Path: rcfnews.cs.umass.edu!barrett From: edmundv@grafix.xs4all.nl (Edmund Vermeulen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: Squirrel PCMCIA SCSI Interface Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Date: 28 Mar 1995 21:51:33 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 237 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <3la0d5$si6@kernighan.cs.umass.edu> Reply-To: edmundv@grafix.xs4all.nl (Edmund Vermeulen) NNTP-Posting-Host: astro.cs.umass.edu Keywords: hardware, SCSI, PCMCIA, A600, A1200, commercial Originator: barrett@astro.cs.umass.edu PRODUCT NAME Squirrel SCSI Interface, software version 1.06 BRIEF DESCRIPTION The Squirrel is a SCSI host adapter for the Amiga 600 and Amiga 1200 that uses the PCMCIA (credit card) slot. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: HiSoft Address: The Old School Greenfield Bedford MK45 5 BR UK Telephone: +44 (0)1525 718181 Fax: +44 (0)1525 713716 LIST PRICE 69 UK Pounds. My friend paid 249 Dutch guilders. SPECIAL HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE An A600 or A1200. SOFTWARE None listed. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING A1200 with MTEC 68030/28 MHz board with 4 MB Fast RAM Internal 545 MB Seagate 3,5" hard drive Goliath power supply SCSI devices tested with the Squirrel: Quantum LPS 52 and Quantum Lightning 540 hard disks Archive DAT tape streamer NEC CDR-25 CD-ROM reader INSTALLATION The Squirrel needs to be inserted in the PCMCIA slot on the right of the computer. This should be easy, but it wasn't on the one I tried, because part of the glued-on lid stuck out just a little bit, preventing it from sliding in properly. When I pressed the lid while inserting the device, the Squirrel could be inserted quite easily. The manual warns about not using too much force because of the delicate pins on the PCMCIA port. The Squirrel may be inserted and removed from the computer even when it is switched on: PCMCIA was designed for this, and it can be very handy if you need to use other PCMCIA peripherals, such as a modem, without having to switch the computer off. The "squirrelscsi.device" is automatically dismounted when the Squirrel is removed. Next, the software has to be installed. This is done using the standard Commodore Installer and is very easy. The squirrelscsi.device is installed and the User-Startup file is modified to include a SCSIMounter command for each SCSI address, since the Squirrel is not automounting. The user can also install the CD32 emulator or make a boot disk for the Squirrel or for the CD32 emulator. REVIEW When Commodore (RIP) first introduced the PCMCIA port on the A600, they told us that this industry standard interface would mean the possibility to add all kinds of devices from memory expansion to modems and network adapters. These have been slow to arrive, but now more and more peripherals for the Amiga use the credit card slot. At first, only memory cards could be used, but now there is an external IDE controller (Overdrive), CD-ROM adapters (Overdrive and Tandem) and modems can now also be used (using Erik Quackenbush's pcmcom.device). The Squirrel is the first PCMCIA SCSI adapter designed specifically for the Amiga. It can't be used on a notebook PC because of physical limitations (it's thicker than PCMCIA 2.0 specifications allow), and also there is currently no software driver available for PCs. The Squirrel is a small, black, plastic box about the size of a credit card but much thicker (about one centimetre). It has an (ugly) yellow sticker on top. The cable is fixed to the casing and has a standard 50 pin Centronics-style connector on the end. It's about 40 cm long, which is quite short. The Squirrel device driver is fully compatible with Commodore's standards for SCSI host adapters. It uses RDB (Ridged Disk Block), and you can use HDToolBox to partition hard disks. The Squirrel comes with three disks of software. The first one contains the software needed to operate the interface (the device driver, HDToolBox, SCSIMounter, Installer and the CD32 emulator). The other two disks contain useful stuff from the Aminet ftp sites in LhA archived form. The software version included was 1.06. All SCSI devices that I had available (Quantum LPS 52 and Quantum Lightning 540 hard disks, Archive DAT tape streamer, NEC CDR-25 CD-ROM reader) worked fine with the Squirrel. The hard disks obtained the same speed as on an A3000. The DAT tape streamer was tested with AmiBack and the TapeWorm filesystem. The CD-ROM reader was tested with Commodore's CDFileSystem that is part of Workbench 3.1. I also tried to format a hard disk partition with Professional Filing System by Michiel Pelt, but SCSIMounter doesn't seem to work with PFS partitions. I didn't succeed in making a mount file for it, but it should be possible. I wasn't able to test the CD32 emulator software that is part of the Squirrel package because of the lack of CD32 titles on my part. PERFORMANCE I've tested the Squirrel using DiskSpeed 4.1 with a Quantum Lightning 540S that is normally used in my A3000. These are the results. MKSoft DiskSpeed 4.1 Copyright ) 1989-91 MKSoft Development ------------------------------------------------------------ CPU: 68030 OS Version: 39.106 Normal Video DMA Device: QD1: Buffers: 30 Comments: Squirrel + Quantum 540, FFS Intl CPU Speed Rating: 1556 Testing directory manipulation speed. File Create: 29 files/sec | CPU Available: 0% File Open: 124 files/sec | CPU Available: 0% Directory Scan: 352 files/sec | CPU Available: 0% File Delete: 219 files/sec | CPU Available: 0% Seek/Read: 93 seeks/sec | CPU Available: 0% Testing with a 262144 byte, MEMF_FAST, LONG-aligned buffer. Create file: 938540 bytes/sec | CPU Available: 0% Write to file: 1079994 bytes/sec | CPU Available: 0% Read from file: 1223768 bytes/sec | CPU Available: 0% Average CPU Available: 0% | CPU Availability index: 0 The results are roughly the same as on my A3000, and in some cases even slightly faster. As you can see, the Squirrel achieved about 1.2 MB/sec when reading from a file. According to HiSoft, the Squirrel can theoretically obtain 3 MB/sec data transfers on an accelerated A1200. The big difference on the A1200 compared to the A3000 is that the Squirrel leaves 0% CPU available on the A1200, effectively blocking multitasking during SCSI transfers, while the A3000 leaves 46% free on average (77% during reads). DOCUMENTATION The documentation is very good. It looks very professional and explains all the technical details you might want to know. I do miss a troubleshooting chapter with simple 'What To Do If...' questions and answers. LIKES The Squirrel gives good value for money. It works as expected and has good performance, nice documentation and good support. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS The casing could be better, especially the lid that stuck out, preventing the Squirrel from being inserted. The cable is a little bit on the short side. The Squirrel doesn't have automounting or autobooting capabilities, so you must have an internal hard disk or use a boot disk. The driver leaves 0% CPU available during SCSI transfers, which is not a nice thing on a multitasking computer. I hope HiSoft can fix this in a future update of the driver software. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS There are other SCSI host adapters for the PCMCIA port, but they can only be used on PCs since there aren't any Amiga drivers available for them (yet?). The cheapest one I've seen for the PC was almost twice as expensive as the Squirrel, so PC owners: eat your heart out! Another possibility would be to use a SCSI adapter that connects to the trapdoor expansion slot of the A1200. I've personally only seen the GVP in action, and it is also a fine product. BUGS None that I have encountered. VENDOR SUPPORT The Squirrel SCSI Interface comes with 30 days of free technical support, which is available by telephone, letter or fax. I've also seen employees of HiSoft present on the Internet, and the update to version 1.05 of the software (1.06 is the current version) was placed on Aminet. At extra cost, it's also possible to get extended support called Silver and Gold Support which gives you lifetime support and access to a support conference on CIX and to their own BBS and free software updates. These extended support schemes seem a bit expensive to me. CONCLUSIONS I can recommend the Squirrel to anyone who wants to add a CD-ROM or other SCSI devices to his/her A1200. If only HiSoft could manage to change the driver so that it doesn't totally block multitasking during SCSI transfers, then things would be even better. COPYRIGHT NOTICE This review is freely distributable. It was written by Edmund Vermeulen (edmundv@grafix.xs4all.nl). The Squirrel Interface used for this review belongs to Alex van der Voort. --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews