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Hardware News   Hardware News : FastATA 4000 MK-V released
   posted by DJS on 21-Aug-2008 9:40:34 (2731 reads)
ELBOX COMPUTER is pleased to announce a new addition to its leading FastATA controller line for Classic Amiga computers with the FastATA 4000 MK-V controller.

Like its predecessors, FastATA 4000 MK-V provides high performance support (up to PIO 5) for up to four ATA/EIDE storage devices. The FastATA 4000 MK-V controller is the half-length Zorro III card which can be used in any Amiga with Zorro III slots.

Click read more


The new controller offers much faster procedures for detection of connected EIDE/ATAPI devices, significantly fastening the computer's start. The 48-bit LBA (Logical Block Addressing) capability in onboard BootROM assures support for EIDE drives beyond the 128GB (up to 2TB).

FastATA 4000 MK-V is equipped with BootROM 5.0 and the FastATA4000 software package with FastATA.driver ver.2.10 and FastATAPrefs ver.2.10. FastATA 4000 MK-V ships with the fastest Amiga CD filesystem--AllegroCDFS ver.3.6.

Features:
• Fast transfer rate of up to 16.6MB/s
• Two independent, buffered and terminated EIDE ports
• LBA 48 support in the onboard BootROM (support of drives over 128GB)
• Support for ATAPI devices (CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, ZIP, LS-120)
• Compatibility with OS4.0 (support of PIO0, PIO3, PIO4 and PIO5)
• Support of SATA devices (PATA - SATA adapter required)

Pricing and availability:
The FastATA 4000 MK-V controller will be on sale from 22 August 2008 at suggested retail price EUR 95.95 (plus local taxes and shipping costs).

To locate an authorized distributor in your area visit the Elbox Computer website at . To purchase the product online visit the Elbox On-line Store for European Union customers or for customers from other countries.

Upgrade policy:
For users of previous versions of FastATA 4000 controllers we will offer a DIY upgrade pack for using BootROM 5.0 in their controllers.

For more info, see the FastATA 4000 website and AllegroCDFS website.
    

STORYID: 4478
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PosterThread
DJBase 
Re: FastATA 4000 MK-V released
Posted on 21-Aug-2008 14:37:34
#1 ]
Regular Member
Joined: 20-Jan-2004
Posts: 285
From: Germany

How to make money with a "dead" product?

Just release a new ROM and call it Mk-V.


_________________
AMIGA 1200 | Vampire 1200 II | 128 MB RAM | Indivision AGA Mk3 | 256 GB SD | AmigaOS 3.2.2
AMIGA 600 | Vampire 600 II | 128 MB RAM | Indivision ECS Mk3 | 256 GB SD | AmigaOS 3.2.2

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fryguy 
Re: FastATA 4000 MK-V released
Posted on 21-Aug-2008 14:39:36
#2 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 6-Dec-2003
Posts: 852
From: Tinytown

Would been cool if it could do DMA.

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Comi 
Re: FastATA 4000 MK-V released
Posted on 21-Aug-2008 15:28:54
#3 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 30-Jun-2003
Posts: 660
From: Zlatibor, Serbia

Cool! New hardware! Go Elbox, make PPC now!


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HammerD 
Re: FastATA 4000 MK-V released
Posted on 21-Aug-2008 16:01:23
#4 ]
Cult Member
Joined: 31-Oct-2003
Posts: 934
From: Ontario, Canada

I agree. This doesn't seem to be any new product, but just a new rom update, adding one new PIO mode.

No S-ATA ports, no new hardware design, no DMA.

Nothing very interesting.

Elbox should rather work on releasing their Shark PPC, Dragon, etc...


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AmigaOS 4.x Beta Tester - Classic Amiga enthusiast - http://www.hd-zone.com is my Amiga Blog, check it out!

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Darrin 
Re: FastATA 4000 MK-V released
Posted on 21-Aug-2008 18:19:47
#5 ]
Team Member
Joined: 14-May-2003
Posts: 1941
From: Lake Charles, USA

Well I have a FastATA4000 and I'm glad to see an update.

Quote:
The new controller offers much faster procedures for detection of connected EIDE/ATAPI devices, significantly fastening the computer's start.


I'm hoping that this will reduce the lag on the A4000 boot-up when there is no device connected to the motherboard IDE port.


_________________
AmigaOne X1000, A4000(T), A3000, A2000, A1200(T), A1200, A500, CD32, Minimig+ARM, FPGA Arcade, Chameleon64, C-One, C128, C128D, C64C, C64, VIC-20, CBM 8032, CBM4032, Efika, Ultimate64

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BrandonLee 
Re: FastATA 4000 MK-V released
Posted on 22-Aug-2008 16:04:52
#6 ]
Super Member
Joined: 15-Dec-2003
Posts: 1355
From: Lisbon, Portugal

I know next to nothing about ATA, SATA, etc, so I'll ask here.
I have a SATA DVD-writer waiting in a local shop, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to use it. Do I need extra hardware on my A1? And what about drivers, what do I need?
What are the advantages of SATA over IDE, for example?

If I don't get a reply, I'll probably ask for a plain IDE drive instead...

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Darrin 
Re: FastATA 4000 MK-V released
Posted on 22-Aug-2008 20:56:51
#7 ]
Team Member
Joined: 14-May-2003
Posts: 1941
From: Lake Charles, USA

The main thing you need to worry about between IDE/EIDE/PATA and the new SATA drives is the interface to connect the data cable and power lead. SATA drives use small cables with tiny L-shaped connectors instead of the usual chunky power connector and the wide ribbon cable interface. So, your A1 doesn't have SATA ports (and neither does my A4000 with the FastATA4000), but you can still use SATA drives if you buy an interface:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1699339&CatId=3770

That one allows you to connect a SATA drive to a USB port and I use something similar to connect a SATA drive to my A4000 via the Deneb USB card.

However, while there are other adapters to connect IDE drives to SATA ports, I cannot find anything to do the reverse (connect a SATA drive to an IDE port).

So, if I was you I woulf avoid the SATA drives for now and just use the older ones with some "round" cables:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=281800&CatId=729


_________________
AmigaOne X1000, A4000(T), A3000, A2000, A1200(T), A1200, A500, CD32, Minimig+ARM, FPGA Arcade, Chameleon64, C-One, C128, C128D, C64C, C64, VIC-20, CBM 8032, CBM4032, Efika, Ultimate64

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BrandonLee 
Re: FastATA 4000 MK-V released
Posted on 22-Aug-2008 21:10:32
#8 ]
Super Member
Joined: 15-Dec-2003
Posts: 1355
From: Lisbon, Portugal

@Darrin

Ok! Will do so.
The guy from the shop told me that SATA brought no significant advantage, which is kind of weird. Change for change sake? Well, I really hate those old connectors, so even if that's the only difference, it's still improvement. ;)

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Darrin 
Re: FastATA 4000 MK-V released
Posted on 22-Aug-2008 21:56:47
#9 ]
Team Member
Joined: 14-May-2003
Posts: 1941
From: Lake Charles, USA

Well, he's kind of right, depending on what your priorities are. Here's a brief background:

Quote:
Normal hard drives like we are all used to using are Parallel ATA (PATA). There is a new standard called Serial ATA which boosts transfer speeds up to 150MBs [and up to 300MB/s bursts with SATA2 technology) as opposed to a max of 133MBs with parallel interface. The SATA standard also improves airflow in the case because wide ribbons are no longer needed and a somewhat thin compact cable is used instead. Additionally, SATA2 offers a few features like Native Command Queuing, eSATA and other. However - using SATA means you will need a SATA controller, a SATA drive, and a SATA power cable/adapter (often not included on power supplies yet). The actual speed improvement of SATA vs PATA is not much noticeable with current drives unless you are talking about the high end SATA drives using RPMs higher than 7200 which can burst through a wider channel than PATA. If you are building an average/upper end system there is currently no pressing reason to go SATA unless you are building for the future. PATA standard is slowly dying out and high-end motherboards stop even including PATA support for hard drives, they still include one, though, for CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives that are still in their majority use PATA interface.


So, they can be a speed increase right at the top of the range if you have all the correct hardware to take advantage of it. The only real reason I like SATA is the small cables which makes the inside of your computer a lot neater and easier to access.

As I pointed out though, unless you have SATA ports on your computer then a SATA drive can be useless.

The new large hard drives being made are SATA so that's where we're all going to end up, however that PATA drive you buy today will still be usable on newer machines via the small SATA-PATA interfaces available.


_________________
AmigaOne X1000, A4000(T), A3000, A2000, A1200(T), A1200, A500, CD32, Minimig+ARM, FPGA Arcade, Chameleon64, C-One, C128, C128D, C64C, C64, VIC-20, CBM 8032, CBM4032, Efika, Ultimate64

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Slick 
Re: FastATA 4000 MK-V released
Posted on 26-Aug-2008 10:21:03
#10 ]
Regular Member
Joined: 20-Dec-2003
Posts: 215
From: Sunshine, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

I've got one of the old boards (not very old).

Does anyone know how much the ROM upgrade will be?

I think Taj one of the MAUG http://go.to/maug members made Elbox aware of problems with large hard drives... and apart from fixing that they seem to have extended the speed and compatability some more too.

Nice one Elbox.

Wonder if they'll let us burn our own ROM upgrades?

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