A1200 pcmcia questions

Paul_s · 10 July 2008, 13:53

Is it true that the PCMCIA port on the A1200 is faster than the internal IDE port???

If that's true can you boot straight off a flash card if it sits in the PCMCIA slot???

It's been a while since I last used a 1200

/sorry for the pcmcia talk but I'm just looking at different options if I decide to shell out on a 1200.

cane · 10 July 2008, 14:25

@Paul_S
Don't know if it's faster, but I know you can't boot from pcmcia.
But take a look here.

Jope · 10 July 2008, 15:35

No discussion in the compatibility list thread, thanks.

Paul_s · 10 July 2008, 16:01

i knew I'd get told off one second after hitting reply.

Anywho cheers cane

The only reason I ask regarding the speed issue is that many moons ago I'm sure I read somewhere when the Zapco overdrive was released that it mentioned it was quicker than running internally??

ppill · 10 July 2008, 16:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul_s

If that's true can you boot straight off a flash card if it sits in the PCMCIA slot???

If by 'flash card' you mean CompactFlash then NO... unless you use the method descibed in the thread cane pointed out.

But if you meant a SRAM card then YES. Using PrepCard you can decide to use it as extra memory (useless on an A1200 as it will slow down the machine) or as a disk (which can be made bootable).

Hope that helps.

As far as speed is concerned it feels pretty zippy.

Zetr0 · 10 July 2008, 16:09

I know the PCMCIA is 16bit, and that the the IDE is Polled IO. I believe the later takes up more resources of the CPU, thus making it slower.... obviously the faster the CPU the less noticeable it is... unless you go SCSI!!!!

fc.studio · 10 July 2008, 18:03

I believe that a very rough method to evaluate the speed is to compare the time of a copy of files from hard drive to ram disk and a copy of the same files from PCMCIA to ram disk. Surely both are faster than floppy.

Zetr0 · 10 July 2008, 20:48

well lets see

SRAM used as a hard disk will have an seek access of 200ns typical on the Amiga, where as a fast Hard Disk is around 8.5ms ...

The phyiscial writing speed on the IDE (with an Apollo 060+32MB fast) to a CF device (without buffer or other type of interface) is approximately 2MB per second

I have yet to test a CF enabled over the PCMCIA, but I believe it would be substantially quicker than Native Amiga IDE.

sysinfo should be able to help

Dimlow · 11 July 2008, 00:17

I tested my CF yesterday with the 060 Apollo, got 1.8MB and got just over 2Mb on IDE, i used SYSinfo

Zetr0 · 11 July 2008, 00:24

@Dimlow

Now thats interesting, I expected the PCMCIA to be slightly faster, was this being tested on FAT or Native Amiga Format, I am not sure if this would be a factor or not...

still very fascinating

fc.studio · 11 July 2008, 01:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dimlow

I tested my CF yesterday with the 060 Apollo, got 1.8MB and got just over 2Mb on IDE, i used SYSinfo

On my A1200 with Blizzard 1230 IV (68030 @50) and 16MB I got 1,6 MB on CF and over 2,3 MB on IDE with IBM Travelstar 2,5" Hard drive. At the moment I can't try CF on IDE.

NovaCoder · 11 July 2008, 01:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by fc.studio

On my A1200 with Blizzard 1230 IV (68030 @50) and 16MB I got 1,6 MB on CF and over 2,3 MB on IDE with IBM Travelstar 2,5" Hard drive. At the moment I can't try CF on IDE.

And then you add an IDE-Fix Express into the mix

10 July 2008, 13:53	#1
Paul_s Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Amigaville Age: 46 Posts: 3,336	A1200 pcmcia questions Is it true that the PCMCIA port on the A1200 is faster than the internal IDE port??? If that's true can you boot straight off a flash card if it sits in the PCMCIA slot??? It's been a while since I last used a 1200 /sorry for the pcmcia talk but I'm just looking at different options if I decide to shell out on a 1200.

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10 July 2008, 14:25	#2
cane Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: .hr Age: 45 Posts: 540	@Paul_S Don't know if it's faster, but I know you can't boot from pcmcia. But take a look here.

10 July 2008, 15:35	#3
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,864	No discussion in the compatibility list thread, thanks.

10 July 2008, 16:01	#4
Paul_s Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Amigaville Age: 46 Posts: 3,336	i knew I'd get told off one second after hitting reply. Anywho cheers cane The only reason I ask regarding the speed issue is that many moons ago I'm sure I read somewhere when the Zapco overdrive was released that it mentioned it was quicker than running internally??

10 July 2008, 16:09	#6
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	I know the PCMCIA is 16bit, and that the the IDE is Polled IO. I believe the later takes up more resources of the CPU, thus making it slower.... obviously the faster the CPU the less noticeable it is... unless you go SCSI!!!!

10 July 2008, 18:03	#7
fc.studio Cat lover Join Date: May 2004 Location: Italy Age: 54 Posts: 804	I believe that a very rough method to evaluate the speed is to compare the time of a copy of files from hard drive to ram disk and a copy of the same files from PCMCIA to ram disk. Surely both are faster than floppy.

10 July 2008, 20:48	#8
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	well lets see SRAM used as a hard disk will have an seek access of 200ns typical on the Amiga, where as a fast Hard Disk is around 8.5ms ... The phyiscial writing speed on the IDE (with an Apollo 060+32MB fast) to a CF device (without buffer or other type of interface) is approximately 2MB per second I have yet to test a CF enabled over the PCMCIA, but I believe it would be substantially quicker than Native Amiga IDE. sysinfo should be able to help

11 July 2008, 00:17	#9
Dimlow Likes to be thought of as Join Date: May 2008 Location: Kent,UK Age: 55 Posts: 529	I tested my CF yesterday with the 060 Apollo, got 1.8MB and got just over 2Mb on IDE, i used SYSinfo

11 July 2008, 00:24	#10
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	@Dimlow Now thats interesting, I expected the PCMCIA to be slightly faster, was this being tested on FAT or Native Amiga Format, I am not sure if this would be a factor or not... still very fascinating

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