Test reports
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Test reports
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| »Hardware | : | TandemPLUS CD+IDE controller |
| Revision | : | 41.6 (Device) |
| Type | : | Zorro II/III |
| Manufacturer | : | bsc |
| Tester | : | Sven 'Pearl' Droege (Sven.Droege@UniBW-Hamburg.de) |
| Configuration | : | A4000/040-25Mhz 2CHIP-16FAST KS3.1/WB3.1 |
| PicassoIV-4MB | ||
| 2 x 500MB HD | ||
| 2xCDROM-Laufwerk ;-( | ||
| Included parts: |
| - TandemPLUS-board |
| - Installation disks |
| - one IDE/AT-Bus cable |
| - Registration card (advertisement,...) |
| - short overview instruction |
| - manual for hard disk use with the controller |
Requirements: According to the manufacturer the controller works fine with the systems A1500/2000/2500/3000(T)/4000(T).
I used a Mitsumi FX-001D (double speed only...). At least KS2.04 and a hard disk are required ;-)
| Compatibility list: |
| + Mitsumi LU/FX CD-ROM drive (for CD-ROM controller) |
| + Syquest SQ3105A 3.5"- interchangeable disk |
| + nearly any IDE/AT bus hard disks |
| + works with WB3.1 CDFS, BabelCDFS, ASIM CDFS as well as single Kodak Photo-CD |
| + Multisession in work (today already available) |
Installation of the hardware:
Just insert the card (as described fine in the included manual) in any free
Zorro slot. That's it.
On the card itself are two connectors. The left one is for IDE drives and should only be used for them. The right one is for CD-ROM drives. A 40-pin AT-bus cable is shipped with the controller. Unfortunate, if you want to connect a CD-ROM AND a hard disk. But better one than none.
Installation of the Software: You will find driver files on the included disk, which can be installed comfortable with the installer of Commodore.
The controller needs two drivers (devices), one for the CD-ROM connector and the other one for the IDE-connector. For the installation of a hard disk at the IDE-connector the tool HDInstTool is included, to partition a hard disk.
As a CD-ROM File system the CacheCDFS is used, which does its job fine.
Practical test: After installing everything as described above (quite easy!) I made a reset. . .. ... The Workbench appears and the system recognizes the second hard disk and the inserted CD. Fine!
Regarding the speed I have to mention:
SysInfoV3.24 shows a transfer rate of 306 KB/s for the 2xCD-ROM drive. That is allright for such an old drive.
I cannot give exact data transfer rates for hard disks, because I don't have connected a hard disk to the controller at the moment, but the transfer rates were approx. 10% higher than the internal IDE bus.
| Positive: | |
| - easy hardware and software installation without problems | |
| - good documentation (there's an extra manual for the use with HDs | |
| - reliable | |
| - relieves the internal IDE-controller | |
| Negative: |
| - nothing |
Conclusion: Who doesn't need SCSI speeds, is served fine with this controller. You can connect nearly anything and operate quite a lot of devices at the same time. (CD-ROM drive, 2 HDs at the internal IDE-controller and 2 HDs at the Tandem controller...)
Sven Droege <Sven.Droege@UniBW-Hamburg.de>«
