double check that you have the cable in the correct orientation... tripple check, count pins, think about it, then check it again. :-)
As for the floppy cable, I bought an 18" round single floppy cable (for PC). This didn't work since the cable has pins swapped. So I carefully dismantled the connector on one end of the cable, and put the wires back in the "right" spots so it was a straight-through cable. Then it works fine.
Note that on the PC, to make it so noone would ever have to change a floppy jumper, they have made all PC floppy drives configured as drive 1. Then they put a flip in the cable so it will make the drive ID 0. Notice that the second floppy in a PC has no flip in the cable. I don't know what their plan was if you wanted to use more than 2 floppies. :-) So a round PC floppy cable would work as-is if you use the "second" drive connector.
I prefer the hack-the-cable method. Although it is not easy removing the lock/guard on the crimp-on connector without breaking it, it can be done.
-Jeff