SCSI VLB vs. caching IDE VLB \ VOGONS

SCSI VLB vs. caching IDE VLB

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First post, by feipoa

Posted on 2016-01-04, 18:51

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Could someone share their hard disk benchmark results for a VLB SCSI card, e.g. Adaptec AHA-2842A (with & without smartdrv), compared with a caching IDE VLB card, e.g. Tekram DC680-T, using an Am5x86 or Intel DX4 in write-back mode? Thanks!

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Reply 1 of 6, by Unknown_K

Posted on 2016-01-04, 23:42

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I would think either solution is bottlenecked by the VLB interface with newer fast drives (IDE or SCSI).

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Reply 2 of 6, by kixs

Posted on 2016-01-05, 05:10

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I recently got both VLB SCSI and VLB IDE Tekram caching card. But didn't yet tested them. I guess I can take a drive with 5x86-P75 and SK096... in a few days.

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Reply 3 of 6, by Anonymous Coward

Posted on 2016-01-05, 06:24

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The SCSI card has to be a DMA model, or it's not really a fair comparison. (AHA 2842x IS bus mastering DMA)

Last edited by Anonymous Coward on 2016-01-05, 11:45. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 4 of 6, by feipoa

Posted on 2016-01-05, 06:43

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Do you know which VLB SCSI cards properly support DMA? This comment indirectly mentions DMA and the 2842A,
http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/support/_eol/scs … ng_aha-2840.htm

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Reply 5 of 6, by Jolaes76

Posted on 2016-01-06, 11:39

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Back in the day Adaptec VLB cards were NOT as popular as their ISA and later PCI models. Adaptec cards simply had a few more (minor) issues than the competition.
Buslogic was a favourite, for example. This guy settled for one with proper DMA and bus mastering (jump to roughly 25% of the page, component No. 9) :

https://ancientelectronics.wordpress.com/2012/07/

As mentioned earlier, some late SiS 471 motherboards claim to have the issue (SCSI busmastering controllers versus L1 write back cache) fixed. Needs to be checked.

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Reply 6 of 6, by feipoa

Posted on 2016-01-06, 12:03

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Interesting. I have not had any problem (yet?) using my Adaptec AHA-2842A with the SiS 471 chipset in write-back mode. Win95c installed fine anyway. I wonder how that BusLogic BT-445S compares against the AHA-2842A?

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