jamesp@pro-sol.cts.com (James Pangrazzi) (11/03/90)
In-Reply-To: message from jackg@pro-ldm.cts.com I have a Zip GS and it hasn't given me any problems. I have the new High speed scsi card and a Chinook CT100 plus some other goodies. My GS really cooks. Three of us compared notes and even though the processor is approximatel2 1/2 times faster then the stock one you SEE about 1/3 reduction in time that the computer takes to do some thing. When you really see the speed difference is when you go help a user that has a bare bones setup. I like it alot and so do others I've spoken to. Please don't take this as I haven't heard of any problems. In fact before you do anything with the power supply you might try making the pins on your plug fit a little tighter. Everybody seems to acknowledge the plug was to easy to install. In fact one user couldn't get his to work because his was so loose. The only other problem I heard of is one user had E.N.I. he had to have a capacitor put on the board. Good luck and if you find the problem please let me know what it was.........Jim
sysadmin@pnet91.cts.com (Matthew Montano) (11/04/90)
I have recieved my Zip GSX (8mhz for now).
Other than the 8 or so trace wires running across the back, the board is nice.
(v1.01).
I don't know about everyone else, but my Zip GSX runs perfectly with my
RAMFast using the generated driver... heck it screams.
I have version v1.01 of the RAMFast ROM's... (I think).. Serial #60. Upgrade
information, features, anyone?
Matthew
---
Email: sysadmin@pnet91.cts.com (most mailers won't barf on that..)
My comments aren't even worth a disclaimer...
pnet91 - 416-237-{1204|0308}. 2400bps only. 1200bps if you do hard breaks.sysadmin@pnet91.cts.com (Matthew Montano) (11/04/90)
sysadmin@pnet91.cts.com (Matthew Montano) writes: > >I don't know about everyone else, but my Zip GSX runs perfectly with my >RAMFast using the generated driver... heck it screams. > I should of said the "loaded" driver.. I didn't change anything with my IIgs setup when installing the Zip GSX.. and everything else works fine.. (except for the TWGS that went 50 feet to the driveway surface at high velocity :) ). Matthew --- Email: sysadmin@pnet91.cts.com (most mailers won't barf on that..) My comments aren't even worth a disclaimer... pnet91 - 416-237-{1204|0308}. 2400bps only. 1200bps if you do hard breaks.
UD169430@NDSUVM1.BITNET (Mike Aos) (11/04/90)
In article <96@generic.UUCP>, sysadmin@pnet91.cts.com (Matthew Montano) says: > >sysadmin@pnet91.cts.com (Matthew Montano) writes: >> >>I don't know about everyone else, but my Zip GSX runs perfectly with my >>RAMFast using the generated driver... heck it screams. >> >I should of said the "loaded" driver.. I didn't change anything with my IIgs >setup when installing the Zip GSX.. and everything else works fine.. (except >for the TWGS that went 50 feet to the driveway surface at high velocity :) ). > >Matthew >--- >Email: sysadmin@pnet91.cts.com (most mailers won't barf on that..) >My comments aren't even worth a disclaimer... >pnet91 - 416-237-{1204|0308}. 2400bps only. 1200bps if you do hard breaks. Sorry, I would have deleted some of the above but I can't seem to locate PF-14 in Kermit v3.87's VT100 emulation. I tried a few escape sequences but they caused some nifty stuff to happen that I didn't really care for. Anyway I was just wondering what kind of problems other people have had with TWGS's? The guy I bought mine from swore he didn't have any problems with mine, but I did right from the start (in slot 4). Then I realized the oscillator (no matter how I spell it it looks wrong) was loose, and I stuck it in slot 3 (at the same time so I don't know which caused the problem). Then I tried to sell it to a friend and he had all kinds of problems with it (crashing stuff all the time, really unpredictable). I don't know what slot he put it in, or exactly what kinds of problems he was having (he's kind of a moron) so I took it back...and it wouldn't work right for me either! Then I stuck it in slot 2 and it's worked flawlessly ever since. Seems pretty odd to me, so I was wondering if anyone out there had a similar experience, or could even explain this. --- Mike Aos "I own a Harley, not just a T-shirt!" ['68 Sporty] East Grand Forks, MN (yeah, it's COLD up here) Are Amiga's really (218) 773-9154 | Woz | that bad? UD182050@NDSUVM1 (.Bitnet?) | Apple IIgs | "Share and Enjoy" UD182050@VM1.NoDak.Edu | (and Sun 2/120) | -Sirius Cybernetics Corporation I like to trade. | 'till I can afford a NeXT | (reserved for a Mac slam) "O captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting." _O Captain, My Captain_ -Walt Whitman
bh1e+@andrew.cmu.edu (Brendan Gallagher Hoar) (11/05/90)
On ething I've noticed about the GSX is that it seems there was a capacitor added as an afterthought on the back of the board (the ONLY thing on the back of the board and it was not Surface Mounted...its a big ole' thing)...oh yeah...my second set of dipswitches seems to have been soldered a little badly...switch 6 has a bad looking solder joint AND I can never get slot 6 to start up in fast mode...have to use the CDA to do it...not that it matters anyway since if I actually had anything in that slot, it would be a Disk II controller anyway.... Brendan G. Hoar bh1e+@andrew.cmu.edu Carnegie Mellon, Inc.
alfter@uns-helios.nevada.edu (SCOTT ALFTER) (11/07/90)
In article <90308.000555UD169430@NDSUVM1.BITNET> UD169430@NDSUVM1.BITNET (Mike Aos) writes: >Sorry, I would have deleted some of the above but I can't seem to locate >PF-14 in Kermit v3.87's VT100 emulation. I tried a few escape sequences but You're using an IBM 30xx mainframe, right? I had an account on a 3081-GX once. Using either ProTERM or Kermit 3.86, pressing Escape followed by a key in the top row of the keyboard would let me access the PF keys. Esc 1 is PF-1, Esc 2 is PF-2...Esc 0 is PF-10, Esc - is PF-11, and Esc = is PF-12. For PF-13 through PF-24, hold down Shift. PF-14 would be Esc Shift-2, or Esc @. Also, I think PA3 is Esc . (period) and PA1 is Esc , (comma). Don't quote me on it, though, since it's been a while, but those keys should work. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scott Alfter _/_ / v \ Apple II: Internet: alfter@uns-helios.nevada.edu ( ( the power to be your best! GEnie: S.ALFTER \_^_/
bh1e+@andrew.cmu.edu (Brendan Gallagher Hoar) (11/08/90)
No, I didn't mess with anything...Got 10 thumbs... Yeah, I've got the GSX running fine, just gotta make sure that both the plug and the socket are pushed down real hard first. No problems after that. Everything seems to be running fine.. Notice one weird thing...made some 3.5s with everything set to fast (CPS follow off, etc). Could be read fine in my drive even with everything set to slow (CPS follow on) and the ZIP set to off, but couln't be read on someone's UniDISK 3.5 on a stock GS. Made the disks later with everything set slow on my machine and they could be read fine...I know the docs say that floppies won't work if CPS follow is off, but this is just weird... May have just been a fluke magnetic field in transportation... On the other system, the disks acted just like my ZIP GS disk did when it arrived...about 1/4 of the blocks (randomly) were bad (ZIP says tha about 50 bad disks went out...wonder if they were playing around with the setting on a GSX like I did...probably not). Anyway, enough babble. Brendan G. Hoar bh1e+@andrew.cmu.edu Carnegie Mellon, Inc.
UD169430@NDSUVM1.BITNET (Mike Aos) (11/08/90)
In article <2249@unsvax.NEVADA.EDU>, alfter@uns-helios.nevada.edu (SCOTT ALFTER) says: > >In article <90308.000555UD169430@NDSUVM1.BITNET> UD169430@NDSUVM1.BITNET (Mike >Aos) writes: >>Sorry, I would have deleted some of the above but I can't seem to locate >>PF-14 in Kermit v3.87's VT100 emulation. I tried a few escape sequences but > >You're using an IBM 30xx mainframe, right? I had an account on a >3081-GX once. Using either ProTERM or Kermit 3.86, pressing Escape >followed by a key in the top row of the keyboard would let me access >the PF keys. Esc 1 is PF-1, Esc 2 is PF-2...Esc 0 is PF-10, Esc - is >PF-11, and Esc = is PF-12. For PF-13 through PF-24, hold down Shift. >PF-14 would be Esc Shift-2, or Esc @. Also, I think PA3 is Esc . >(period) and PA1 is Esc , (comma). Don't quote me on it, though, >since it's been a while, but those keys should work. > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Scott Alfter _/_ > / v \ Apple II: >Internet: alfter@uns-helios.nevada.edu ( ( the power to be your best! > GEnie: S.ALFTER \_^_/ I would have changed the subject but it appears you cannot on a Followup message. Anyway, I got mail from someone explaining I could use the '0' key as a +12 and it works just fine. Also, did you know you can hit esc-q and it drops you into ProDOS BYE (ProSel-16 in my case)? Kinda cool. For some reason since I started using this program ProTerm drops chars all the time. I haven't bothered to figure out if it's 'cuz of modem port settings (unlikely), or if Kermit inits the modem differently. --- Mike Aos "I own a Harley, not just a T-shirt!" ['68 Sporty] East Grand Forks, MN (yeah, it's COLD up here) Are Amiga's really (218) 773-9154 | Woz | that bad? UD182050@NDSUVM1 (.Bitnet?) | Apple IIgs | "Share and Enjoy" UD182050@VM1.NoDak.Edu | (and Sun 2/120) | -Sirius Cybernetics Corporation I like to trade. | 'till I can afford a NeXT | (reserved for a Mac slam) "O captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting." _O Captain, My Captain_ -Walt Whitman
toddpw@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel) (11/08/90)
Do yourself a favor and turn CPS follow on. It should eliminate your floppy problems. Todd Whitesel toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu
bh1e+@andrew.cmu.edu (Brendan Gallagher Hoar) (11/09/90)
Yeah, well, the original disk they sent me WAS bad...but... Seems that the CPS follow was off...it can still READ 3.5s, but it can't be trusted to WRITE them reliably... And its right there in the DOCS... Brendan G. Hoar bh1e+@andrew.cmu.edu Carnegie Mellon, Inc.
ericmcg@pnet91.cts.com (Eric Mcgillicuddy) (03/04/91)
A while back people were talking about the ASIC 65816 clone and installing a 20MHz version on the ZIP GSX. The discussion revolved around the fact the Zip GSX controller is designed to run at 20MHz out of the box. This is NOT true. The controller is designed to run at a 40MHz crystal speed, but this must be divided by 4 for the card to function. This gives an absolute maximum speed of 10MHz. To get faster, effectively the board needs to be replaced. I suspect that you can push many of the components beyond their rated speeds, but the failure rate will increase significantly. The good news is that 10MHz is now available. It is expensive, but available. With a 64k cache this makes it almost twice as fast as a 7MHz TWGS (unconfirmed, but so reported). BTW the hit ratio seems to be in the neighbouhood of 60% with a 16k cache, increasing the cache is about the cheapest way to improve performance. I expect that a 64k cache will produce close to 90% hit ratio. Although I would prefer 256k myself. UUCP: bkj386!pnet91!ericmcg INET: ericmcg@pnet91.cts.com
shankar@SRC.Honeywell.COM (Subash Shankar) (03/06/91)
In article <554@generic.UUCP> ericmcg@pnet91.cts.com (Eric Mcgillicuddy) writes: >BTW the hit ratio seems to be in the neighbouhood of 60% with a 16k cache, >increasing the cache is about the cheapest way to improve performance. I >expect that a 64k cache will produce close to 90% hit ratio. Although I would >prefer 256k myself. Though the 90% figure sounds optimistic to me, I would think it would depend a lot on what is cached (data or instructions?) and the mapping strategy? Does anybody know what kind of cache the Zip chip and the TWGS use? --- Subash Shankar Honeywell Systems & Research Center MN65-2100 voice: (612) 782 7558 US Snail: 3660 Technology Dr., Minneapolis, MN 55418 shankar@src.honeywell.com srcsip!shankar
spock@incom.incom.de (Martin Georg) (03/06/91)
Sorry guys, but as Tony Vece from Zip Technology told me recently, the Zip GSX board has been designed to run at Speed levels of up to 25 Mhz. Currently, Zip's ASIC cp (the big, flat custom chip on the GSX, not Tony Fadell's 65816 clone!), is designed in 1,2 Micron technology and will work with 65816 processors of up to 16 Mhz. The 10Mhz-speed is only an internal value for this ASIC chip! If Zip Technology decides to manufacture their ASIC chip at 1,0 Micron tech- nology, the GSX board would be good for far more than 25 Mhz. Martin Georg Frankfurt, Germany AUGE e.V., Apple IIgs SIG-President
whitewolf@gnh-starport.cts.com (Tae Song) (03/10/91)
I'm not 100% sure on this, but as I understood it the cache controller would or is running at twice the speed of the CPU and for a 20Mhz CPU you need a 80Mhz crystal and the Cache controller would divide the 80Mhz signal to 40 Mhz for the cache controller and 20Mhz for the CPU on the Zip GSX. What ever happen to the ASIC Enterprise's AE165816 chip anyway??? whitewolf@gnh-starport!info-apple
acct069@CARROLL1.CC.EDU (Ron) (04/15/91)
I hope I've got the subject line right. Does anyone know if Zip Technologies ever came out with the "chip" versions of the accelerator for the Apple //gs? All I've seen advertised is the "slot-based" version (GSX?) They were supposed to come out with 3 versions of the Apple //gs accelerator. A chip based non-DMA, a chip based DMA compatable, and a slot-based expandable version with everyone seems to have. Ron | Lightning Systems, INC. | Apple // Forever! acct069@carroll1.cc.edu | (414) 363-4282 60megs | I feel the need carroll1!acct069@uwm.edu | 14.4k HST/V.32bis | for more speed...
toddpw@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel) (04/15/91)
acct069@CARROLL1.CC.EDU (Ron) writes: >They were supposed to come out with 3 versions of the Apple //gs >accelerator. A chip based non-DMA, a chip based DMA compatable, and a >slot-based expandable version with everyone seems to have. The slot-based expandable was the only version they initially made, and it's what the majority of their market wanted (people who for the most part weren't suspicious of Zip because of their earlier problems with the //e Zip -- which weren't their fault although their rather inept P.R. handling made it seem that way). Now that the word is out that the Zip GS is O.K. they have realized that there's little point in manufacturing three different boards -- especially when the real cost is in the CPUs now that they've worked enough bugs out to go into bigger production quantities. Selling a single board makes infnitely more sense, especially when you can equip it with the base configuration and sell it for $149. This means less shuffling when people upgrade and so on. Todd Whitesel toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu