Dataflyer SCSI+ 4000, how much load on processor ???

[Effy]

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/dataflyerscsi4000.html is the card that I have a question about. It connects directly to the IDE port of the A4000, but if you use SCSI harddisc(s), is it still as processor intensive as IDE harddisc(s) Do you really need a seperate scsi controller to take the burden away from the processor ??

a Dataflyer on Ebay

[Lemmink]

I don not have this card myself, but let me make some guessing: I seems the card has an SCSI-Chip on it, so it isn`t just a mare IDE->SCSI translator. I assume that the things like haveing to issue every single seek an read/write command to the drive is taken from the CPU (if there is a replacement scsi.device that comes with the card), but the CPU still has to handle the actual datatransfere through the (non DMA) IDE-port.
I guess the card was mainly made not to take load of the CPU but to excess SCSI-equipment (especially SCSI-scanners) for a very low price.
If you really want to take some load of the CPU better take a DMA SCSI-Controller like the FastalneZ3 or get one for your turbocard (if it is a CS MKI/II)

[Effy]

Lemmink : FastLane from german Ebay arrived yesterday in my mailbox but I haven´t had any time to test yet. I was just wondering what that Dataflyer could do ... because I ´only´ have got a standard 68040/25 ...

[Cyberus]

I got a Fastlane from German ebay too.
Haven't even got it out of its box yet. I was reading that some are able (through some standard modification) to take 256MB of RAM.

[Lemmink]

I was reading that some are able (through some standard modification) to take 256MB of RAM.

I isn`t that easy, you need to upgrade some chips on the Fastlane (no, not just the ROM that holds the z3scsi.device). Those chips are nearly impossible to get today. I asked DCE but they said they don`t have then either. Thomas Dellert wanted to turn to some ex P5 people at BPlan and ask them....never heard of him since then.
I assume that there are only about 10-20 of those "golden" Fastlanes worldwide. Even if you manage to get one of those (I have been searching for years now) you still will have to pay a hillarious price for those 8bit 16 MB Modules. I have seen a set of 4 going up to about 100 EUR (they seem to be useful in old MAC-Servers thats why prices are so hight plus there were only few made, `cos at that time PS2 RAM became popular)

But haveing some extra 64 MB RAM with those cheap 4MB 8bit modules isn`t bad either. The RAM ist dead slow (about 90% of A4000 motherboard RAM) but still faster then haveing to use some vitual memmory hack when opening large pictures.

[Effy]

I plan on putting 1 Mb 30 pin Simms on it that came from old pc´s that were dumped. This way I shall only have 16 Mb extra + the 16 Mb on board, but 32 Mb is not so bad to start with  :-)