Kickflash experiences

[Schoenfeld]

What an interesting thread!

I must admit that I haven't read the article in the Amiga Plus magazine yet, but will do as soon as I return to Germany in a little over two weeks. Got to find out what the bad rating originates from, as there's nothing that the author of the test has mentioned to be "not working" while he was in constant feedback with lots of detailed questions about the product. I'll address everything he critisizes, and put it into consideration for the next software update.

Another interesting idea I took from this thread is the boot priority thing for the 1G expansion. That's a great thing to add, and I'll keep that in mind. If somehow possible, I will add a jumper-like connector that lets you override the boot priority setting in the RDB and set it to an alternative level that's set in the flashrom (can be higher or lower, whatever your needs are).

Further, I'd like to mention that the 1G expansion will also work on E3B's products, as it'll use the normal clockport lines. Yes, we're competitors, but we also understand how to cooperate for the customer's convenience. If someone has a highway with Romulus, he should not be forced to buy a Kickflash if he also wants the 1G expansion.

As for it being vaporware at this point, I have to admit that I am only one person that's currently completely busy doing two other projects. Bear with me, as soon as the Catweasel MK4 production is running, I have time for other things. For now, the focus is on *finishing* things and get them onto the shelves for Xmas business.

Now back on topic: All the feedback I've had from Kickflash customers was positive. Of course, my opinion is biased, but I'd say cou can't go wrong with Kickflash, neither for functionality, nor price, nor expandability.

Jens Schoenfeld

[Schoenfeld]

Hi Michael,

I must admit that I hardly ever read amiga.org, but Bill Borsari (Tekmage) has pointed me to a thread about the Catweasel when we met at Amiwest.

Now that I see this tjaoz guy bashng my products, I guess I'll have to stop by every once in a while and correct certain lies he's spreading. Especially issues about my products being of inferior quality (that was the parallel thread with Red's three new products) is simply 'not nice'.

To put it like this: I'm not happy about him doing this. It's on the edge to being upset. However, he had one point that Red got wrong, and that's the PIO mode setting. Buddha was never advertised to be PIO mode 3 or 4. The timings he quoted were correct, but his interpretation of the ATAX3T9 standard is wrong, because you don't only have to see the distance between two beginning cycles, but also the length of a single cycle.

One reason for the extraordinarily high degree of compatibility of the Buddha with all kinds of harddrives and CD-Roms is a result of this software-controllable timing, which no controller before and after the Buddha has ever had.

On the other hand, he's speaking about 'clean design'. Knowing that he has never released a product, he has no detailed knowledge of how to design hardware. Yet, he speaks about it as if his words are the unquestionabe truth. This doesn't really make him sympathetic, especially to the more educated readers.
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Tjaoz,

if you want to see clean designs, look at my products, look at E3B's products, check the Haynie archives, then compare to your favourite company and find lots of flaws.

I have to give you the point of Red mis-interpreting the Buddha speed settings. None of them is any faster that you *can* go with PIO mode 0. Still, some of the settings use extremely short access times in order to lengthen the precharge time between two accesses, so certain requirements of PIO mode 0 and 1 are violated. Only clean PIO mode 2 IDE devices work with all timing settings of the Buddha.

I do not know where this mistake of yours originated from. It might be your limited knowledge of hardware design, but it might also be your will to bash my product in order to make a competing one look better.

I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, since this is the first time I'm seeing you trash on me and my work which is appreciated all over the world and beyond the borders of the Amiga market. However, now that we found out that you have limited knowledge about the details of my products, I'm suggesting that you simply do not spread *any* information about my products, neither positive, nor negative, because it's most likely going to be wrong. If you feel that something must be said, you're free to contact me through eMail or my contact form to notify me of such things.

Jens Schoenfeld