TIP: Click on subject to list as thread! ANSI
echo: cis.general_interest
to: MM/ 1ers
from: Carl Kreider 71076,76
date: 1992-01-12 15:13:47
subject: Hard Disks

#: 13966 S1/General Interest
    12-Jan-92  15:13:47
Sb: Hard Disks
Fm: Carl Kreider 71076,76
To: MM/  1ers

I thought perhaps current and future MM1 owners might be interested in
the results of the testing I've done during the course of the development
of the disk drivers for the MM1.

The following chart shows transfer speed in bytes per second for the
drives I have tested on the MM1 with the dma driver.  (The programmed I/O
driver wouldn't get above 25,000 on *any* drive).  The test method is to
read some quantity of sectors repeatedly (not the same sectors, though)
until enough time has elapsed to give reasonable granularity.  My rule of
thumb is that the test should last at least 100 time intervals (ticks or
seconds).  By varying the quantity read, you can get some idea about the
overhead of the operating system and how the performance will vary with
application (copy moves big blocks at a time, while payroll may not).
The most obvious conclusion you can make is that speed is related to
cost.  If you know the mechanics of the drives, it is also related to
cache size on the drive and raw data rate used internally on the drive.
It is also related to the speed of the micro on the drive (the ST296
doesn't seem to keep up at 1:1) and of course interleave.

Gulp    ST2502 CP340 1:1 CP340 2:1 CP340 4:1  PRO210S  ST296 1:1 ST296 2:1
   1   110,376    29,537    28,532    26,546                        27,235
   2   204,600    56,676    44,384    47,127                        53,773
   4   332,222    99,864    82,241    76,260                        97,541
   8   500,812   176,602   134,217   110,376                       161,319
  16   906,876   279,620   195,083   137,518                       239,679
  32 1,177,348   390,167   250,406   159,783   524,288    57,852   322,638
  64 1,636,801   479,349   294,337   172,960   838,860             381,300
 128 1,720,740   479,349   294,337   171,196 1,198,372             381,300
 256 1,766,022   516,222   310,689   176,602                       399,457
 512 1,864,135   524,288   316,551   178,481                       409,200

Definitions:
    Gulp    How many sectors are read at once
    ST2502  Segate 443MB 16 ms 5.25"
    CP340   Conner 40MB ??ms 3.5", 2:1 means interleave of 2
    PRO210S Quantum 210MB 15 ms 3.5"
    ST296   Segate 85MB 281

SOURCE: compuserve via textfiles.com

Email questions or comments to sysop@ipingthereforeiam.com
All parts of this website painstakingly hand-crafted in the U.S.A.!
IPTIA BBS/MUD/Terminal/Game Server List, © 2025 IPTIA Consulting™.