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Author Topic: DMA transfer vs Programmed I/O on an A2000?  (Read 2349 times)

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Offline desantiiTopic starter

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DMA transfer vs Programmed I/O on an A2000?
« 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
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Offline Damion

Re: DMA transfer vs Programmed I/O on an A2000?
« Reply #1 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 on both and compare the results.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2011, 03:57:50 AM by Damion »
 

Offline ChaosLord

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Re: DMA transfer vs Programmed I/O on an A2000?
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2011, 04:04:41 AM »
You should always use DMA.
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Offline desantiiTopic starter

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Re: DMA transfer vs Programmed I/O on an A2000?
« Reply #3 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 on both and compare the results.
Amiga 1200/030 50mhz, 64mb ram

Amiga 2000, 030 25mhz, 7mb ram, A2320,  SCSI2CD
 
Amiga 3000/030 25mhz, CF SCSI card

Amiga 4000/ 040 33mhz 274mb ram