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Even though some of the abuses of terminology (in "The Need for Speed", v2n6), such as using 'IDE' as a synonym for the 'ATA' standard or not understanding that SCSI is a standard for IDE equipment, are quite widespread in advertizing, there is no excuse for repeating it in an article.
But the more important thing is that the analysis of the performance differences may be correct for a DOS or Windows system but will not hold for any truely multitasking system which is used under a non-trivial load. Besides, SCSI devices are not much more expensive than ATA devices with the same performance. The big difference is that even the 'same' device will often be made to a lower specification if it is released to the presumably less critical market which does not demand SCSI devices.
And, as any of us who were working with computers at the time can tell you, SCSI was already old and well established when the ISO SCSI standard was finished in 1987. The ATA standard came later as an attempt to permit a cheaper type of IDE drives for low-cost PC use instead of the established ST-506 standard with a controller separate from the drives. ATA is in fact a standard for integrating the ST-506 controller into the disk drive and extending a subset of the ISA bus on a ribbon cable to the drive.
That is where all the confusion comes from. Vendors were speaking of two different kinds of ST-506 drives, those with IDE and those with separate controllers. The IDE ones were usually newer and faster. Therefore, IDE became a poorely understood advertizing buzzword in some circles, but the only non-IDE device you will get for a PC today is a tape drive which will connect to a diskette controller.
I liked the review of Graham Utilities this month. I also thought it was a good idea on your part to reprint it from an Italian Magazine. There have been many articles I would have liked to read in the past that have been in German. Since I don't read German that could be a little difficult. I would like to see OS/2 e-Zine! continue to look at other articles in different languages to complement the current e-zine!
We definitely will continue to accept translated submissions from foreign magazines as well as submissions written in English by foreign authors. We have been doing so for some time and such articles continue to be highly popular.
- editor
Your current rant is a crystallization - summation of much that is wrong in the industry. Mr. Gates is so wealthy that very few firms will look for another way, lest they be put out in the cold. Personally I am no longer going to buy software like soap. New! Improved! etc must be valid & not just marketing hype. The business software section of the stores I frequent continues to shrink. And too many of the games are also half baked... It would be so encouraging if one didn't feel like a pariah, because of one's choice of an operating system. What comes next, Sieg Heil? Ahrg.
A nice rant this month, Chris. Remember, in a society that constantly waters down standards -- moral expectations, school testing, language requirements, etc. -- it's hardly reasonable to expect the PC industry to remain "pure." The PC industry is just suffering from the same decadence, corruption, and monopolistic practices that flourish in almost every other industry. Ever try to find snack chips that are not Frito-Lay? FL has about 65% of the snack market and wants it all. Coke and VISA are two more examples of attempts to control the entire marketplace, with government winks and nods.
Government control is no better, maybe worse. Where private corruption ends, government ignorance begins. Only the grassroots activities of folks like you and me will be able to carve out a safe niche for sensible computer users. Start directing people to www.os2voice.org, www.warpstock.org, and www.iotta.org if you want there to be a safe choice in the future.
Ideas for inventing new scenarios.
Taking out the girl of your dreams. You decide to go to an intimate club. Candle light, soft music. You go to the ATM machine which has just incorporated its new Windows 97 soft ware. You need cash money to fulfill your lust but your ATM machine says "Not enough memory to process this transaction." It eats your card, the bullet proof plastic shield slides down & locks you out. Girl not impressed. Doubt has entered her mind. You are done.
You are on final approach to the USS Enterprise in your F-14 Tomcat. You are loaded with wing stingers, bull pups & atomic sidewinder missles. At this time of year the Sea of Japan heaves frozen & mercilessly. Radar approached controll (Catc) has given you landing clearence. Your plane is turned over to the new computer software system the US Navy was forced to buy through an appropriation deal lobbied by unknown people in Oregon called Windows version 97.xx.
You have zero fuel & can't go around the landing pattern again. Visibilty is below zero. The computer is normally programed to put you in #2 arresting wire & if your hook misses pour on afterburner & try again after the computer releases your systems. If you are below the correct slope (glide path) you crash into the stern of the ship if (the computer) misses the wire, you eject over the deck & take your chances in the cold dark sea. "Catc I'm 1/4 mile final approach..over"
Rant On !
Actually, depending on what you're doing, the Pentium II can be a definite step down from the Pentium Pro.
Most floating-point code is highly sensitive to the cache structure of the processor. While the Pentium II has, in some cases, a larger cache than the Pentium Pro, the Pentium II cache runs at half the clock speed of the processor, while the Pentium Pro cache runs at the same clock speed as the processor.
As a result, although I haven't seen the benchmarks, I have heard that the Pentium Pro is still the floating-point champion. It is likely to remain so until the clock speed of the Pentium II significantly outpaces the 200 MHz speed of the current Pentium Pro line (I don't consider 266 MHz very significant -- maybe 350 to 400 MHz would be).
So OS/2 users who do scientific computing have also lost out, by not getting any performance improvement at all!
Great article about moving backwards to serves the needs of the emporers' new software. You ought to go into detail on just what MMX is & if it's just another vehicle for Microsoft dominance or if we actually can benefit by it. It's hype to the max but if you check the Intel 'net pages, the 233mmx chip is a total dog.
They go as far as saying there is no mmx code in this & that chip. So if you use it on windows 95 software expect to get this less than ideal performance. Good idea for next article.
"Wintel" was a perfect description for the unholy alliance. I guess P II gotta be a killer chip if they are forced to add the mmx code. I'm using an IBM P200 3.5v clocked @ 75mhz with a mustang 534G board & 64meg sdram & it freakin rips. I mean it rips. I would like to see OS/2 bench mark scores listed somewhere.
As much as I believe that OS/2 is the better operating system. I'm getting really dismayed by the feeling of being "left out in the cold" by IBM. The Alpha Works site was the final straw. Very few OS/2 programs and almost everything is for W95. Why don't they just give up and write software for Microsoft? Obviously, they don't think it's worthwhile to write programs for thier own OS or they would do so. After all, the primary objective of any business is to make money.
I wrote IBM recently and asked them point blank if they intend to begin seriously making programs available to OS/2. I also asked them that, if they weren't, could they give me any good reason to keep thier OS on my computer? Anyway, the response I got was the text of my letter returned with no comments. I removed OS/2 from my system the following day.
...kinda tiring to hang out with the loosers... especially when they won't try and they don't even seem to care.
I was reading the 'answers from' page and noted the question about Faxworks lite being started in the auto receive mode.
There are at least five files on Pete Norloff's BBS that profess to be add'ons or fixes to allow faxworks lite to start up in the receive mode. I have never tried them, but are you aware of them? Do they work? Are they what the reader was looking for?
That's exactly what our reader was looking for, thanks!
- editor
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