Fastlane Z3 Speed

[roomeo]

> 1. using the 'unit control' almost doubles the speed, but this does not survive a reset!!!!

Yes, that`s right, you have to set the transfer to syncronus mode after every reset, but you don`t have to do it manually. There is a way to add a line to the startupsequence that involves unitcontrol to set the various units to syncronus/asyncronus mode. It must be described somewhere in the readmes.
The Cyberstorm SCSI-Kit has a jumper that makes it look into the RDB and see if it has been set to syncronus mode (must be set with P5 tools) and switch automatically. The Fastlane doesn`t have this feature.

An ooold thread.. time to revive it.

I cannot find out how to use the unitcontrol from command line to enable Synchronous mode.. I am able to set it to Asynchron, but it seems to me that the other way around is not possible?!? Which dont seem logical at all..

Here is the output from the tool in commandline:
Os3.1:Expansion/FastLaneInstallDisk> unitcontrol ?
Device/K,Unit/N,Period/N,Offset/N,Asynchron/S,Reselection/S,NoReselection/S,SCSIDirectPolling/S,Stop/S,Start/S,Eject/S,FWC/S,NoFWC/S,Removable/S,NoRemovable/S,Verbose/S:

Every other option can be switched on or off but not the synch mode. What am i missing?!?

[roomeo]

There are actually two command line utilities for the Fastlane the first one is z3dmacontrol, this sets the dma mode for the version of buster you're using such as:
C:z3dmacontrol buster11

Then unitcontrol something like this should work:
C:unitcontrol Unit 1 Period 10 Offset 8

Replace Unit 1 with the SCSI unit number of your device.
After you run z3dmacontrol buster11 (or 9) run the gui version of UnitControl and play around with the settings first.  Period 10 specifies the transfer speed I believe.  Offset 8, I don't remember what this does.  But you can make changes when using the gui mode and do a benchmark to see if it improved.  Also there is a utility on the Fastlane disk called CheckMask to make sure you selected the correct mask in HDToolbox.

Great!

"C:unitcontrol Unit 1 Period 10 Offset 8" worked like a charm. Synchronous mode is set.

"C:z3dmacontrol buster11" however takes the transferrate down.. this wont work for some lower revisions of the fastlane i believe.

I get around 6,5 mb/s.

I have run the checkmask, but did not allow it to make any changes to the maxtransfer value yet.. im running pfs3 and i was worried it would screw things up.. current value is FFFE00, and it suggests FFFFFF.

Thanks!

edit: changing the maxtransfer value didnt make any difference performance wise..

[roomeo]

Some drives are slow and have bad firmwares, but i dont think its the trouble.
poor termination can cause slow speeds.
what are you checking speed with? dont use sys(MIS)info. try diskspeed 4.2
your maxtransfer should be to run wide open on scsi. not sure about pfs, but i have used sfs with great results.
what rom is on your fastlane? 8.5 is the latest.

Im using an ACARD ARS-2000FU -> CF. This is the only device in the chain and has active termination.
Im currently testing with SysSpeed 2.6. Tested diskspeed 4.2 now and it seems to max out at;
3,4 mb/s create file
5,6 mb/s write to file
6,2 mb/s read from file

Im running z3scsi.device version 5.998.

[roomeo]

I would suggest testing with RSCP, you may find that you are getting higher transfer rates with z3dmacontrol but I bet your CPU usage is really high.  
With z3dmacontrol and the proper mask setting, NOT maxtransfer, you should see only about 10% CPU usage running RSCP.

Secondly though you may have an active terminator on the Acard, check to see if the resistor packs around the internal 50 pin connector are installed.  If they are, try removing them and installing an external active terminator.  
If they are not, definitely install an external terminator.

What system is this in A4000 or A3000?

Thanks for the tips. I will test with RSCP later today.
The resistor packs is in place, so would asume it is terminated properly. (wishfull thinking because i dont want to solder on my FL. )

Im running an a4k, buster11.

[roomeo]

perhaps you need newer Z3 ROM, I can send you one for free.

That would have been great! You guys are awesome!
Send me a pm with paypal details for shipping atleast..

[roomeo]

Recieved the 8.5 rom from Orange today! Thanks mate!

The speed seems unaffected, but i will do some more tests this evening..

Thanks for the tips so far..

[roomeo]

Ok.. did some tests with RSCP.

with:
c:z3dmacontrol BUSTER 11
c:unitcontrol Unit 0 Period 10 Offset 8 Noreselection

5,5 mb/s
90% Busy/Idle

+ Changemempri START 40000000 PRI 40

9,0 mb/s
93% Busy/Idle

If i read RSCP manual correct the higher idle the better. If i run without z3dmacontrol BUSTER 11 the Busy/Idle value is down to 1% or less..

Havent tested to much, but when setting z3 mem to highest pri it dont seem to slow the system down.

[roomeo]

Just curious - does anyone know where one can get the GAL / PAL upgrade chips which let the Fastlane support 16 meg SIMMs for a total of 256 megs?

I think you had to send the card to Phase5 back in the days for this upgrade. I am also under the impression no one have the chips needed to do this nowadays.

[roomeo]

9MB/s seems good to go-nice job. I don't recall having to do any of the things you did when i used scsi on the fastlane,but maybe my memory has faded. I thought it worked right out of the box for fast speeds. Does your drive not handle reselection?

Dont know if it handles reselection. Its a acard scsi -> ide -> cf.. i just fiddled with the settings and noticed i got a tiny bit higher transferrate.

[roomeo]

revision 2.4 boards support so called 256Mb,note i have several of these boards and i have not  managed to get more than 192Mb,even with 256 installed.

to my knowledge phase5 never released the gal upgrades for 256MB, you had to send the card in for the mod.

I guess it would be a no-go if DCE was asked to release those..
Do they even answer requests regarding amiga stuff?

[roomeo]

The harddrive led on the a4000 is not active when accessing harddrives connected to the fastlane.

I guess this is normal. Is there someway to hack this?

[roomeo]

ahh... yes indeed it have. should have checked before posting.

thanks