Transfer files

[Darrin]

Although in a closed loop, tightly controlled artificial environment the Amiga serial Theoretical Throughput is 115,200, one cannot forget the parity, stop bits and handshake requirements of the Amiga serial port which give it a maximum usable speed of about 57,600 bits per second vs the standard parallel port of 12,000,000 bits per sec (12,000 kbits per second).  The add-on Zorro cards were capable of more speed, but only a Silver Surfer Clockport adapter and Surf Squirrel were really available for the A1200.  The parallel port had 4 additional lines for control/handshaking and does not use the data lines for this purpose.  Hence, Darrin, if you divide 12,000,000 by 57,000 you end up with a wee bit more that an "8 times increase.". If one uses a faster processor and or a better serial port and parallel port card, you would in theory be pitted against a EPP port that can transfer at 2 Mbps.  

Again, I'm real bad with math; anyone got a calculator?

Yeah, I managed to work that out for myself with the use of a calculator once I looked at the max transfer speeds possible.  As "actual" speeds are the ones that count, the best benchmarks I could find for PARNET (after lots of digging) shows that it achieves between 33%-50% of the "theoretical throughput" using a 68030 (which still beats even the fastest Amiga serial port setting).  Shame I only ever used the port for my printer, but serial transfers still worked well when you consider the size of the files the average Amiga user has.

Don't become a teacher.  

[danbeaver]

Those who can, do.

Those who can't, moderate Amibay, er... I mean teach.  

Those who can't teach, ask, "Do you want fries with that?"

[Darrin]

Those who can, do.

Those who can't, moderate Amibay, er... I mean teach.  

Those who can't teach, ask, "Do you want fries with that?"

LOL.  Those who can't learn have to cook the fries for the guy who asks "would you like fries with that?"  

I'm just glad my main Amigas have USB ports now.  All hail the FAT32 formatted memory stick!

[danbeaver]

More work to making fries than flipping burgers.

I have a diskless server with 5 TB of files on my home network and get to them with AmiFTP although I made a full CD of programs needed to get almost any Amiga online and BoingBagged to full working status (Poseidon, Miami, Picasso96, IBrowse, DOpus, MUI, etc.).  But a USB solution (I'm loving the Mini-Thylacine 4 port device) sure does wonders.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Before I had SD card readers in all my Amiga's and PC's I would transfer files via CD.  Burn them on one machine, read on the other.  Just throwing other options out there for ya!  

[carvedeye]

Try this worked for me.

http://aminet.net/search?query=parbench

And here is a guide on getting it setup

http://www.amigareport.com/ar226/p1-5.html

[Darrin]

More work to making fries than flipping burgers.

Real men demand "chips" not fries.  

I have a diskless server with 5 TB of files on my home network and get to them with AmiFTP although I made a full CD of programs needed to get almost any Amiga online and BoingBagged to full working status (Poseidon, Miami, Picasso96, IBrowse, DOpus, MUI, etc.).  But a USB solution (I'm loving the Mini-Thylacine 4 port device) sure does wonders.

Mini-Thylacine?  Have I missed something?

I once installed OS3.9 on my A3000 via a serial link between it and my PC (the only CD ROM drive I had was on my PC tower).  It worked, but thank god I'll never have to do that again!

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Mini-Thylacine? Have I missed something?

Guy over on AmiBay making them & selling them.

http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?53997-MiniThylacine4Ports-(PreOrder)

[Darrin]

Guy over on AmiBay making them & selling them.

Cheers.  I'll check that out.

[danbeaver]

Genny_Flick makes them with smd components and using Poseidon all you need is the thylacine.device driver.  The original boards came with its own USB stack that works OK for un-acellerated  Amigas.

[Darrin]

Genny_Flick makes them with smd components and using Poseidon all you need is the thylacine.device driver.  The original boards came with its own USB stack that works OK for un-acellerated  Amigas.

I've got a couple of Spiders in my A4000 and a Deneb in my A2000... one of these might be nice for my A3000.  Reading the link it seems it even works in the A500.  There's supposed to be a CPU/RAM card for the A500 due out from Elbox.  Add both to an A500 and it will make nice "wedge".

The Poseidon stack rocks.  How did the Thylacine's own stack compare?

[danbeaver]

I've read that the USB stack in OS4.1 is based on the thylacine stack.

[scuzzb494]

Hi
I have 2 Amiga computer a 2000 and a 1200. I want to know how to get files off the 1200 to the 2000 WITHOUT a PC computer. What cables do I need to get or make and software and a someone to explain this to me. The 1200 has  CF card in it and the 2000 a CD Rom drive.
Thank you

In such situations I just ask myself why do you need the files on the 2000. And also do you need all the files on the 2000. Most Amiga files were designed to fit on floppy disks so maybe consider if all else fails getting some good old fashioned floppy disks. You could even try and hunt down a HD disk drive.

The option otherwise is... Parnet [ as discussed ] quite slow but effective. Also very usable with a PC where you may be able to burn to CD and then read on the 2000. Maybe also get a ZIP drive set up via a squirrel on the 1200 off the PCMCIA and then fit a ZIP to the PC and again burn to CD. In truth with a CD on the 2000 it really is just a case of transferring to a PC burner. Much easier and quicker.

You could always network the machines. Tricky.

Personally I like to have at least one Amiga networked and then fit ZIPS and Hard drives and generally like external hard drives. Getting stuff onto CD is the answer and so get an old bit of PC junk and piggy back off it to make CDs for your other machines.

Read up on ZIPS, Squirrels, Parnet, CrossDOS and HD floppy drives. Plus SCSI I guess. And if you are going to use disks maybe try your hand at knitting. Give you something to do while you wait.

[danbeaver]

Well that is one opinion...

In the '80's I would have used Quarterback to make a backup of the data and then have restored it to the other Amiga.  By the end of that decade, Sernet or Parnet were available.  By the '90s networking with an AppleTalk network or Ethernet were available and expensive.  Then came the ability to burn CDs and we were back to SneakerNet large amounts of data cheaply.  For a once-in-a-blue moon deal, just transferring the hard drive from one to the other if the A2000 has an IDE interface.  IF you have a CF/SD card reader then that is an option, but these are now rare.  USB will work if you have the funds to buy one.  It all depend on the hardware you have and the cash to spend.