farber@udel.EDU (Dave Farber) (12/26/87)
I have been testing on of their cards. It a disk accelerator and is a winner in hardware . I have less kind words about the software -- its not bad just doesnot conform to the manual and has some bugs. Anyone out there with one. Dave ============================================================= David J. Farber University of Delaware Dept of EE Newark De 19716 Office: 302-451-1163; Arpanet/CSNet: farber@udel.edu
pete@octopus.UUCP (Pete Holzmann) (12/26/87)
In article <900@louie.udel.EDU> farber@udel.EDU (Dave Farber) writes: >I have been testing on of their cards. It a disk accelerator and is >a winner in hardware . I have less kind words about the software >-- its not bad just does not conform to the manual and has some bugs. > >Anyone out there with one. > >Dave We've been testing one. Here's a summary: WHAT IT IS: 512K of fast RAM (and some kind of CPU) on a card, managed by software that intercepts BIOS hard disk requests (as far as we can tell). Needs a window of addressable memory. Minimum 16K, 64K preferred. You can give it from D000 to DFFF, for example, if not used by another BIOS ROM. No cabling involved. WHAT IT IS GOOD FOR: Very intelligent hard-disk-controller-front-end. Does disk cache+lots more. Does read-ahead on disk, assuming you are going to want track N+1 next. Has hardware data compression to do that on the fly. Can do de-fragmentation ('Disk Optimizer' stuff) when your system starts up. PRO: If it works on your system, in a configuration you are willing to live with, then it works very well. It *IS* very fast. The 3ms 'seek' time is a number that takes into account disk caching. It is faster and nicer than a normal disk cache program. CON: Can't handle most RLL controllers (DTC is the only one that works). Can't handle drives with >1024 cylinders (e.g. Maxtor 1140/2190 drives). Drives MUST be set up as: Drive 1 = C: = one large partition. Drive 2 = D: = one large partition. No more drives, no more partitions. Thus, for large drives (>32 MB) you get gigantic cluster sizes, which wastes a lot of disk space in most applications. Rather pricey (around $600 is a discounted price). SUMMARY: Who would want this thing? For the money, it would be best to first buy a reasonably fast hard disk and use disk caching software to speed things up. If you already have a fast disk and disk cache software, you're probably a rather high-end user. At that point, you might want to consider this thing. But you'll probably be frustrated by its configuration limitations. Oh well... forewarned is fore-armed, I guess. They *are* working on these problems, but some of them require hardware changes. Maybe their next edition will be better. -- OOO __| ___ Peter Holzmann, Octopus Enterprises OOOOOOO___/ _______ USPS: 19611 La Mar Court, Cupertino, CA 95014 OOOOO \___/ UUCP: {hpda,pyramid}!octopus!pete ___| \_____ Phone: 408/996-7746
root@conexch.UUCP (Larry Dighera) (12/27/87)
In article <900@louie.udel.EDU> farber@udel.EDU (Dave Farber) writes: >I have been testing on of their cards. It a disk accelerator and is >a winner in hardware . I have less kind words about the software >-- its not bad just doesnot conform to the manual and has some bugs. > >Anyone out there with one. > >Dave Dave: Have you had an opertunity to try the Awesome IO card with Xenix or any other opertaing systems? I have heard that it only works under DOS. Best Regards, Larry Dighera -- USPS: The Consultants' Exchange, PO Box 12100, Santa Ana, CA 92712 TELE: (714) 842-6348: BBS (N81); (714) 842-5851: Xenix guest account (E71) UUCP: conexch Any ACU 2400 17148425851 ogin:-""-ogin:-""-ogin: nuucp UUCP: ...!ucbvax!ucivax!mickey!conexch!root || ...!trwrb!ucla-an!conexch!root
farber@udel.EDU (Dave Farber) (12/29/87)
I just talked with the Awesome folks and they are busy writing drivers for Xenix. I also found out that there is a new version of their software which may fix my problems. BUT they said that first you must do a low level format of the hard disk wo remove "abnormalities" Wonder what they are? Dave ============================================================= David J. Farber University of Delaware Dept of EE Newark De 19716 Office: 302-451-1163; Arpanet/CSNet: farber@udel.edu