From: tw5232@albnyvms.bitnet (Teddy Wang)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: '040 and SCSI
Date: 22 Jul 92 01:55:17 GMT
Reply-To: tw5232@albnyvms.bitnet
Organization: University of NY at Albany

In article <mike.0310@agrijag.UUCP>, mike@agrijag.UUCP (Mike Schiller) writes:
>In article <53585@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> ab@nova.cc.purdue.edu (Allen B) writes:
>> In article <kaltenha.710501074@fidji> kaltenha@informatik.uni-freiburg.de
>> (Raoul Kaltenhaeuser) writes:
>> >I plan to buy a A2000 + 68040 + SCSI-Drive (a A3000+040 would be
>> >too expensive). I heard that there are 040 boards with SCSI host
>> >controller onboard. Is that true? Which companies produce them?
>> >Is this combination faster than SCSI host and 68040 on seperated
>> >boards? Are there drawbacks to the combo-solution?
>>
>With the recient price reduction of the A3000 & 2000, and with the price of
>the original PP&S 040 card for the 3000 having dropped in price, I would
>say that you'd probably be better off getting the A3000/PP&S040 combo rather
>than an A2000 with an 040. First off, the 040's on the 2000 may well run at
>28mhz, but the rest of the system (the system bus) still only runs at 7.16
>mhz, whereas with the 3000 not only is the 040 running at 25mhz, but the
>rest of the system is as well! One advantage to the PP&S 040 is that it's
>the only one that I know of that runs Syncronously with the A3000, and what
>that means is that most of the others that run Async, you have a similiar
>situation to the 2000 boards, that is the board runs at 28mhz, but the rest
>of the system still only runs at 25mhz (or 16mhz if you get a 16mhz 3000).
>The benefit of this isn't clear right away, but it is this - If you find a
>dealer that has one of the 16mhz A3000's in stock, chances are you can pick
>it up REAL cheaply, as usually nobody wants them, they want the 25mhz ones.
>Now when you put the PP&S 040 in it makes the whole system run at 25mhz
>(other than the 16mhz 68030/68882's there's no difference between the 2
>models of 3000), so now that you're not using the stock processor anymore
>you will have all the benefits of a 25mhz 040 3000 in a much cheaper package!
>The only disadvantage to the 16mhz machines is that you can no longer jump
>back to the 68030 like you can with a 25mhz machine, as you have to change
>some jumpers on the MB of the 3000 that determine the speed of it, the
>choices you get are: 16mhz, 25mhz, or external speed which is what the PP&S
>board uses, as it regulates the speed of the machine, and it's telling the
>machine to go at 25mhz, and the 16mhz parts can't handle that speed!


Now this is a silly post!  First off, you can get a used 2000 for around $500. 
At least a month ago you could get the RCS Fusion Forty for $995.  That's $1500
for an '040 machine!  Add some 32bit ram and you'll be going 4 times faster
than a standard 3000.  We're talking $2000 for a fully configured 17 MIPS
computer!  Well lets, see I've seen standard A3000/16 for around $2000 (used of
course)!!!  About bus speeds, unless the amiga gets someone serious to enter
the hardware seen (say someone comes out with a Zorro III SCSI-2 controller or
something like that,) you're not going to need the bandwidth.  A good SCSI
controller will operate at about 1 to 2 megs per second, which is about the
maximum throughput of a fast SCSI drive (easily attainable with Zorro II and a
'040.)  Yes if Zorro III had some good expansion development (like EISA is
now,)it would be worth the money to buy a 3000, but I don't know how you could
justify spending that kind of money on the 3000 - '040 but as it stands, Amiga
just doesn't have those devices...
 
>
>> As the last poster said, PP&S makes them.  The only
>> drawback is how much they cost ($2400 with no RAM (and no
>> drive?), I think).  As someone who just bought a
>> Fusion-Forty and a GVP Series II for less than the
>> equivalent single card solution, I should know.
>>
>> For me the extra disk performance wasn't worth the extra
>> expense at this time.  RCS (makers of Fusion-Forty) claim
>> they will have a combination '040/SCSI card in the future
>> that I'll be able to trade up to.  I'll think about it.  'Til
>> then, I'll just take advantage of the extra cycles.
>>
>> ab
>
>--
>                        -Mike Schiller
>                         CIS  : 76416,3065
>                           or   76416.3065@compuserve.com
>                         BIX  : schiller
>                         UUCP : ...uflorida!novavax!agrijag!mike
>                         GEnie: schiller
     ////////  
       //                                             twang@thor.albany.edu
      //                                              TWANG@ALBNYVMS.BITNET
     //  eddy Wang                                    TW5232@ALBNYVMS.BITNET
    //   Computer Art and Animation at SUNY Albany
         New Illusions      Albany, NY                  "Increase the Peace..."
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware