The ARM controller only speeds up disk access.
This is not true. The disk speed-up isn't the only benefit but it's noticeable. E.g. my 512 MB Workbench partition boots with my ARM controller in 5 seconds (hard disk read speed over 2000 KB/s as reported by SysInfo) and the same process takes 1 minute 45 seconds when a PIC is used (benchmarked read speed 150 KB/s). When a smaller hard file of 20-50 MB is used it becomes usable but the slowdown is still substantial.
The latest PIC firmware has been partially back-ported from ARM sources but due to hardware limitations of the PIC it doesn't support all the features.
The ARM displays the contents of a directory sorted alphabetically with directories displayed above files while the PIC displays mixed directory and file entries in the order of their creation. Moreover with the ARM you can use keyboard shortcuts like PageUp/PageDown/Home/Backspace to quickly scroll through displayed entries and get back to parent directory. It's very convenient to scroll through large collection of files (but it's recommended not to put more than a hundred entries per directory to keep browsing at maximum speed).
As it's known long file names on FAT volumes can be over 250 character long. The ARM scrolls horizontally a name which is longer than 30 characters (and does this smoothly). The PIC only displays first 34 characters of it.
The ARM parses ADF name to display current disk number and total number of disks of a multi disk set. Taking into account the limitations of the PIC and the length of TOSEC collection file names you are very often not able to tell which disk number to select.
The ARM stores configuration in a file on a memory card so you can use different configuration for every card. The PIC stores configuration in its internal EEPROM and can use only one.
Upgrading ARM firmware is very easy because you only need to put a new firmware file on your memory card and invoke the update option from the OSD menu. To update PIC firmware you need a PC with appropriate software and null-modem serial cable.
Current ARM firmware occupies only 20% of its program memory so it's still possible to implement more features (e.g. loading of alternative cores). The PIC has been already filled up.
