Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!um-math!hyc
From: hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Cartridge..ramdisk
Message-ID: <10044@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu>
Date: 3 Oct 89 17:48:46 GMT
References: <2539@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> <11830057@hpldola.HP.COM>
Sender: news@math.lsa.umich.edu
Reply-To: hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu)
Organization: University of Michigan Math Dept., Ann Arbor
Lines: 78
UUCP-Path: {mailrus,umix}!um-math!hyc

In article <11830057@hpldola.HP.COM> jg@hpldola.HP.COM (Joe Gilray) writes:
>
>The Ultradisk sounds pretty cool, Howard, but your note immediately provoked
>a rash of questions in my mind:

Sorry for such an incomplete posting!  }-)  Some answers...

>
>1) How much did it cost?

I ordered mine at the Dearborn World of Atari Show, so they were discounted
somewhat. Came out to around $500 for the 2 meg cartridge (expandable to 4M).

>2) where can I get one?

I ordered directly from Alpha Systems. 216-374-7469, 24 hour, call 'em
and ask for a (free) catalog. I've seen other mail order places listing
their products, but don't have any names offhand...

>3) How fast is it?  Comparable to a main memory Ramdisk or a harddisk?
>   Transfer rate?

From Qindex13.PRG...
	A:	C:	N:
GEMDOS	97%	1147%	1451%
DMA	112%	6814%	4388%

The C drive is my Quantum 80 hard drive, the N drive is my first Ultradisk
partition. Kind of surprising that it's slower than the hard disk for DMA
operations... btw, 120ns RAMs are installed.

>4) how big is it (physically)?

It's kind of an L-shape, but when plugged in to the cart port, the remainder
is about 3-4" wide and 6" long...

>5) how long does the battery last?

The docs say "several hours" as long as the adapter jack has something plugged
into it. (Smart switch connected to the jack.) In practice, I've had the thing
completely powered down for about a week (went on vacation) and it still had
everything intact when I powered up the ST.

>6) you can auto boot from it? (you already answered this one)

Yep, you can autoboot, and you're supposed to be able to disable the autoboot
with the Ctrl-Shift keys, but I haven't been able to get this to work. As such,
I tend to use a program like bootedit to select auto programs & stuff. (For
those times when I need to boot from a floppy. Btw, Falcon runs great off
the Ultradisk.)

>7) is it compatible with harddisks? (and this one, but I'm runnning out
>   of questions)

Yep, I have no problems using it and the Supra autobooter...

>8) etc, etc, etc?

Hm... Well, since I have a Mega, I didn't get the clock option. It allows
using up to 60K as a printer buffer, which I find very handy. I haven't
opened it up yet, but expect to fill it to 4M sometime soon. (Heh - an 8 meg
ST. Cool stuff.) No technical specs for what the driver does, unfortunately.
No passthru for other cartridges either, also unfortunate. I'd like to use
it with Minix, but for now I'm sitting idle on that. Sorry I didn't measure
an in-RAM RAMdisks for comparison, but (understandably?) I don't keep any
of those around any more...

>
>Expiring minds need to know!
>
>Thanks!
>Joe Gilray

No prob. I'm always happy to brag about my computer.  (Usually to poor
benighted PC & Mac drones, but what the hell...  }-)
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