igully wrote on 2024-12-22, 16:38:
In any case, drive compression was always a double edged sword where you always traded speed for storage space.
To aid in this speed issue, some expansion cards to aid in compression duties were released, but were never a success for one reason or the other.
Yes, but it depends. An XT with a V20 processor can reach better performance on an MFM/RLL drive when compression is used.
Factors like bus passthrough throughput and interleave factor can be more of a bottle neck than the compression algorithm.
I've tried it on an XT with Double Space from MS-DOS 6.20. Performance wasn't noticeable worse.
Saving was faster sometimes, even.
Then there's another thing. The waste of FAT allocation units.
On FAT16, each file takes up a certain minimum space. Even if it's an empty text file.
Now, when drive compression is used, all those small files are being bundled, essentially.
The FAT is de-cluttered a lot, thus. The storage capacity is now rather used for actual data.
PS: The Stacker co-processor boards for ISA bus were cool! 😁
I wished I had one. Wonder if they can ve rebuild. It's certainly a novelty item to have.
Edit: Found an advertisement.
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In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
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