TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL (06/16/89)
I finally found a TWGS. The place I had mail-ordered one from in mid-April still said it would be at least two weeks; on chance I called our local dealer who I knew had some on order and lo and behold four of them had just been carried in the door. So I paid a bit more, but it was there and at least I have someone to complain to if there are problems. (His service has always been good in the past.) The manual leaves a little to be desired. The first two figures (showing the cable and how to install the card) are reversed. The instructions on removing the 65C816 didn't mention that there would be a little plastic spacer between the chip and the socket nor tell you what to do with it. (My guess is that the 65C816's can be mounted in dip's of two different heights and the spacer is used to thicken up the thinner one; but it doesn't matter -- I took the spacer out and kept it with the chip; the TWGS plug went in fine, although I almost was off by one row of pins. However, quarters are so tight and the cable so short that you CAN'T plug it into the I/O socket if the cable is plugged in wrong.) The list of appendices says there is an appendix with the firmware entry points and the text says "For complete technical details, refer to Programmers Reference in the appendices." There ain't neither: there are only three appendices -- "Trouble Shooting", "Ramkeeper and Transwarp", and "Getting Help." No mention of whether this was the full-speed chip or the slightly slower one. Nothing about the possibility of something even faster in the future as had been in some of the ads (I think.) And yes, even though the box says it can go in slot 3 or 4 it can only go in 3; the cable to the cpu socket isn't long enough. (There is an empty socket at the TOP of the card that looks like it is intended to have a cable attached; I'm guessing it was planned that a longer cable could go in there to allow it to go into slot 4 but they found the distance too long for reliable operation.) But those are minor complaints. The fool thing works like a charm. I did some timing on WordPerfect. Moving from the beginning to the end of a 26 page document took 24 seconds unaccelerated, 12 seconds accelerated. Spell checking was more interesting. If I put the dictionary in my PC Transporter's RAM drive, it took 203 seconds to spell check an 1800 word document unaccelerated, 125 seconds accelerated. If I put the dictionary in RAM5, it then took took 143 seconds unaccelerated, 71 accelerated. I assume the difference has something to do with slowing down when the PC Transporter I/O is being used and whether the expansion memory is also being cached even when being accessed as part of RAM5.
earl@pro-europa.cts.com (Earl Quinones) (06/19/89)
Comment to message from: pnet01!crash!DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL!TMPLee (Unknown User) Yeah..theres something in the documentation about using it with a PC transporter I just purchased a TWGS for $280 and had to wait 8 weeks for it to arrive, but its well worth the price..its 6.25 MHZ as AE ran out of higher speed chips, but the dealer assured me that I would get a special deal when the 10MHZ comes out this fall(october, I believe) I havent done any speed tests, but GS/OS boots up from a hard drive in 1/3rd the time it takes without it..Installation was intersting..I did the opposite and plugged in the card first..the removal of the CPU was easy..theres a small notch, but once you get the screwdriver in there, it literally pops out the chip/cable went in with no pressure whatsoever..<as ramchips, in which there is a certain amount of resistance> I'd give it a 3 out of 4 star rating..