Omega-TI Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 (edited) I was playing around this morning with a disk image of Road Hunter that I put on a 3.5" disk as backup in case anything went wrong. Well, the program seemed to take longer than usual to load (not to mention louder), so I pulled out the stopwatch and was shocked to see such a wide difference in load times. The recorded times are from when the ENTER button is pressed to load the program, to the time the level is loaded and the car moves with the joystick in the up position. Disk Time : 33 seconds HDX Time : 16 Seconds So, on my system, loading from disk takes TWICE AS LONG! Just another reason to get an HDX folks! Edited February 27, 2014 by --- Ω --- 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am1933 Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 I was playing around this morning with a disk image of Road Hunter that I put on a 3.5" disk as backup in case anything went wrong. Well, the program seemed to take longer than usual to load (not to mention louder), so I pulled out the stopwatch and was shocked to see such a wide difference in load times. The recorded times are from when the ENTER button is pressed to load the program, to the time the level is loaded and the car moves with the joystick in the up position. Disk Time : 33 seconds HDX Time : 16 Seconds So, on my system, loading from disk takes TWICE AS LONG! Just another reason to get an HDX folks! Don't suppose you have times for tape loading yet? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazoo Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 It would be interesting to compare Ramdisk and Hard Drive loading times to those already mentioned. Gazoo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marc.hull Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 I was playing around this morning with a disk image of Road Hunter that I put on a 3.5" disk as backup in case anything went wrong. Well, the program seemed to take longer than usual to load (not to mention louder), so I pulled out the stopwatch and was shocked to see such a wide difference in load times. The recorded times are from when the ENTER button is pressed to load the program, to the time the level is loaded and the car moves with the joystick in the up position. Disk Time : 33 seconds HDX Time : 16 Seconds So, on my system, loading from disk takes TWICE AS LONG! Just another reason to get an HDX folks! SCSI = less than 7 seconds. RAM disk less than 4 seconds. I guess that's 100 percent and 400 percent respectively faster. If loading speed is your goal I would suggest going that route...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 SCSI = less than 7 seconds. RAM disk less than 4 seconds. I guess that's 100 percent and 400 percent respectively faster. If loading speed is your goal I would suggest going that route...... 7 seconds sounds nice! But, I'm afraid I cannot justify the expense. For me the HDX seemed like the most affordable and easy to obtain piece of hardware, as well as having more utility. I guess I'll have to stick with the HDX. The RAM disk time is the same as Classic 99 took on my PC. I have a question though, would I not have to load it into the RAM drive first, or is it battery backed. Someday I'll probably pop for a RAM disk, if someone starts making one and others climb onboard. I'm loving all these NEW toys for the TI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CosmicBoy Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Isn't it fun just to sit and wait till its loaded from disk? Our world is so fast why not have the time to wait another 15 sec. and drink some coffee 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary from OPA Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Ramdisks are the way to go, that is why I spent so much time making ROS for the DSR for Horizon ramdisks so well written. -- Battery-Backed and so super fast. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 Ramdisks are the way to go, that is why I spent so much time making ROS for the DSR for Horizon ramdisks so well written. -- Battery-Backed and so super fast. Okay, both you and Marc have me sold, now I'm wanting a RAM Disk. Anyone up for a NEW hardware project? I still have a couple of slots open... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Received my CF7+ yesterday and wow! Am really impressed with the interface(s) and speed of loading images. Really, really cool product. Finally got to play Road Hunter and TI Scramble... incredible! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 Received my CF7+ yesterday and wow! Am really impressed with the interface(s) and speed of loading images. Really, really cool product. Finally got to play Road Hunter and TI Scramble... incredible! Congratulations! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary from OPA Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Okay, both you and Marc have me sold, now I'm wanting a RAM Disk. Anyone up for a NEW hardware project? I still have a couple of slots open... Hunt around for old Horizon on ebay, now and then they appear. -- I really need to get around to typing the printout for ROS9 in and compiling it again, it was going to be alot better then ROS 8.14F Starting next month I going to look at slowly releasing my previous commercial stuff with new public licenses for everyone to enjoy and use on hardware and emulators, and start filling up my o-p-a.biz with info along with my big ti99 archive. Don't you have CF7+ I find them fast, all tho personally I would like writing a better DSR for it, using stuff my Horizon ROS project and adding some more shit. Can't you run the CF7 along with real PEB as mod? -- I have to try that, or maybe someone should port the CF7 project over to a full-size PEB card, would make for simple ramdisk way, not as fast but saves having batteries, or maybe add some caching ram for boast of speed, with a my idea of better dsr to improve operation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+InsaneMultitasker Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Hunt around for old Horizon on ebay, now and then they appear. -- I really need to get around to typing the printout for ROS9 in and compiling it again, it was going to be alot better then ROS 8.14F Starting next month I going to look at slowly releasing my previous commercial stuff with new public licenses for everyone to enjoy and use on hardware and emulators, and start filling up my o-p-a.biz with info along with my big ti99 archive. Don't you have CF7+ I find them fast, all tho personally I would like writing a better DSR for it, using stuff my Horizon ROS project and adding some more shit. Can't you run the CF7 along with real PEB as mod? -- I have to try that, or maybe someone should port the CF7 project over to a full-size PEB card, would make for simple ramdisk way, not as fast but saves having batteries, or maybe add some caching ram for boast of speed, with a my idea of better dsr to improve operation. Gary, When I have time to pull it back together, I would be happy to send you some updates to ROS 8.14F and CFG that I dubbed version 8.32. The primary change was increasing the maximum disk size to 3200 sectors from 1600 sectors, with proper bitmap and cluster calculations. Some misc. changes were to mask file type bits that Myarc used but that created problems with Horizon and disk managers. The disk size increase was done because I wanted larger capacity disks and because RAM prices are much cheaper, making larger capacity much more cost effective. Ten 800K drives works very well. Of course, porting the HFDC hard drive dsr to a horizon would make things even more lively. -tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Hunt around for old Horizon on ebay, now and then they appear. -- I really need to get around to typing the printout for ROS9 in and compiling it again, it was going to be alot better then ROS 8.14F Starting next month I going to look at slowly releasing my previous commercial stuff with new public licenses for everyone to enjoy and use on hardware and emulators, and start filling up my o-p-a.biz with info along with my big ti99 archive. Don't you have CF7+ I find them fast, all tho personally I would like writing a better DSR for it, using stuff my Horizon ROS project and adding some more shit. Can't you run the CF7 along with real PEB as mod? -- I have to try that, or maybe someone should port the CF7 project over to a full-size PEB card, would make for simple ramdisk way, not as fast but saves having batteries, or maybe add some caching ram for boast of speed, with a my idea of better dsr to improve operation. If you use a splitter cable you should be able to do that. I ordered a cable and it just makes my console go BORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPP so I rma'd it.. waiting for replacement Imho a pbox card with a cf card (rather than battery backed ram) is the best idea. But instead of making it floppy disk images, make it a hard drive with HFDC compat DSR .. while I'm dreaming Greg 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary from OPA Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Gary, When I have time to pull it back together, I would be happy to send you some updates to ROS 8.14F and CFG that I dubbed version 8.32. The primary change was increasing the maximum disk size to 3200 sectors from 1600 sectors, with proper bitmap and cluster calculations. Some misc. changes were to mask file type bits that Myarc used but that created problems with Horizon and disk managers. The disk size increase was done because I wanted larger capacity disks and because RAM prices are much cheaper, making larger capacity much more cost effective. Ten 800K drives works very well. Of course, porting the HFDC hard drive dsr to a horizon would make things even more lively. -tim Yeah ROS9 had that in it plus ton of other improvements, but sadly the original set of ros9 files are long gone, all i have is stack of printouts with notes, so got to retype it all in slowly plus add some more, but it would be nice to see your changes, and maybe officially stamp your 8.32 as approved opa released with other minor improvements in the meantime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary from OPA Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 If you use a splitter cable you should be able to do that. I ordered a cable and it just makes my console go BORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPP so I rma'd it.. waiting for replacement Imho a pbox card with a cf card (rather than battery backed ram) is the best idea. But instead of making it floppy disk images, make it a hard drive with HFDC compat DSR .. while I'm dreaming Greg Not that big of a dream, once I get my stand-alone ti99 console working with video output again or a replacement, I got two cf7+ here and newer nanopeb, i going to look at making improvements to manager/dsr and offer more options for users like hfdc type layout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marc.hull Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 If you use a splitter cable you should be able to do that. I ordered a cable and it just makes my console go BORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPP so I rma'd it.. waiting for replacement Imho a pbox card with a cf card (rather than battery backed ram) is the best idea. But instead of making it floppy disk images, make it a hard drive with HFDC compat DSR .. while I'm dreaming Greg I thought that the latest report was that the CF7 series was not compatible with the PEB on a splitter cable. Has this been rectified ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary from OPA Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 (edited) I thought that the latest report was that the CF7 series was not compatible with the PEB on a splitter cable. Has this been rectified ? Never tired it to be honest, i see no reason if wiring is right it should not work, of course you have to disable the 32k onboard if you had memory in the pebox. I wonder if you plugged the CF7 into corcomp triple tech card instead of speech sync. box would it work? -- hehe Edited February 28, 2014 by Gary from OPA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 Imho a pbox card with a cf card (rather than battery backed ram) is the best idea. But instead of making it floppy disk images, make it a hard drive with HFDC compat DSR .. while I'm dreaming Oh yeah, THAT is where it's at! I know guys in this forum have the talent to pull it off too. If a whole Nano-PEB can be built, surely one tiny little interface for a CF card to plug into a P-Box could be built. Shoot, with the size of components now days it probably would not be any bigger than the speech synthesizer board. Damn, I bet the speech synthesizer could even plug into it like the old Triple Tech Card for just a dollar or two more. Where the hell do I sign up? Great idea Greg! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am1933 Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Well-if anybody does eventually manage a PEB card version of the CF7 it would be nice if they could squeeze the TI SID chip on there too 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 Well-if anybody does eventually manage a PEB card version of the CF7 it would be nice if they could squeeze the TI SID chip on there too I'm not sure what that would do to the cost of the board, keeping the price down would get it into more peoples hands. I personally would want a CorComp compatible clock, but I doubt many other people would want to pay extra for that either. Honestly though, I'm not too comfortable in making something that directly competes with another TI'er that has a CURRENTLY AVAILABLE and SUPPORTED product. Marc has what looks to be a very well designed and built SID board << HERE >> for the TI. Also, the price is reasonable if that interests you. Check it out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
am1933 Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 I'm not sure what that would do to the cost of the board, keeping the price down would get it into more peoples hands. I personally would want a CorComp compatible clock, but I doubt many other people would want to pay extra for that either. Honestly though, I'm not too comfortable in making something that directly competes with another TI'er that has a CURRENTLY AVAILABLE and SUPPORTED product. Marc has what looks to be a very well designed and built SID board << HERE >> for the TI. Also, the price is reasonable if that interests you. Check it out. Forgive my ignorance, I had seen the SID player on youtube but never put 2 and 2 together with regards to Marc, oh well that will be another bloody item on my to buy list-damn you Texas Instruments, you will bankrupt me in the end!!!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 Forgive my ignorance, I had seen the SID player on youtube but never put 2 and 2 together with regards to Marc, oh well that will be another bloody item on my to buy list-damn you Texas Instruments, you will bankrupt me in the end!!!!! Yep I just bought one, nice board.. pretty blue light.. only issue if if you have a speech synth you have to jumper over the sound line from one side to the other.. TI didn't wire it through Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted February 28, 2014 Author Share Posted February 28, 2014 ... that will be another bloody item on my to buy list-damn you Texas Instruments, you will bankrupt me in the end!!!!! That's the fact! It's always, "ONE MORE ITEM". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazoo Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Gary, When I have time to pull it back together, I would be happy to send you some updates to ROS 8.14F and CFG that I dubbed version 8.32. The primary change was increasing the maximum disk size to 3200 sectors from 1600 sectors, with proper bitmap and cluster calculations. Some misc. changes were to mask file type bits that Myarc used but that created problems with Horizon and disk managers. The disk size increase was done because I wanted larger capacity disks and because RAM prices are much cheaper, making larger capacity much more cost effective. Ten 800K drives works very well. Of course, porting the HFDC hard drive dsr to a horizon would make things even more lively. -tim 8.32 is a very nice improvement, I've been using it for some time and it's nice to have larger 'drives' available. A hard drive format for a Ramdisk would be much nicer, though. Would love to see that. And if a CF7 or similar device would be changed to have a hard drive format I might be convinced to buy one of those. The current configuration is unappealing to me. Gazoo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marc.hull Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Yeah ROS9 had that in it plus ton of other improvements, but sadly the original set of ros9 files are long gone, all i have is stack of printouts with notes, so got to retype it all in slowly plus add some more, but it would be nice to see your changes, and maybe officially stamp your 8.32 as approved opa released with other minor improvements in the meantime. I have seen and used the Tim's version of ROS and believe me it does not need any stamp of approval...... When you do make your minor improvements go ahead and send them on. Perhaps they could be included in the next release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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