SATA SSDs for SGIs using ACARD adapters

[Swift Griggs]

I use Samsung 850 Pro disks exclusively.  The main one I tested with was
128GB.

80-pin SCA hot swap Ultra160 SCSI to SATA:
This one I've tested in my O2 and Tezro:
http://www.acard.com/english/fb01-product.jsp?idno_no=240&prod_no=ARS-2160H&type1_idno=6&ino=43

50-pin ultra-scsi to SATA:
This one I've tested in two Indys (R4600 200Mhz and R5k 180Mhz) also a
Challenge S with an R4600 200Mhz CPU):
http://www.acard.com/english/fb01-product.jsp?idno_no=249&prod_no=ARS-2000SUP&type1_idno=6&ino=43

There is also a 68-pin variant. I've yet to try one because I will 
probably get rid of most of my Sun gear at some point in the future. 
However, I'd be interested to know if they work well or not. I still play 
with older SPARC boxes from time to time.

I've upgraded many of my SGI's to use SSD disks.  You don't see tremendous
improvements in throughput (though it does help some).  My results testing
with 'fio' showed about 10% throughput increase on most operations overall. 
However, the latency becomes much lower.  This gives the machine a much more
snappy feel if you use them as desktops.  Web browsing is especially
ameliorated (as in, you can almost do it, har har).  On my Tezro the
results were pretty dramatic.  The quad R16k CPUs still keep up pretty well
with my "modern" PCs for most operations (including browsing).  Using
internal SSDs makes the anecdotal experience tangibly improved.

I'm curious if anyone has used one of the 50-pin units to upgrade an Amiga 
3000 or older mac.  I'm thinking of other machines like one of the slimmer 
and more interesting AlphaStations might also be fun to try (or a newer 
Multia with the SCSI adapter). Did Atari ST's have SCSI? Without looking 
it up, I'm guessing so. That'd be another fun one to test.

Also before someone pipes up saying "The older SCSI interface is going to 
limit you too much to feel the difference" let me just say that's NOT been 
my experience.  As I mentioned, you might not get much throughput increase 
(though it will usually improve some), but the numbers don't lie on the 
latency which drops outta sight into the sub-1ms range most of the time.  
You feel that on desktops, bigtime.  Also, if you say "that's not stock!  
It's not original anymore!" Please let me just respond now and also say 
"Yes, I know that, thank you."

Thanks,
  Swift