Last Updated: Wednesday, April 7, 1999 by West Bay Web
This is a description of the Turbo IDE Card, including ordering information. The Turbo IDE Card has been available since 1992.

Copyright © ///SHH Systeme, Joachim Lange.

You may distribute this document freely as long as it remains unchanged (spelling corrections welcome)


///SHH Systeme

Dipl. Ing. Joachim Lange
Bergstrasse 95
82131 Stockdorf
Germany

phone & fax Germany - 89 - 8577040
(fax 19.00 to 23.00 CET only)
Internet: jlange@tasha.muc.de
CompuServe: 73370,3106

"We make IDE Hard Drives RAMFast !!"
"We make Vulcan Hard Drives RAMFast !!"

///Turbo IDE Card Small gif of TurboIDE Controller Card


Main features
--------------
 
- The Turbo IDE Card is a High-Speed DMA Hard Disk Controller for the
Apple IIGS and Apple IIe.
 
- Allows the use of the inexpensive and popular IDE hard drives with Apple
II computers.
 
- Fully PRODOS and GS/OS compatible.
 
- Uses High-Speed DMA in Apple IIGS and Apple IIe.
 
- Offers highest data transfer rate:
Acesses are as low as 0.7 to 1.0 msec/block for linear reads (using
ProSel-16, Statistics on Disc Access). Many large-capacity drives offer
even higher speed.
 
- Speed test: A real-world GS/OS-verify delivers 600 to 800 KBytes/sec.
 
- Up to 300 KBytes/sec data transfer rate under PRODOS 8 (the Apple
High-Speed SCSI card has 50 KBytes/sec in DMA mode under ProDOS 8).
 
- Boots a minimum GS/OS System in nine seconds, with accelerator in six
seconds (boot message to Finder Desktop).
 
- Boots PRODOS 8 in less than one second.
 
- Wastes no time for self-initialitation compared to SCSI interfaces!
Gives a very short warm-up time. You are up and running as soon as the
hard disk is ready.
 
- High-speed GS/OS driver with GS/OS-caching support included (Note:
RAMFast SCSI controllers do not support GS/OS caching!).
 
- Fully compatible with all DMA-capable hardware such as: ZIP GS,
Transwarp GS, PC Transporter, RAM Cards from Apple, Applied Engineering,
CV-Tech, Harris, Sequential Systems, Q-Labs etc.
 
- The Turbo IDE Card supports 8 (eight) MBytes of expansion RAM on the
IIGS.
 
- Supports two hard drives up to 256 MBytes capacity each.
 
- Up to eight partitions on one drive, 16 partitions on two drives, 32
MBytes per partition.
 
- You can boot from _any_ partition which carries a valid operating system
(press OA-1 ... OA-9, OA-A ... OA-G  or set up default value with
configuration program).
 
- The DMA feature can be disabled by software to be compatible with
non-DMA-capable hardware as the ZIP Chip, the Original Transwarp and some
old IIGS memory expansion cards.
 
- Under PRODOS 8, the upper partitions (3...8) can be mapped into other
slots. So you can get access to all partitions even under PRODOS 8, which
is the only choice for Apple IIe users. Mapping can easily be disabled for
use with PRODOS 2.0x. *No* patch software required. No ROM upgrade
required.
 
 
Easy installation:
-------------------
 
- Automatic installation procedure with auto-recognition of the hard
drive's geometry and with auto-partitioning.
 
- All types of IDE hard disk drives can be used. There are no restrictions
in the number of sectors per track, number of heads or number of
cylinders. The Turbo IDE Card Software supports any combination of numbers
that may exist.
 
 
- Different ROM code for Apple IIe and Apple IIGS available (hardware is
the same for both machines):
 
Apple IIe firmware: 65C02 code only, also works on any Apple IIGS.
Apple IIGS firmware: 65C816 code, fully speed optimized for this machine.
Speed advantages (compared to Apple IIe firmware) when booting into GS/OS,
when using no GS/OS driver, when disabling DMA. The Apple IIGS firmware
cannot be used on Apple IIe machines.
 
 
Other features
---------------
 
- Hard disk cable included (most other controllers need an extra cable).
 
- Made in Germany.
 
- High quality industry standard board with gold edge connector and high
quality solder resist.
 
- One year limited warranty.
 
- Thirty day money back guarantee on the card's value.
 
- Free software updates available via GEnie and via internet e-mail (using
UUENCODE/UUDECODE).
 
 
================================================
  Vulcan & Vulcan Gold Controller Replacement:
================================================
 
--=} Now your Vulcan can be RAMFast!! {=--
 
Disappointed about the Vulcan Gold upgrade? Still a (golden) slow poke?
What about a Vulcan Platinum?  Here it is !!
 
The Turbo IDE Card is the ultimate Speedup Kit for Vulcan Hard Drives.
It doubles the speed of the fastest Vulcan Gold configuration.
 
  Indeed, using the Turbo IDE Card, your Vulcan Hard Drive can be RAMFast
without ever buying a RamFAST SCSI Card. Once again, your Vulcan Hard
Drive can be as fast or faster than a SCSI drive connected to a RamFAST
SCSI Card!! The Turbo IDE Card is fully pin-compatible with Vulcan hard
drives. A Vulcan user can easily switch over to the Turbo IDE Card and has
the option of upgrading his system with a second hard drive (external). He
even could replace his old, low capacity drive in the Vulcan case with an
up-to-date, 120 MB or 200 MB drive and really save a lot of money. Any 3.5
inch IDE drive will fit in the Vulcan case with no problems.
 
 
Speed Measurements
-------------------
 
  Here are some test results for the Turbo IDE Card with various hard
drives (Apple IIGS at 2.8 MHz, GS/OS System 6.0, using ProSel-16,
Statistics on Disc Access, Linear Read):
 
Seagate ST125A:    1.00 msec/block  (used in some Vulcan units)
Seagate ST157A:    1.00 msec/block
Seagate ST3102A:   0.80 msec/block
Seagate ST3120A:   0.80 msec/block
Seagate ST3144A:   0.80 msec/block
Seagate ST3243A:   0.75 msec/block
Seagate ST3283A:   0.75 msec/block
(....any other Seagate will work fine...)
 
Conner CP 2024:   1.1 msec/block  (2xxx Series: Notebook drives 2.5")
Conner CP 2044:   1.1 msec/block
Conner CP 2064:   1.0 msec/block
Conner CP 2084:   1.0 msec/block
Conner CP 2124:   0.9 msec/block
(....any of the latest Conner notebook drives will work fine...)
 
Conner CP 3000:   1.1 msec/block  (same drive in Vulcan Gold 40)
Conner CP 3044:   1.1 msec/block
Conner CP 30084:  0.88 msec/block
Conner CP 3104:   0.90 msec/block
Conner CP 30104:  0.78 msec/block
Conner CP 30174:  0.70 msec/block
Conner CP 3204:   0.75 msec/block
Conner CP 30204:  0.62 msec/block
Conner CP 30254:  0.62 msec/block
(....any of the latest Conner CFXxxxA models will work fine...)
 
Vulcan 40:        4.70 msec/block
(Vulcan 40 equipped with Western Digital WD93048AD)
 
 
  We do recommend Conner IDE Drives (although we do not get money for this
note). They are reliable, fast, quiet, inexpensive and they are the leader
in low power consumption.
 
 
 
///Turbo IDE Card - Technical Details
--------------------------------------
 
- The built-in DMA sequencer transfers 512 bytes of data in one burst. One
block of 512 bytes is transferred in 512 microseconds without any
overhead. This is the maximum I/O speed available in Apple II computers.
The Turbo IDE Card has no need for an extra 10 MHz processor to make hard
drives RamFAST.
 
- The Turbo IDE Card was developed according to Apple's Interface Card
Design and DMA Design Guidelines.
 
- The Turbo IDE Card firmware supports the PRODOS 8 and the SmartPort
protocol (standard & extended calls) and is well speed-optimized. As a
result, the boot time for launching GS/OS is only two seconds more if the
GS/OS driver is not installed.
 
- As mentioned before, the Turbo IDE Card software supports any number of
sectors per track, number of heads and number of cylinders. At this time,
the math routines are limited to reasonable 256 MBytes per drive (we can
change that limitation). The fast math routines are working universally in
the range of the values allowed in the IDE task file (17...254 sectors,
2...16 heads and up to 65535 cylinders). Most IDE drives are limited to
50...60 sectors, 16 heads and 1024 cylinders.
 
- Support for Universal Translation Mode: The installation program will
set the hard disk(s) to any Translation Mode at user's request. This is
very useful for fine-tuning.
 
- Support for special multiple read/write mode.
 
- RamFAST SCSI Cards do not support GS/OS caching! Turbo IDE Cards do!
 
  Yes, there is still a big advantage compared to a hard-caching SCSI card
(we are talking about a very poular card). When copying a large quantity
of files to a hard disk partition, the Turbo IDE Card (supporting GS/OS
caching) is very, very fast. A caching SCSI card, which does not support
GS/OS caching, "looses" the directory and index blocks in its cache
because the cache is never large enough to hold all data, or the directory
contents in the SCSI cache is overwritten by the actual data (cache
splitting would be required). So the SCSI card has to re-read some
directory blocks from hard disk again and again whenever they are
requested by GS/OS. This results in a remarkable slow-down in overall
speed because of the many seeks that have to be done. You can hear the
noise of the SCSI drive working hard when it is moving its read/write
heads permanently (and don't forget the wear and tear). The problem of
loosing directory blocks in the cache is mainly annoying when a hard disk
partition gets filled up more and more. A nearly empty partition never
shows this problem.
 
  By contrast, GS/OS playing with the Turbo IDE Card, has most directory
and index blocks available in the GS/OS cache at any time without the need
of hard drive accesses.
 
 
- Why is the Turbo IDE Card really fast? Because it has no cache!
 
  Indeed, a hard-caching controller has to transfer data twice, which may
result in a considerable overhead. On a read request, the data first has
to be read into the cache and then transferred to the destination memory.
There is _no_ way to get around the cache.
  The Turbo IDE Card transfers data directly from the hard disk to the
destination, as fast as it can be done on Apple II computers.
 
 
 
Ordering Information
---------------------
 
  The Turbo IDE Card carries a one year limited warranty against defects
in materials and workmanship. Software and ROM updates (if needed) will be
available on GEnie A2 library or can be sent via internet e-mail.
 
The Turbo IDE Card package consists of
 
   - the controller card
   - the IDE cable
   - the installation disk with GS/OS caching driver
   - the user's manual (English language)
 
  The current (fall '94) single-order price is
 
  US $139   plus $18     for shipping and handling (to the US)
  DM  225   plus DM 22   for shipping and handling (within Europe)
 
Shipping is via standard air mail. (if you think the shipping charge is
too high, just call any US mail order house and ask what they charge for
international air mail shipping). Discounts are as follows:
 
                 USA                 Europe
           ----------------    -------------------
Quantity   price each   s/h    price each    s/h
 
   2         $139       $20     DM 225      DM 22
   3         $139       $23     DM 225      DM 22
   5         $130       $29     DM 215      DM 28
 
  All overseas orders must be prepaid in US currency or Deutsche Mark. All
orders from Europe must be prepaid in Deutsche Mark. Cash (bills),
certified checks (accepted by a german bank) and international money
transfer via post office accepted. Sorry, no credit cards accepted.
 
IMPORTANT: If payment is by check or money order, an additional fee of US
$12 or 20 Deutsche Mark is required for each order. We have to pay this
amount to get cash for the check. For european orders we recommend paying
by EuroCheck because _no_ additional fee is required for EuroChecks.
 
  If you want to send cash, just be sure to send it via _registered_ mail.
This is a very safe way and probably the cheapest solution for overseas
payment.
 
  As the Dollar exchange rates are changing from day to day, the pricing
may not be stable for a long time. Please try to get latest US$ pricing
for the Turbo IDE Card on GEnie.
 
In your order please specify computer (IIe or IIGS).
 
 
SHH Systeme, 10/94               "We make IDE Hard Drives RAMFast !!"
                                       "We make Vulcan Hard Drives RAMFast !!"
 
=======================================================================
 
-- End of Turbo IDE description --

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