Amiga.org

Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: desantii on March 27, 2011, 03:25:30 AM

Title: DMA transfer vs Programmed I/O on an A2000?
Post by: desantii on March 27, 2011, 03:25:30 AM

I was testing an Oktagon 2008 board in my A2000, wanted to see how fast it was comapred to a GVP 8mb ram/scsi board.  What does the below mean?
 
does not use DMA but interrupt driven programmed I/O - From Amiga.Resource
 
Testing the board its actually seems quite fast 2.6mb/s reads in sysinfo vs. 1.3 mb/s for the GVP board. The SCSI in tmy 030 GVP accel shows 2.2mb/s so its even faster than this one?
 
thanks

Title: Re: DMA transfer vs Programmed I/O on an A2000?
Post by: Damion on March 27, 2011, 03:52:33 AM

Basically, the CPU is used for the data transfers, as opposed to a processor on the SCSI board.

As far as a Z2 card goes, there's not going to be much difference in performance when it comes to raw transfer rate. Multitasking would be nicer with a DMA card, though, since the CPU is mostly free while the transfers occur.

To get a better idea, try this benchmark (http://aminet.net/package/util/moni/RSCP) on both and compare the results.

Title: Re: DMA transfer vs Programmed I/O on an A2000?
Post by: ChaosLord on March 27, 2011, 04:04:41 AM

You should always use DMA.

Title: Re: DMA transfer vs Programmed I/O on an A2000?
Post by: desantii on March 27, 2011, 04:29:43 AM

I did use that benchmark as well, same speeds though
 

Quote from: Damion;624942

Basically, the CPU is used for the data transfers, as opposed to a processor on the SCSI board.
 
As far as a Z2 card goes, there's not going to be much difference in performance when it comes to raw transfer rate. Multitasking would be nicer with a DMA card, though, since the CPU is mostly free while the transfers occur.
 
To get a better idea, try this benchmark (http://aminet.net/package/util/moni/RSCP) on both and compare the results.