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Author Topic: Buffered IDE interface  (Read 4636 times)

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Offline motorollinTopic starter

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Buffered IDE interface
« on: December 12, 2005, 09:32:13 AM »
Does a buffered interface give any performance increase over the standard IDE interface on an A1200? I currently have a cable with one 44pin connector and two 40pin connectors. This cable plugs directly in to my motherboard, HDD and CD-ROM.

It works fine, but I am wondering if a buffered interface with two separate cables would work any better.

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Offline blobrana

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Re: Buffered IDE interface
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2005, 09:36:34 AM »
 Hum,
Yeah,
But i doubt that you'll notice.
It will free up some CPU time too...

The main reason given to use a buffered interface given is to protect against surges that'll blow the IDE interface.

The price differences between Unbuffered and buffered is too small to take the (fabled) risk...

If you got the cash then do it....

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Offline motorollinTopic starter

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Re: Buffered IDE interface
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2005, 09:38:32 AM »
I don't need any more than 2 devices... so do you think it's worth doing?

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moto
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Offline blobrana

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Re: Buffered IDE interface
« Reply #3 on: December 12, 2005, 09:44:23 AM »
Hum,
if it`s working now
then i wouldn`t bother.

Up to you really...
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Offline motorollinTopic starter

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Re: Buffered IDE interface
« Reply #4 on: December 12, 2005, 09:48:43 AM »
Thanks, I'll give it a miss then  :-)

One last question... I want to replace my IDE and floppy cables with those round ones. Any ideas if the floppy cable will work with an Amiga drive?

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moto
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Offline blobrana

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Re: Buffered IDE interface
« Reply #5 on: December 12, 2005, 09:51:02 AM »
Hum,
Round ones look cool (if you can see them...)


Make sure they are IDE, rather than SATE or something made of string
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Offline motorollinTopic starter

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Re: Buffered IDE interface
« Reply #6 on: December 12, 2005, 10:05:11 AM »
Quote

blobrana wrote:
Make sure they are IDE, rather than SATE or something made of string

 :lol: yeah, data transfer rates with bits of string would be pretty shoddy.

I'm guessing floppy cables are standard?

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moto
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Offline keropi

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Re: Buffered IDE interface
« Reply #7 on: December 12, 2005, 10:10:11 AM »
get a buffered one... there is a perfomance increase!
amiga ide: 920kb/sec
vob4x ide: 2.8 MB/sec
measured back then when I had a 1200/030-28 + 8MB fast
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Offline Piru

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Re: Buffered IDE interface
« Reply #8 on: December 12, 2005, 10:10:29 AM »
Quote
Does a buffered interface give any performance increase over the standard IDE interface on an A1200?

No. (This is my experience, ymmv)

The transfer rate of A1200 IDE interface is capped by the 16-bit register all data must go thru. This register is as slow as any other custom registers. Actual IDE devices could transfers a lot more, even in PIO mode.

Thus buffering can't really improve the peak performance, nor free any CPU time.

Quote
It works fine, but I am wondering if a buffered interface with two separate cables would work any better.

No.

If it ain't broken, don't fix it.
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Offline keropi

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Re: Buffered IDE interface
« Reply #9 on: December 12, 2005, 10:34:55 AM »
but I got the info I posted with sysinfo... perhaps the buffer produced fake results? :-?
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Offline Piru

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Re: Buffered IDE interface
« Reply #10 on: December 12, 2005, 10:43:19 AM »
@keropi

I wouldn't trust SysInfo for any benchmarking.

Anyway, you had absolutely the same environment, HDD, drivers etc except non-buffered / buffered interface? If there was any other changes, the results are useless for comparision.
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Offline keropi

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Re: Buffered IDE interface
« Reply #11 on: December 12, 2005, 11:35:32 AM »
yeah, the same enviroment, only the 4x interface was added... though it had direct support from idefix for the buffer, if you did not select it from the list of the 4x interfaces, and left it as "Generic 4x interface" then it was like having no buffer/interface at all, it achieved normal a1200 ide port speeds...
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Offline rockape

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Re: Buffered IDE interface
« Reply #12 on: December 12, 2005, 11:38:56 AM »
Hi,

Perhaps a better way to ask the question would be:

How much is a buffered IDE Interface compared to a replacement A1200 Motherboard ?

A1200 users have claimed to run with un-buffered IDE interface without problems, but, is is really worth the risk ?

Also, later on if/when you plan on upgrading you can use four IDE Devices with IDEFix97 software from Aminet.

"IDEfix97.lha  3.5 disk/misc  404K  1999-10-31  m68k-amigaos  Use ATAPI devices (CD-ROM) with IDE port - (readme)"


"QUOTE"

"IDE-fix:

Enhance your IDE-port! Faster transfer, faster booting, less CPU use! No MaxTransfer troubles, set MaxTransfer as big as you like!

TD64 & NSD commands supported, use IDE drives bigger than 4 GIG with your Amiga (requires FileSystem with TD64 and/or NSD support). Patches into the system "on the fly", no reboot required.

Use 4 IDE drives with your Amiga (with additional 4 drive adapter)!!!

Supports removable IDE units (SyQuest or ZIP IDE drives) without trouble!

PlayCD: Full featured Audio player for SCSI-II and ATAPI CD-ROMs.

Programmable, requires only small amount of memory.

CD32: Turns your Amiga 1200 or 4000(T) into a CD32 with the press of a button!

Supports SCSI-II or ATAPI CD-ROMS! Includes playing of CDDA from CD32 Titles!

AutoParkPrefs: Completely rewritten AutoParkPrefs, intuition based.

Allows parking of IDE harddisks after a defined time of inactivity.

UnInstall: Removes the whole package if you don't like it.

Documentation is included in english and german.

Restrictions of unregistered version: Nag requesters, otherwise full
functional."


EyeTech had an advisory page on their Web Site about buffered IDE Interfaces and the reasons why they make good sense, the page may still be there.


Regards, Michael

aka rockape
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Offline Framiga

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Re: Buffered IDE interface
« Reply #13 on: December 12, 2005, 11:41:48 AM »
there no gain at all.

The 4Way active adapter (the so called "buffered") its a simple IC/circuit that squares (trigger) only the data lines (nothing related to a real buffer).

You can use longer cables sometimes required in an towerized A1200 (not always anyway).

@keropi

the little gain you noticed, is due the IdeFix scsi.device
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Offline Piru

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Re: Buffered IDE interface
« Reply #14 on: December 12, 2005, 11:57:11 AM »
@keropi

So you used IDEFix software even when the interface wasn't installed?

It's funny if you get different speed, as the buffering has nothing to do with data transfer...
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