From: jp (jp_at_iwillbefree.com)
Date: Mon Jun 25 2001 - 02:48:26 PDT
I am not on this list - please take me off.
Frank Powell
fpowell_at_kscable.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Guyot" <pguyot_at_kallisys.net>
To: <newtontalk_at_newtontalk.net>
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 2:08 AM
Subject: Re: [NTLK] Ready to try ATA
> >I'm ready to try the ATA driver in my spare 2.0 120. Sorry, just not
ready
> >to "test" it on my 2k's. Now I need the ATA card. Any suggestions on
> >models or brands to try or even to stay away from? I know about the 4MB
> >limit but if I can get a 128MB card cheap, should I get it or find a
really
> >cheap 4MB.
>
> The 4 MB limit only applies to the demo version. The full version
> should be available soon.
>
> I would suggest the following choice for ATA cards:
> a/ you have a digital camera or something getting ATA compatible
> cards in a specific format: use cards that go in this device. ATA
> Support doesn't offer FAT12 support yet, but when it will, you'll
> love to get pictures from your camera to your Newton without any
> cable (well, I think so, I don't personally have a digital camera
> anyway).
> b/ if you don't, then take the cheapest kind of card. It's what I've
> done and hence I bought a 16 MB Hitachi (there's no brand on it) card
> from Timasci. I get slightly higher transfer rates than Carsten with
> his Nikon (which is in fact a SunDisk). (of course, with 0.1a2, next
> release is significantly faster than 0.1a2).
>
> Also, here are some news for you folks.
> I have the following known bugs to fix (probably today):
> a/ the LBA capability isn't properly recognized (CHS works fine,
> fortunately, but LBA is faster and the driver thinks that my card is
> not LBA capable while it is). (minor bug, a matter of 10 mins at most)
> b/ I have a -48807 when partitionning the card (this is a minor
> NewtonScript bug).
> c/ I have a -48205 with SlotBusy array when mounting two stores (this
> may be a bug in the C++ code). (this is less trivial)
> d/ I have a 0 bus error at this point (probably due to the -48205
> exception in fact)
> e/ ATA Support doesn't work with Victor's MP and card (officially a
> Kodak, in fact a 4 MB SunDisk) (the card doesn't want to read/write
> as many bytes as the driver wants to feed it). (this is the biggest
> bug today)
>
> Additionnaly, here is the newest version of my to-do list before the
> final release:
>
> 1/ work on the NS interface:
> - allow to set the auto mount and read only flags (I think I'll
> redesign parts of the partition map handling)
> - allow to set an ATA store the default store (5 mins)
> - maybe implement some basic backup feature similar to the ROM backup
> feature of the linear cards (backups already work with third party
> software) (one hour)
> - design an interface to define partitions (two or three hours)
> - I gave up the idea of writing NS functions to access the driver at
> the lowest level (I'm not sure it's really useful, though). Also,
> there are some accesses right now to the driver from NewtonScript
> which are not safe (because they let you access the stores while they
> are mounted/partition maps). I should put some security there. In the
> meanwhile, I'll deactivate this function.
> - don't show format alert in certain conditions (basically when you
> have just partitioned the card) (30 mins)
> - aesthetic changes (umm. This is the longest part)
> 2/ optimize the code:
> - currently, endian conversion is only done for the partition map,
> but the parameters inDoEndianConversion is passed everywhere. I
> should fix that to grab some nanosecs (removing endian conversion
> really didn't improve performances significantly) (30 mins)
> - optimize transaction validation (30 mins)
> - maybe implement asynchronous writes/reads (4 or 5 hours)
> - maybe change format slightly if this improves performances (I have
> to think about it twice)
> 3/ driver work:
> - finish the power handling. There may currently be a bug there,
> although it may be something totally different. Also, implement some
> sleep mode if the card isn't used for a while. (might be one day long)
> - maybe handle brutal removal of the card (if I find out how to do
> that) (let's say it will take one week)
> - maybe implement interrupt-based modes (I/O modes). ATA cards shall
> implement memory mode (and the driver already supports it) which is
> said to be faster. (depends if I use interrupts there or not. If I
> don't: 3 hours, if I do: something like 6).
>
> All these timings are VAT excl.
>
> As you can see, the big part left is the power handling. And the
> interface to design partitions will not be included in the demo
> version hence once all these bugs are fixed, I could release the
> first beta.
>
> The thing is that I have made significant changes in the driver since
> 0.1a2 (which explains the problem with Victor's card, but I prefered
> that it explained that every ATA cards (not Iomega Clik!) now work
> with it), so I need to let you test the software with your cards
> before shipping the final version. Also, the final version will just
> be there once I consider the software as really usable. I won't
> ensure anyone about the integrity of the data of course, but there is
> no known bug in the transactional persistent object store
> implementation (on the contrary to 0.1a2), in spite of intensive
> stress testing. Of course, these tests were only done by me, and I'm
> sure that some users will trigger some magic unprobable operation
> which will make this fail.
>
> Paul
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