Fastlane Z3 Speed

[orange]

You have a FastlaneZ3 with working scsi??? This is the first time I ever heard of it, congrats man. I have three and none of them wants to work besides as a memorycard.

Anyway, it should load 10MB/s in syncmode. You should have a little prog named "Z3Dmacontrol", If I remember it right, to "tell" the Fastlane that you have a Buster11.

FastlaneZ3 Drivers

 :-)

EDIT: Darn, Patrik beat me to it.  :-D

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

[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..

[amiadudeorwat]

The resistor packs shouldn't be soldered on so you should just be able to pull them out.  Don't bother if you don't have an external active terminator to plug in though.

For another interesting test, if you have memory on the Fastlane, get changemempri
http://aminet.net/package/util/cli/ChangeMemPri
And set the Fastlane RAM to highest priority.  You should see your transfer speeds top out somewhere around 9MB/s if everything else is working right.  You wouldn't want to do this for general usage but it is odd.  This also works for an A4091 if you have any Z3 RAM.

[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.

[johnklos]

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?

[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.

[mechy]

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?

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.

[mechy]

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.

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?

[Acill]

2.4 boards came with the updates for 256MB and you had to send in the cards that didnt to be upgraded.

[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?

[zipper]

Some of my SCSI drives have an output for LED - I've inserted extra LEDs onto the front panel. And seems that Fastlane has a LED output.

[roomeo]

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

thanks