warden@grad1.cis.upenn.edu (Robert Warden) (04/10/91)
Hi, I've been thinking of purchasing a cache card for my IIci
and had some questions.
1. Does anyone out there have a cache card and do
they think the performace increase is worth the price?
2. Which card is better - Apple's newly released card (64K I think)
- DayStar's Fast Cache IIci (64K)
- Technology Works IIci cache card (64K)
I also remember reading somewhere about a 128K cache
card - anyone remember the name?
3. I once heard that people had problems with crashes on some
programs that didn't expect the cache to be there. Technically
I think a cache should be transparent, but who knows what is
actually done?
4. Is the "RAM cache" control in the Control Panel only for
an added cache card, or does it refer to something else?
5. Is the IIci cache an instruction cache, a data cache, or
both (unified). What type of performance increase are we
talking about. I want to speed up my IIci, but
I'm not really excited about buying an accelerator since
I don't need that much speed.
- Thanks!!
**************************************************************************
** Robert Warden warden@grad1.cis.upenn.edu **
** University of Pennsylvania **
** **
** "Even a broken clock tells the time correctly twice a day" **
** - Withnail & I **
**************************************************************************chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (04/10/91)
warden@grad1.cis.upenn.edu (Robert Warden) writes: >Hi, I've been thinking of purchasing a cache card for my IIci >and had some questions. > 1. Does anyone out there have a cache card and do > they think the performace increase is worth the price? I installed one in my IIci and definitely noticed a difference. I haven't done any timing, but the machine is definitely perkier. > 2. Which card is better - Apple's newly released card (64K I think) > - DayStar's Fast Cache IIci (64K) > - Technology Works IIci cache card (64K) I use the Apple card (hmm. wonder why). Not having tested it against others, I can't say, but it works fine. > I also remember reading somewhere about a 128K cache > card - anyone remember the name? Great to impress the friends -- unlikely to really help performance. The cache card holds a working set. Increasing the size of the card will rarely (very rarely) help -- you just use the cache less effectively. > 3. I once heard that people had problems with crashes on some > programs that didn't expect the cache to be there. Technically > I think a cache should be transparent, but who knows what is > actually done? Early Apple cards had technical glitches. They're fixed. I wouldn't worry about it. > 4. Is the "RAM cache" control in the Control Panel only for > an added cache card, or does it refer to something else? This refers to an area of your regular memory used as a disk cache. It's completely separate from the IIci cache card. > 5. Is the IIci cache an instruction cache, a data cache, or > both (unified). What type of performance increase are we > talking about. I want to speed up my IIci, but > I'm not really excited about buying an accelerator since > I don't need that much speed. It's a memory cache -- it sits between the CPU and the memory, and if the cache has a specific memory location in cache, it intercepts the memory request and gives it to the CPU very quickly. -- Chuq Von Rospach >=< chuq@apple.com >=< GEnie: CHUQ >=< AppleLink: CHUQ SFWA Nebula Awards Reports Editor =+= Editor, OtherRealms Book Reviewer, Amazing Stories ---@--- #include <standard/disclaimer.h> Recommended reading: XENOCIDE by Orson Scott Card (with reservations, August); GOBLIN MOON by Teresa Edgerton; BONE DANCE by Emma Bull (May)