IDE Compact Flash on A4000 initial review

[Terminills]

@Marktime

they might not be faster however ... they don't need a boot delay ... nor do they make a sound so in the end it's all a matter of choice.  AFAIK it's hit or miss with the new hd's and the A4000 or 1200 ide on whether or not it'll take 3 reboots to start.

[Ohno]

Repeat after me, CF cards ARE NOT FASTER.

Ok.. because you insist: CF cards ARE NOT FASTER.  :-D

I think most people are aware they are not faster, but harddisks have spinup-time and seek-time for every file. On Amiga systems the files usually tend to be quite a bit smaller (less bloat) than on WIndows systems, so the seek-times become more important. That at least makes it feel pretty fast I'm sure.

Apart from that.. it's just plain cool  ;-)

[Atheist]

Don't forget, I'm guessing here, but even A1200 and A4000 SCSI controllers don't get much higher than the current CF transfer rates. At least the original 020 @14 MHz and 040 @25 MHz.


This is toooo cooollll!!!

AmigaOne! This is the first thing I will try on a One!  :-D  (full OS 4.0 <20 megs)  :-D

[Dr_Righteous]

CF Cards ARE FASTER... Modern hard disks have no advantages on OLD controllers. The speed comes from access and seek time... Not how much data they can transfer at once.

[bluefunk]

 Does 10x mean it's fast?

Something to add here: the 10x or 30x etc is the same as the speed class of a normal cdrom-drive,
so 1x means aprox. 150kByte/s..

--
Bluefunk

[Dr_Righteous]

Somehow I don't believe that's entirely accurate... Otherwise my 4x flash card would not have produced 1.5MB/s transfer.

Better to say 10x is ten times faster than the first generation of the device.

[Chunder]

Mmmmmm - sounds like the perfect candidate for a laptop conversion project; no need for bulky HDs... Ideally would need a double CF - one for the boot drive, and a removable one for data, etc.

 :-D

[Pertinax]

Why not use a IDE buffered interface, having a 44pin cf/flash as the boot drive on the main connector, another cf slot on one of the 40pin connectors and then either a cdrom or hd (or both) on another connector?

DiskOnModule's seem like a good idea...

http://www.milesie.co.uk/asp/storage.asp

Seem to have everything we need... Been thinking about it for a while, to make a "media" Amiga to show pics from my digicam/play mp3s etc whilst sitting next to my tv.  Would have built a portable, but no lcd screen...

Jason

Chunder wrote:
Mmmmmm - sounds like the perfect candidate for a laptop conversion project; no need for bulky HDs... Ideally would need a double CF - one for the boot drive, and a removable one for data, etc.

 :-D

Laptop eh?  I hope you don't need windows on it.  Those 1GB IBM Microdrive CF cards are really expensive, and I don't think even one of those would hold an install of XP Pro! ;-)

Pertinax wrote:
Why not use a IDE buffered interface, having a 44pin cf/flash as the boot drive on the main connector, another cf slot on one of the 40pin connectors and then either a cdrom or hd (or both) on another connector?

DiskOnModule's seem like a good idea...

http://www.milesie.co.uk/asp/storage.asp

Seem to have everything we need... Been thinking about it for a while, to make a "media" Amiga to show pics from my digicam/play mp3s etc whilst sitting next to my tv.  Would have built a portable, but no lcd screen...

Jason

Thanks for the link Jason, it's a good one.

Those DiskOnModules look good, no need to buy a CF to IDE adaptor.  I think i'll buy one of these.

[Jaruzel]

Nope, XP Pro needs min 2.5 gb free to install.


2.5gb.... shesshh..... :-(

-Jar.

Jaruzel wrote:
Nope, XP Pro needs min 2.5 gb free to install.


2.5gb.... shesshh..... :-(

-Jar.

I suppose it shows that Microsoft have some good compression routines, to be able fit 2.5GB onto a single CD! ;-)

[Ohno]

I suppose it shows that Microsoft have some good compression routines, to be able fit 2.5GB onto a single CD!

No it seems they have no respect for customers resources... every sound is an uncompressed WAV, every image an uncompressed BMP and every program/dll bloated as can be.

Seen the 'Enter the Matrix' already btw? Requires 3.4 Gb harddisk space to install.... and then you still need a CD to be present in the CD-drive while playing. I know harddisks are getting cheaper, but this is really getting out of hand!
Even if that game is pretty nice to play.

Maybe the PC-world should start shipping install-free, ready-to-run games on CF-cards  :-P

Ohno wrote:

I suppose it shows that Microsoft have some good compression routines, to be able fit 2.5GB onto a single CD!

No it seems they have no respect for customers resources... every sound is an uncompressed WAV, every image an uncompressed BMP and every program/dll bloated as can be.

Seen the 'Enter the Matrix' already btw? Requires 3.4 Gb harddisk space to install.... and then you still need a CD to be present in the CD-drive while playing. I know harddisks are getting cheaper, but this is really getting out of hand!
Even if that game is pretty nice to play.

Maybe the PC-world should start shipping install-free, ready-to-run games on CF-cards  :-P

You have AmigaAnywhere in mind by any chance Ohno?  ;-)

[Ohno]

You have AmigaAnywhere in mind by any chance Ohno?

Would you believe me if I told you that I honestly didn't think about that when making that statement? It _IS_ a good idea though :-P

But for now Amiga-Anywhere has no hardware-accelleration on either Windows or Linux, so it is not yet ready for full screen 3D desktop games like this (although it can be in the future). PDA's are still the main target for now. But that _might_ be one of the things Amiga Inc. will add to intent in the future  :-)

Ohno wrote:

You have AmigaAnywhere in mind by any chance Ohno?

Would you believe me if I told you that I honestly didn't think about that when making that statement? It _IS_ a good idea though :-P

But for now Amiga-Anywhere has no hardware-accelleration on either Windows or Linux, so it is not yet ready for full screen 3D desktop games like this (although it can be in the future). PDA's are still the main target for now. But that _might_ be one of the things Amiga Inc. will add to intent in the future  :-)

How many coders have they got working for them at the moment? Do you know?