[comp.sys.apple] Which is better? Disk Caching with CDA or NDA?

prl3546@tahoma.UUCP (Philip R. Lindberg) (02/23/89)

I own an Apple //gs.  I have an Applied Engineering GSRAM card which came
with a Classic Disk Accessory(CDA) 3.5" Disk Cache.  My recently purchased GSOS
operating system disk came with a New Disk Accessory(NDA) 3.5" Disk Cache.

Can anyone tell me which is better to use, (and why)?  Is it okay/better to
use both?(ie. have both enabled at the same time)  And since I've got lots
of memory(2.5 meg), how much is an "optimum" amount to assign to this?  Is one
of the two designed better than the other?  Are there inherent advantages to
using a CDA over a NDA? (or visa-versa?)

I'm sure there are other people who would be interested in hearing this
discussed.

						Thanks in advance,

shankar@bedrock.SRC.Honeywell.COM (Son of Knuth) (02/26/89)

In article <296@tahoma.UUCP> prl3546@tahoma.UUCP (Philip R. Lindberg) writes:

>I own an Apple //gs.  I have an Applied Engineering GSRAM card which came
>with a Classic Disk Accessory(CDA) 3.5" Disk Cache. My recently purchased GSOS
>operating system disk came with a New Disk Accessory(NDA) 3.5" Disk Cache.
>
>Can anyone tell me which is better to use, (and why)?  

I would not use the AE cache at all with GS/OS unless they have a new version
for GS/OS.

I originally tried to use both caches, and then just the AE cache - in both
cases, the system tended to crash a lot, and the crashes were solved by not
using the AE cache.

---
Subash Shankar             Honeywell Systems & Research Center
voice: (612) 782 7558      US Snail: 3660 Technology Dr., Minneapolis, MN 55418
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dseah@wpi.wpi.edu (David I Seah) (02/27/89)

I haven't used the AECache program in a long time (because DiversiCache was
better).   I would expect that it would be redundant to have on a GSOS system
disk.  I used to have the version of AECache that you had to run before
booting a disk, then I got the version that was loaded along with the tools. 
Since the NDA Cache program gets loaded too, AECache is just so much extra
baggage. 

If you run DiversiCache and the GSOS cache at the same time, you may get added
performance.  It usually shaves from 5-10 seconds off the boot time of my GSOS
system disk.  I think the reason this is so is because DiveriCache is a track
oriented cache, while the GSOS one is a last-block-read oriented cache.  I
usually set DiversiCache to a 0K buffer, but this still lets it read an ENTIRE
track into its cache.  GSOS caches the directory, thus eliminating those
annoying journeys from directory to file to directory to file...Another bonus
is that DiveriCache can be tacked onto the end of the ProDOS file (the little
4 block one).  DiversiCache also stays in memory when you do a ctrl-OA-reset,
while AECache goes away.  

Does the GSOS Set Cache NDA actually contain the cache, or does it just
provide an interface to some internal cache that GSOS has inside it?


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scott@claris.com (Scott Lindsey) (02/27/89)

From article <1032@wpi.wpi.edu>, by dseah@wpi.wpi.edu (David I Seah):
> Does the GSOS Set Cache NDA actually contain the cache, or does it just
> provide an interface to some internal cache that GSOS has inside it?

It just sets a Battery RAM parameter which GS/OS uses to determine the size
of its cache.


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