[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] IDE Data Transfer Rates

nfs0294@dsacg2.dsac.dla.mil (Glen Midkiff) (01/25/91)

I have IDE drives installed in both a 286/12 and a 386SX/16 system.  The 
drive is a Maxtor 8051A, 42meg, 28ms access time.  According to Coretest,
Checkit, QAplus, etc. the data transfer rate appears to be way below what
I would expect.  Coretest shows 362kb.  A MFM 1:1 drive gives a transfer     
rate of around 450kb and a RLL 1:1 about 698kb.  

So, do I have something wrong or is it a problem with the programs that
measure transfer rates that they can't handle IDE drives?

BTW, I am using a 16bit IDE interface card.    
Either send email (gmidkiff@dsac.dla.mil) or post here if you have any
input.
-- 
 |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
 |Glen Midkiff   osu-cis!dsac!gmidkiff                                   |
 |From the Internet: gmidkiff@dsac.dla.mil                               |
 |Phone: (614)-238-9643 @DLA, Systems Automation Center, Columbus, Oh.   |

gwoho@nntp-server.caltech.edu (g liu) (01/26/91)

nfs0294@dsacg2.dsac.dla.mil (Glen Midkiff) writes:

>I have IDE drives installed in both a 286/12 and a 386SX/16 system.  The 
>drive is a Maxtor 8051A, 42meg, 28ms access time.  According to Coretest,
>Checkit, QAplus, etc. the data transfer rate appears to be way below what
>I would expect.  Coretest shows 362kb.  A MFM 1:1 drive gives a transfer     
>rate of around 450kb and a RLL 1:1 about 698kb.  

>So, do I have something wrong or is it a problem with the programs that
>measure transfer rates that they can't handle IDE drives?

maybe the controllers are capable of speeds like 450kb or 698kb, but
its not the controiller that determines the speed---its the drive.
if a drive spins at 60 times a second, reads only one head at a time,
has say 1k per track, it will only transfer 60k per second.
maybe the drive spins slowly, as cheap drives like mine do, so it does
not transfer much quickly.
mines about 250k/sec, because it spins slowly and has not many bytes per
track, can only read one head at a time.
gwoho liu.