Figuring out the causes of slow disk access on the TF536

[alenppc]

I don't notice any difference but I never had any speed issues here...

[arkadiusz.makarenko]

With new firmware plus combination of all tricks I could find. I managed to get to 12 seconds boot time. Classic WB 68k on 8 GB CF card.
It is without MMULibs, but with cpu fastrom very high in startup-sequence.

I have noticed that initial startup is much faster with CF card than SD2IDE (more than 12 seconds just to start loading anything).

[terriblefire]

With new firmware plus combination of all tricks I could find. I managed to get to 12 seconds boot time. Classic WB 68k on 8 GB CF card.
It is without MMULibs, but with cpu fastrom very high in startup-sequence.

I have noticed that initial startup is much faster with CF card than SD2IDE (more than 12 seconds just to start loading anything).

Have absolutely no clue if this will work (may wipe your drive) but this firmware accesses IDE at 25Mhz instead of 7mhz.

tf536r2_2020_07_20b_alpha.zip

(17.04 KiB) Downloaded 242 times

[arkadiusz.makarenko]

It didn't wipe my cards, but I didn't do any writes. It didn't have impact on speed of loading workbench or fake news sysinfo numbers. I didn't perform any more tests.

If there is even slight more chance of corrupted card on this firmware personally I wouldn't risk it.

PS
With 4096 block size on my SD cards system starts to load much quicker as well. It was about 10-14s after power on, now it is about 7s (almost like cf card) after power on, which makes 13s to load workbench vs CF 10s on CF card.

Conclusion: If your system loads very long on TF536, test firmware says everything is OK then this means you are doing something wrong!

PS2.
Do you think it is worth to write like tutorial how to set CF up?

[terriblefire]

It didn't wipe my cards, but I didn't do any writes. It didn't have impact on speed of loading workbench or fake news sysinfo numbers. I didn't perform any more tests.

If there is even slight more chance of corrupted card on this firmware personally I wouldn't risk it.

PS
With 4096 block size on my SD cards system starts to load much quicker as well. It was about 10-14s after power on, now it is about 7s (almost like cf card) after power on, which makes 13s to load workbench vs CF 10s on CF card.

Conclusion: If your system loads very long on TF536, test firmware says everything is OK then this means you are doing something wrong!

PS2.
Do you think it is worth to write like tutorial how to set CF up?

If that firmware works at all write will be fine.

[Smyckers]

I haven't had any problems with the boot time on my TF536 rev 2b but I've been following this thread out of interest.

I've run a few tests on WB2.1, 3.0, 3.1, and 3.9 base installs with the TF536 (no IDE buffers installed) using the TF330 as reference.

• 3.1 ROM in all tests

• MC68030RC50 in both cards

• In all cases the 2.1/3.0/3.1 Workbench base installs are approximately the same so I've just included 3.1 and 3.9.

• I tried the original 2b firmware and the test firmware from TF (534 timings), it didn't appear to make any difference to boot time or IDE speed.

• SD2IDE adapter with Verbatim Premium 16GB SD card (the 330 is on a 15cm cable, the 536 is on a 5cm cable)

• PFS3AIO PDS/03 formatted single 100MB partition image with 100 buffers and a 512B block size in all tests.

System	OS	Start time*	Sys info 4.3 disk speed
TF536	3.1	19 seconds	702KB/s
TF330	3.1	10 seconds	2.1MB/s
TF536	3.1 with MMU Libs and MUFastRom	19 seconds	1.97MB/s
TF330	3.1 with MMU Libs and MUFastRom	10 seconds	3.9MB/s
TF536	3.9	44 seconds	1.8MB/s
TF330	3.9	30 seconds	3.9MB/s
TF536	3.9 with MMU Libs and MUFastRom	43 seconds	2.8MB/s
TF330	3.9 with MMU Libs and MUFastRom	30 seconds	3.4MB/s

* Start time is measured from switch on to the Workbench drive icon appearing on the screen.

[terriblefire]

Thanks for that. I'd say that this entirely acceptable for the way we've avoided people needing to solder down an INT2 wire.

Remember the CD32 has an INT2 signal out on the edge connector. The TF536 emulates that .. so its slower. Its also 7Mhz vs 14Mhz.

[Maximilian]

Would it be possible and acceptable to make a firmware with and without INT2 emulation?

[8 Bit Dreams]

Unlike TF534 there is no INT2 Pin on TF536

[terriblefire]

Would it be possible and acceptable to make a firmware with and without INT2 emulation?

It’s literally the entire design goal of this card. I really invite people to read up before buying.

Can people who want fast IDE not buy a TF536