I have seen that people are using my site (logic analyzer shots) for false claims.
There is no "backplane" that supports burst accesses in Zorro II mode. What the quoted shot shows is a single longword-access that is automatically split up into two word-accesses by the processor card (not by the Zorro board!!). The distance between the two accesses is short, yes, but the distance to the next longword-access is the same as between two single word accesses, so the gain is minimal, and the gain is the same on *all* Zorro II implementations. If you quote me, please quote me correctly.
Also, let me clean up with the rumor that Z-IV is an Elbox invention: It is not. The concept for the Z4 busboard is made by Steffen Christ (Mr. Apollo) and me (see how many clockports the thing has? ;-)). Elbox bought up the rest of the boards when Steffen stopped making them.
Now let's go for some content: Elbox claims that executing code is possible without copying into memory. Sorry guys, the Amiga roms *always* copy the Zorro-roms into ram, and execute it there. Your claim might be right for hardware-hacking, but it does not apply to the application you're selling. Your card can be relocated in the address space of the Amiga, so the code also has to be. As long as you don't have a software that relocates *in the flash*, you should leave this claim out in order not to lose credibility.
It's like an oil company praising the burning properties of their gas in the gas tank of your car. Man, my car still burns the gas in the combustion chamber, so I don't care about anything else.
Double-standard: Mediator1200 uses banking, and that's OK. My Kickflash uses banking, and that's bad. I wonder why.
Speed: Kickflash has 1MB, and copying that to memory takes a little over half a second. It saves you a reboot, meaning on some systems it saves a good 40 seconds. Now let's translate Elbox's wording: eFlash4000 saves you 40.4 seconds, while other products only save you 40 seconds.
Somehow this reminds me of a bad German movie "Manta Manta", where drivers of some wannabe-sportscar argue about the top speed being 209.3 or 209.5 km/h. Hell, they're going way over 120 miles per hour, what's the point?
Jens Schoenfeld
