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From: fnf@mcdsun.UUCP (Fred Fish)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Mini-review of CLtd 20M disk
Message-ID: <220@mcdsun.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Dec-86 19:09:24 EST
Article-I.D.: mcdsun.220
Posted: Tue Dec 30 19:09:24 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 31-Dec-86 18:44:37 EST
Organization: Motorola Microcomputer Division, Tempe, Az.
Lines: 84
Keywords: disks expansion


Shortly before Christmas I acquired (at long last) a hard disk for my
Amiga.  I ran across a good deal on a CLtd 20M SCSI system, that was
available and scarfed it up.  Thought I would let you all know some
details...


HARDWARE
--------

The CLtd system comes in two pieces.  The first is a general purpose
SCSI controller that snaps onto the expansion connector on the side
of the Amiga, and passes the bus.  The case is 11" deep by 5" high
by 1" wide, and contains a PC card which is only 2 1/2" by 7", containing
the following components:

	o  AM5380DC  (SCSI chip?)
	o  74LS374
	o  74F521
	o  74LS32
	o  74LS00
	o  74LS74

	13 Resistors
	2  Caps
	CPN 2222A
	3 Sips  (resistor paks? at bus)

That's it.  Not a lot in there.  The board and component quality appears
good, but the enclosing metal box and ribbon cable connection between
the two boxes is about "prototype" quality.  My understanding is that
CLtd wanted to get them out before Christmas and will be upgrading the
mechanical quality soon.

The second box is an off-the-shelf Rodime S-20+ hard disk box.  The
label on the back says "S-20+ Rodime  Ser #F00005898".  Inside the box
is a power supply (marked NP5020B CMKS-115X  Made in Sigapore) and a
3 1/2" 20M hard disk with built in SCSI controller (marked Rodime R0652
Type 0A).  The two boxes are connected by about 3 ft of ribbon cable.


PERFORMANCE
-----------

Subjective performance, compared to floppies, is great.  Using
Workbench (tolerable now), icons come up significantly faster.  Compiles
and such also run much faster.  However, performance as measured by
Rick Spanbauer's disk benchmark is not exactly blazing.  Read speed is
not quite twice as fast as a floppy and write speed is not quite three
times as fast as a floppy.  For full details, see my mini-review of
the ASDG Minirack in another posting.


OTHER
-----

Yet, despite the lack of blazing speed increases, I am quite happy with
the box.  To me, having 20M of immediately available storage space is
more important than speed.  For that, I can load stuff into my 4Mb
of ASDG ram...

I also like the idea of having a proven SCSI controller (since it
works with an off the shelf, independently manufactured SCSI drive),
since I now have a fair amount of confidence that I can replace it
with a larger drive, or daisy chain additional drives, and expect it
to work properly.  And, since the only Amiga specific part is the
relatively cheap SCSI controller box, if I jump ship to some other
system (like the new MacIntosh in 87), or acquire a Zorro SCSI card
for use in an expansion box, I can reuse the drive.

Oh yes, I paid $900 for mine...


DISCLAIMER
----------

Neither I nor my employer have any financial interest in ASDG.

-Fred
-- 
===========================================================================
Fred Fish  Motorola Computer Division, 3013 S 52nd St, Tempe, Az 85282  USA
{seismo!noao!mcdsun,hplabs!well}!fnf    (602) 438-5976
===========================================================================