Newsgroups: alt.cd-rom From: Andy@armswalk.demon.co.uk (Andy Armstrong) Path: cdrom.com!barrnet.net!sgiblab!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!demon!armswalk.demon.co.uk!Andy Subject: Re: Double speed drives & MPC-2 References: Organization: Armstrong Walker Ltd Reply-To: Andy@armswalk.demon.co.uk X-Newsreader: Demon Internet Simple News v1.27 Lines: 35 Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 12:32:26 +0000 Message-ID: <763734746snz@armswalk.demon.co.uk> Sender: usenet@demon.co.uk In article fredt@netcom.com "Fred Tempereau" writes: > I'm ready to buy a double speed drive (I currently use a Mitsumi 5s), > and the temptation is to upgrade to the Mitsumi double speed (a local > retailer is selling it for $165 w/controller). > > Here's some random worries: > > -Mitsumi only has a 32k buffer thus making it inelegible for the MPC-2 > standard. Is this important? has anyone seen any speed comparisons in > the computer magazines? Fred, We have started shipping the Mitsumi FX001D double speed drive with our own proprietory interface here in the UK (this for the decidedly non-DOS non-Intel Acorn Archimedes RISC based PC). We recently tendered for a government contract to supply CD ROM systems to schools, and one of the stipulations was that the drives should have a 64k buffer. It turns out that the FX001D is actually pinned out for 64k but is shipped with only 32k, presumably because Mitsumi feel that any performance effect is negligable. In spite of this Mitsumi (very helpful company) were able to fax us details of the upgrade to 64k which involves moving a resistor and adding the extra RAM chip. We have CD ROM performance test software of our own which was able to detect no significant difference after the buffer was added, although to be fair the test code is specifically designed to see through the effects of the buffer! We have not had a chance to speed test the drive on any industry standard benchmark software, although I believe that Mitsumi consider the performance effect negligable. Andy Armstrong, Armstrong Walker Ltd