mark@gcrc.aecom.YU.EDU (mark lyakhovsky) (08/22/89)
Hi I am a owner of the new cronos control from C-ltd and since there have been numerous queries regarding different hard disk i would like to give my .05 worth 1) I just manage to make autobootable and it does work after some quirks (i didn't expect it to work the first time) 2) yes it does automount(at least on my computer) meaning the only mount command that i have is mount newcon: 3)the thing is incredibly fast i mean it is at least 3 times faster than there old controller i don't know how accurate there devspeed program is but it gave on the average 680000 bytes of read and 54000 b/sec my personal opinion is that this thing is great you can actually see it issue a scsi command (the green light next to power light flashes ) and at same time i start seeing the 277N flashing away looking for information great job and i think you can get this for something like 190-210 Mark Lyakhovsky ( i have no relations with C-ltd) Sys. Manager for G.C.R.C. @Albert Einstein College of medicine
alj@bilver.UUCP (alj) (08/23/89)
Speaking of the new C. Ltd Kronos controller ("Quotes, what quotes?"):
I also received and installed my auto-boot chips for my A2000 C. Ltd.
Kronos hard drive controller card. After it wouldn't auto-boot regardless
of how many times I kicked the machine (just kidding...) I called their
technical help number (non-toll-free) and spent about ten minutes with a
helpful guy who told me to download a file off of the BBS and run a certain
'convert' program to fix certain problems with their "older" cards. After
this (another non-toll-free call, approximately 15 minutes), everything
worked fine. D*mn, should have thought of this fix myself... :)
Regardless, my times (diskperf v3.0) are around 70K read with a 1024 buffer,
and 54K write. Are you sure your read time (680K) is correct?
Needless to say, compared to other system performances being posted, I am
not impressed with the "Faster than DMA!" Kronos controller. Given, my
drive is an Adaptec 4070 controlled model with an unknown access time (10
seconds :) ), bought from C. Ltd. ages (about a year and a half) ago, but those
times are still disappointingly slow.
Anyone else have a similar story or experience?
Oh, these incredibly-fast times are realized with an interleave of four (for
the Adaptec), turning on all the BlockReads/BlockWrites, and worst of all,
disabling IRQ interrupts (i.e., can't modem and use the drive at the same time
as it introduces garbage due to the interrupts not being serviced at the right
time). A painful way to get the speed improvements I so desperately need...
So, where's a FAST hard drive system for under $5? Oh, but be about 50 megs...
--
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******************************************************************************barrett@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Dan Barrett) (08/24/89)
In article <288@bilver.UUCP> alj@.UUCP () writes: > > Speaking of the new C. Ltd Kronos controller ("Quotes, what quotes?")... > Regardless, my times (diskperf v3.0) are around 70K read with a 1024 buffer, >and 54K write. Are you sure your read time (680K) is correct? >Given, my drive is an Adaptec 4070 controlled model with an unknown access >time (10 seconds :) ), bought from C. Ltd. ages (about a year and a half) >ago, but those times are still disappointingly slow. I have an old C.Ltd. controller, Adaptec 4070, and slow 65ms-access hard drive. My reads are easily 140Kb/sec. Are you using the fast filesystem? > Oh, these incredibly-fast times are realized with an interleave of four >(for the Adaptec), turning on all the BlockReads/BlockWrites, and worst of >all, disabling IRQ interrupts.... Read the manual carefully. My interleave is at 5, which is the recommended interleave on the 4070-based drives. C.Ltd. controllers tend to be VERY interleave-sensitive. Also, I recall that certain options in the devs:DevSetup file must NOT be turned on with the 4070. I forget which ones, but they are clearly marked in the example DevSetups in the manual. Hope this helps. Dan //////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ | Dan Barrett, Systems Administrator -- barrett@cs.jhu.edu (128.220.13.4) | | Dept. of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218 | | E-mail addresses: INTERNET: barrett@cs.jhu.edu | | BITNET: ins_adjb@jhuvms.bitnet | | UUCP: barrett@jhunix.UUCP (NOTE NEW ADDRESS!) | | COMPUSERVE: >internet:barrett@cs.jhu.edu | \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\/////////////////////////////////////
roadman@portia.Stanford.EDU (arthur walker) (08/25/89)
In article <2354@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>, barrett@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Dan Barrett) writes: > In article <288@bilver.UUCP> alj@.UUCP () writes: > > > > Speaking of the new C. Ltd Kronos controller ("Quotes, what quotes?")... > > Regardless, my times (diskperf v3.0) are around 70K read with a 1024 buffer, > >and 54K write. Are you sure your read time (680K) is correct? > >Given, my drive is an Adaptec 4070 controlled model with an unknown access ... > I have an old C.Ltd. controller, Adaptec 4070, and slow 65ms-access > hard drive. My reads are easily 140Kb/sec. > > Oh, these incredibly-fast times are realized with an interleave of four > >(for the Adaptec), turning on all the BlockReads/BlockWrites, and worst of > >all, disabling IRQ interrupts.... > > Read the manual carefully. My interleave is at 5, which is the > recommended interleave on the 4070-based drives. C.Ltd. controllers tend to > be VERY interleave-sensitive. Also, I recall that certain options in the > devs:DevSetup file must NOT be turned on with the 4070. I forget which > ones, but they are clearly marked in the example DevSetups in the manual. Ah, but the Kronos is different. It's my understanding that it has hardware handshaking to check that the REQ line on the SBIC has been asserted again before allowing the byte read or write in what's called pseudo-dma mode by the chip-makers, which has more to do with the chip state than what's going on outside of it. Apple uses a similar trick on the SE and the mac II to allow what they call blind transfer. The 4070 evidently does some internal service right in the middle of sector transfers, and it takes enough time that a blind reading host can get the same byte more than once if its code is running at all fast. The 4000 has the same sort of internal service, but manages it much better, such that you have to have a 68020 to catch it. Remember, it only has to move 2/3 as many bytes per unit time to the SBIC, its 8085 has an easier life. So the fact that this guy is not swamped by r/w errors indicates that the Kronos DOES fix this in hardware. He should continue to use BLOCKREAD although BLOCKWRITE is inactive in the current rev. I found that 4:1 was OK, but that was with a 68020 and the older controller. I'm surprised that he's not getting a lot more out of his controller though. Even the mac II couldn't get more than around 300k r/w with the 4070 though, even with blind reads (hardware handshaking, remember). The strategy should be to use the old drivers, if they'll work, to low-format a large enough section to perform benchmark tests on, and go through a bunch of interleaves. Note he'll have to back up ALL data anyway, formatting a subset just makes the testing go faster. > | Dan Barrett, Systems Administrator -- barrett@cs.jhu.edu (128.220.13.4) | art walker roadman@portia.stnaford.edu