From: Sushi (Sushi_at_ragingbull.com)
Date: Wed Jun 27 2001 - 06:34:49 PDT
Hi Paul,
As one who is really excited about this driver and will be first in line
to purchase it, I really appreciate these updates. Looking at the IBM
Microdrive and Toshiba PC Card drives just makes a fellow's mind wander
at the possibilities.
Having said that, take your time and do what you think is best for
version 1.0. In other words (I can't believe that I am saying this) take
your time to complete it the way you want. Your ATA driver is going to
be one significant addition to the Newton family of great apps.
Thanks again for the update!
Sushi
>Hi folks,
>
>I have took the bad habit of using Eudora as my To-Do list management
>software ;)
>
>Known bugs:
>a/ ATA Support doesn't work with Victor's MP and card (officially a
>Kodak, in fact a 4 MB SunDisk)
>The card apparently doesn't want to write as many bytes as the driver
>wants to feed it and clears DRQ and BSY while it shouldn't. I have
>sent Victor a special build (it's something like the 4th or 5th time)
>which might fix the problem.
>Once the bug is fixed and most NS interface elements have been
>implemented (see below), I'll release beta 1.
>
>Here is the newest version of my to-do list before the final release:
>
>*: required for the final release
>-: might be implemented in 1.1 only
>
>1/ work on the NS interface:
>* allow to set the auto mount and read only flags (I think I'll
>redesign parts of the partition map handling)
>* handle read-only cards
>* better handling of read-only partitions (for example, it's useless
>to offer restore or set default store on these)
>* design an interface to define partitions (two or three hours)
>* don't show format alert in certain conditions (basically when you
>have just partitioned the card or if you have initialized it) (30
>mins)
>* implement erase and initialize route scripts
>* more aesthetic changes
>- implement some basic backup feature similar to the ROM backup
>feature of the linear cards (backups already work with third party
>software) (one hour, interface has already been implemented)
>2/ optimize the code:
>- implement asynchronous writes/reads (4 or 5 hours)
>- change format slightly if this improves performances (I have to
>think about it twice)
>- optimize replace object function (currently does setsize and writes
>hence requiring twice the time of a direct access)
>3/ driver work:
>- handle brutal removal of the card (if I find out how to do that)
>(let's say it will take one week)
>- implement interrupt-based modes (I/O modes). ATA cards shall
>implement memory mode (and the driver already supports it) which is
>said to be faster.
>I'll use interrupts (doesn't make sense otherwise). Hence, it
>requires async read/writes first.
>- better power handling (auto-sleep the card). Requires async
>read/writes implementation.
>- support spinning devices (by spinning them at startup) (requires
>better power handling)
>- support ATAPI interface (requires async read/writes and
>interrupt-based modes)
>- support DMA if the Newton can handle it (it seems to be DMA
>capable) for much faster transfer rates (requires async read/writes
>and interrupt-based modes)
>- support cache on-the-fly resizing (currently, you have to restart).
>I'd better do it after implementing async read/writes.
>4/ final version administrivia
>* implement the software protection
>* write the documentation
>* update the web pages
>
>As you can see, we're getting much closer to a working release. BTW,
>I got 5.5 KB/s with the optimizations I have implemented. And as you
>can see, even without DMA, there are other optimizations to bring to
>the software.
>
>BTW, you can see a couple of fresh (made today) screen shots of the
>updated interface with Michael Vac=EDk's artwork there:
>http://www.kallisys.com/tmp/ata-20010627.png
>http://www.kallisys.com/tmp/ata-20010627-default-store.png
>
>Paul
>--
>Home page: http://www.kallisys.com/
>Newton-powered WebServer: http://newt.dyndns.org:8080/
>
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