blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) (08/23/89)
A week ago I switched from the Commodore A2090A to the MicroBotics
HardFrame controller. Here's a few random thoughts and observances, and a
couple of requests for help.
Features:
1) The kjohn floppy-on-a-hardrive trick now works completely with DiskCopy.
It still doesn't work from WB, but from CLI I can DiskCopy to and from
the fake floppies. On the A2090A I could only copy FROM the fake floppy.
2) SPEED! I got a boost from 570-650K/sec reads and 400-436K/sec writes to
750-875K/sec reads and 430-480K/sec writes. This is with an A2620, CDC
Wren III drive, and the diskperfs on Fish 48 & 187. The ONLY change was
the drive controller.
3) Microsmiths BlitzDisk2 cache program doesn't work with the HardFrame.
No ill effects, it just doesn't cache. This is spelled out in the
BlitzDisk2 docs, but I wonder why it's so. Not that it matters a whole
lot with the speeds I'm getting from the HardFrame.
Problems:
1) Low level format failed.
The low level format program ran fine, and correctly identified my Wren
III by model number and size. It also correctly noted that it was
already formatted with 1:1 interleave. But when I tried to do the format
it just hung.
I tried several times with the same results, and just gave up. Since the
drive was already formatted, it didn't hurt, but this could be a real
problem in other circumstances!
2) The HardFrame will not work in 68000 mode.
I did all my setup with the A2620 active, and everything works
perfectly. But when I disable the A2620 and boot in 68000 mode, I get
a continuous and random string of Gurus. I've never made it competely
through my startup-sequence. Even worse, the Gurus are completely
random, and happen at random times. I've gotten 3, 4, 5 and 6, all in
the 00204140 to 002264bc range.
The A2090A was 100% reliable in both A2620 and 68000 modes, and the only
thing that has been changed is the controller.
Again, I can live with it, because I only use the 68000 for a few brain-
dead games, but it still isn't right.
I'll be sending a letter off to Microbotics soon, but any help or advice
would be appreciated.
--
Blaine Gardner @ Evans & Sutherland 580 Arapeen Drive, SLC, Utah 84108
Here: utah-cs!esunix!blgardne {ucbvax,allegra,decvax}!decwrl!esunix!blgardne
There: uunet!iconsys!caeco!i-core!worsel!blaine (My Amiga running uucp)
"Nobody will ever need more than 64K." "Nobody needs multitasking on a PC."blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) (08/26/89)
From article <1452@esunix.UUCP>, by blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner): > A week ago I switched from the Commodore A2090A to the MicroBotics > HardFrame controller. Here's a few random thoughts and observances, and a > couple of requests for help. > Problems: > 1) Low level format failed. > 2) The HardFrame will not work in 68000 mode. It's been pointed out to me that I left a few details out of my original posting, like what the heck my system setup is! (That's what I get for posting late at night. :-) Anyway, here's the setup: A2000 rev 4.2 motherboard. Non-Signetics U605, but I installed the pullup resistor anyway. 1M Agnus. ASDG 2MI board, with 2M installed. A2620 card, 2M of 32 bit RAM. HardFrame. CDC Wren III 150 Meg SCSI drive. Roger Uzun suggested it might be a problem he ran into with a rev 6 motherboard and a Microbotics 8UP, that the problem was the 16 bit RAM card, not necessarily the 68000 mode. But I don't have the rev 6, or the 8UP, and I am using some of the 16 bit ASDG RAM even in 32 bit mode. I use MemPri to make FaccII take it's buffers out of 16 bit RAM. My next move is to use MemPri to run everything out of 16 bit RAM just to make sure that's not the problem. Since the only thing that changed was the Hd controller (from A2090A to HardFrame) something in the HardFrame or its setup is still my prime suspect. Thanks again for any help, Blaine. -- Blaine Gardner @ Evans & Sutherland 580 Arapeen Drive, SLC, Utah 84108 Here: utah-cs!esunix!blgardne {ucbvax,allegra,decvax}!decwrl!esunix!blgardne There: uunet!iconsys!caeco!i-core!worsel!blaine (My Amiga running uucp) "Nobody will ever need more than 64K." "Nobody needs multitasking on a PC."