16 Dec
2004
16 Dec
'04
1:05 a.m.
At 10:31 PM 12/15/2004, Ethan Dicks wrote:
So... back to what the orginal poster said, if you can
find a
DMA-capable 8-bit SCSI controller and a modernish drive (4GB and newer
would have much larger disk caches than you have physical memory), you
might be able to severerly reduce rotational delay (and seek time as a
consequence of using newer drives than, say, an ST225 w/65 ms average
seeks) enough to make a difference.
I think we can all see how classic computing and emulation will
continue to flourish in the future, hand in hand. As old functioning
drives decay into Unobtainium, or worse yet along the way climb back
up the price curve from yesterday's "too small, take it off my hands"
near-zero price to the exact-replacement near-former-retail or worse
prices, we'll need more emulation hardware and software. Many forms
of RAM (non-volatile or not) are nearly free now, in sizes larger
than old hard drives. We just need the building blocks to interconnect
them to older devices.
- John