Article View: comp.sys.intel
Article #1994Re: Perstor Disk Drive Controllers
From: Larry Snyder
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 1990 11:44
Date: Fri, 09 Mar 1990 11:44
43 lines
2529 bytes
2529 bytes
In article <868@edstip.EDS.COM>, ohrnb@edstip.EDS.COM (Erik Ohrnberger) writes:
>
> Does anyone have any experience with a Perstore disk controller
> cards?
>
> As I understand it, Perstor has developed a method to greatly decrease
> the diskspace that is needed for each byte of information, thusly
> increasing the density, with a matching increase in throughput.
>
> What sort of controller card does it look like to the host CPU? Or
> does it matter? I know that other MFM controllers usually top out
> 5.0 Mb/sec, ESDI usually delivers 10-15Mb/sec, and SCSI between
> 7-15 Mb/sec. How does Perstor achieve 9 MB/sec? and how reliable are
> the units? (how long do they last? MTBF) Are they compatible with Xenix?
>
Bag of worms - stay clear of the PS16 controllers from these guys.
First throughput on these boards is not much better than a "standard"
controller with coretests of around 290kb/sec best. With the current
crop of 1:1 MFM controllers available producing throughput in the
500kb/sec range and the 1:1 RLL in the 680kb/sec range - the thoughput
is slow.
No drives are certified for use
with this controller. Miniscibe, Seagate, Priam - none of these
companies support the use of these controllers on their products.
Several vendors actually claim that pushing the drive to the limits
of the Perstor controller will actually void the warranty.
Several friends of mine actually had problems with the Perstor
controllers actually ruining a drive. Bad sectors start showing
up after anywhere from 3 - 8 months of use on a regular basis. After
a time the drive refuses to boot - and has to be sent in for repair.
I consider it better (for me a least) to spend more $$$ and get something
that runs within specifications.
--
The Northern Star Public Access Unix Site, Notre Dame, Indiana USA
uucp: iuvax!ndmath!nstar!larry internet: larry@nstar
USR HST 219-287-9020 * PEP 219-289-3745 * Hayes V9600 219-289-0286
Technical Details
Message-ID:
<511260@nstar.UUCP>Path:
arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!iuvax!ndcheg!ndmath!nstar!larryReferences:
<868@edstip.EDS.COM>Show Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!iuvax!ndcheg!ndmath!nstar!larry From: larry@nstar.UUCP (Larry Snyder) Newsgroups: comp.sys.intel,comp.periphs,comp.unix.xenix,comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Perstor Disk Drive Controllers Summary: Perstor Keywords: disk drive controllers,experiences requested,how? Message-ID: <511260@nstar.UUCP> Date: 9 Mar 90 11:44:46 GMT References: <868@edstip.EDS.COM> Followup-To: comp.unix.xenix Organization: Northern Star, Notre Dame, IN USA Lines: 43