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Questions on Cache controllers / IDE controllers and RAM boards

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limboy777

Experienced Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2012
Messages
64
Hi

I have a ISA cache controller card. I believe these make the accessing of hard drives faster? what is the difference between a cache controller and a normal IDE controller? Is it just that it speeds things up.

Do I need a driver disk to install the cache controller (dont have one)?

I have also seen ISA ram boards advertised but have been advised that they are useless on a 386 due to the ISA bus. What was the point of these?

Thanks for reading
 
A caching controller works just like a disk cache you might have in system memory except the RAM is located on the controller card. It was very important back when servers were tightly memory constrained. If the server can only have a maximum of 16 MB installed, the system won't have the RAM for both system functions and disk caching. Place an additional 8MB on the controller card and now the system has all the RAM it needs.

It makes the system faster by handling read-ahead so if the system calls for a group of sectors, the cache would probably have the next set of sectors already loaded. The controller cache can also reduce bus contention by consolidating requests into fewer but larger transfers.

You may need a driver disk. Some cards had fairly transparent operation and would do their thing without drivers. Would be better with drivers. Many network or server OSes had baked in drivers for the more common cards.

ISA ram cards were for the earlier 808x (8-bit interface) and 80286 and 80386SX (16-bit interface). Did the same thing, increased memory for systems that could only put small amounts of memory on the motherboard. They could be used with an 80386 but usually that is a bad idea because memory access is so slow. Specialized 32-bit cards are a much better choice but since the cards were specific to motherboard model finding the correct card is nearly impossible unless you get card and motherboard at the same time. It is simply a lot cheaper to find a 486 based server motherboard and install 64+ MB of cheap RAM instead of creating an ultimate 386 server.
 
krebizfan said:
A caching controller works just like a disk cache you might have in system memory except the RAM is located on the controller card. It was very important back when servers were tightly memory constrained. If the server can only have a maximum of 16 MB installed, the system won't have the RAM for both system functions and disk caching. Place an additional 8MB on the controller card and now the system has all the RAM it needs.

It makes the system faster by handling read-ahead so if the system calls for a group of sectors, the cache would probably have the next set of sectors already loaded. The controller cache can also reduce bus contention by consolidating requests into fewer but larger transfers.

You may need a driver disk. Some cards had fairly transparent operation and would do their thing without drivers. Would be better with drivers. Many network or server OSes had baked in drivers for the more common cards.

ISA ram cards were for the earlier 808x (8-bit interface) and 80286 and 80386SX (16-bit interface). Did the same thing, increased memory for systems that could only put small amounts of memory on the motherboard. They could be used with an 80386 but usually that is a bad idea because memory access is so slow. Specialized 32-bit cards are a much better choice but since the cards were specific to motherboard model finding the correct card is nearly impossible unless you get card and motherboard at the same time. It is simply a lot cheaper to find a 486 based server motherboard and install 64+ MB of cheap RAM instead of creating an ultimate 386 server.
Click to expand...

Thanks for replying. That was really well written and clearly explained! If I have a compact flash used as a hard drive does the cache controller offer any advantages as the seek time on the compact flash is immediate?

The cache controller I have has 4mb and a 8088? processor on it. Model number DC6000something. Are you familiar with these?
 
With SD cards. For reads, the caching controller won't make much difference. The controller would gobble up data from the SD card in bigger chunks and then store that in the controller's RAM. I suspect that the SD card is fast enough that the controller card won't make a performance difference. However, writes might be a different case. Flash memory typically writes out whole blocks and then erases older blocks. If the SD card is handling data in 64 KB blocks but the data is sent in smaller amounts, the SD card might have a lot of extra wear. The caching controller could consolidate writes and thereby reduce the amount wear on the SD card.

The number suggests that it is a Tekram controller. If it is, then it would be supported by NT, Netware, and even early Linux. I would suggest searching for a manual and drivers. Much more trustworthy than my 20 year old memories.
 
hey i want to know that how can i check cache of my site please help me.


................
thanks
 
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