Re: Smartport driver for superdrive?

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Randy Shackelford <shack@deimos.frii.com> wrote:

> >BTW, I've noticed disk operation to be faster with the 800k drive plugged
> >into the card instead of the GS' SmartPort.  Two things immediately 
> >jumped out: 
> >     -  When inserting a "Preformatted (IBM)" blank disk, the delay 
> >        before the Initialize/Eject dialog pops up is _much_ less. 
> >     -  Also, when formatting a disk and moving the mouse around, the
> >        cursor is not jerky like it was without the card.  
> 
> I would hope it works faster since it has its own 65C02 and 14 MHz oscillator

The 14 MHz oscillator doesn't mean much - that is just needed because
the 14M signal is not available on the slot bus, and the SWIM chip needs
a 14 MHz clock to be able to access high density disks.  The clock is
probably divided down to about 2 MHz for the on-card processor.  They
might be running it at 4 MHz to make things easier.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail Mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand