Archive-name: acorn/faq/part4
Frequency: bi-weekly


Computer Modem Protocol Manuf Model     Interface   Interface Interface  Special
         speed                          blockdriver manuf     Best speed Reqs
A310     9600  -        Pace  MicroLin  internal    Acorn     19k2       none
A410/1   28.8K V34      USR   Sportster internal    Acorn     9600       none
A410/1   28.8K V34      USR   Sportster sp_dual MK2 TSP       115200     none
RPC600   28.8K V34      USR   Sportster internal    acorn     115200     none
RPC600   14.4K -        -     LineLink  internal    acorn     57600      none
         May need to cut an internal cable to fix flow control if the modem is 
         wired for use with a MAC
RPC700   28.8K V34      USR   Sportster internal    acorn     115200     none
         setup string: ATB0&M4&H1&R2&I0&K3&B1&N0&S1&Y1&D2&C1V1Q0X4&A3E1F1M1
   Note: If you have a Sportster 28.8 with revision dates earlier than
04/28/95 / 03/31/95, and you are having difficulties such as low speed
operation or line drop-outs, USR have a return-to-base upgrade which is
free of charge. 

Printers 
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Computer Printer DPI Manuf.   Model        Interface Interfc !Printers  Special
         type                              type      manuf   version    Reqs
A410     Inkjet  720 Epson    Stylus-Col-I Parallel  Acorn   1.28c      none
RPC700   Inkjet  720 Epson    Stylus-Col-I Parallel  Acorn   1.52 rel3  none
A410     Dotmat  360 Citizen  Swift 24     Parallel  Acorn   1.28c      none
Third party drivers 
Computer Concepts' Turbo Drivers are available for popular printers. This
software is optimised for speed although Acorn's own drivers have recently
been upgraded and the benefits are not as great as they were. Turbo drivers
work in conjunction with !Printers, and currently versions above 1.28c are
not supported. 

Optical Scanners 
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Computer  Manuf.   Model         Scanner   Interface Interface Special
                                 type      type      manuf     Requirements
RPC600    HP       Scanjet IIcx  flatbed   SCSI-2    Cumana    David Pilling's Twain
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Computer notes 

   The A3xx and A4xx machines are all similar, and comments about one of
these machines should apply to any other, provided it is running with the
latest OS and/or chip set. 
Similarly, the A4 is a miniature A5000, and the RPC700 is a slightly
enhanced RPC600. 
StrongARM equipped RiscPCs might have difficulties with interfaces that
work on the non-SA computers, 

   A3xx computers have no on-board disc interface; A4xx have on-board mfm.
The A3000 has no interface, the A4, A3020, A4000, A5000, A7000, Stork and
RPC models all have IDE. 

Interface notes In theory the fastest interfaces are the ones with DMA.
These cards perform at their best on RiscPCs in slot 0 or 1. The data rate
will be limited by the slowest part of the system, so when upgrading,
budget for a new drive in addition to the interface. 

   The Alsystems Powertec card is a SCSI-2 DMA device with a top speed of
around 4.5MB/s. This speed will increase with later software/firmware
releases. 
The Yellowstone RapIDE32 card is a fast IDE interface using DMA which will
give a significant improvement over the standard interface in a RiscPC. 
Both Yellowstone and Alsystems are developing rival products. 

   The Morley SCSI-1 interface is either cached or uncached. The maximum
speeds of these are uncached: 2MB/s, cached: 4MB/s. These cards do not use
DMA. Currently the Morley software cannot cope with partitions > 512 MB and
the "Free" window is broken under RiscOS 3.6. New firmware is rumoured for
the Morley card. 
The TSP/AAD is the former 'Arxe Alpha Dual', which was produced by The
Serial Port, but which is now discontinued. It provides 16-bit non-DMA
SCSI-1 and a high density floppy interface. 

   Versions of Risc OS older than 3.6 can only cope with drives < 512 MB.
Larger drives can be used if formatted to this size. Some filing systems
allow large drives to be partitioned, ie split into 2 or more sections,
each up to 512MB in size. The new limit for RiscOS 3.6 is 4GB, which is
already looking too small. 

Which SCSI have I got? To determine the scsi version number of a device,
run the following program: 
        ON ERROR REPORT:PRINT " at ";ERL:END
        DIM buffer% 16
        INPUT "Enter device number";device%
        SYS "SCSI_Initialise",2,device%,buffer%
        SCSI%=(buffer%?2) AND %111
        PRINT "Version is ";SCSI%
        END

This will give you zero if the device is not present. 

How big is a Megabyte ? Some manufacturers quote Megabytes as 1000K. This
is of course totally incorrect but they like to cheat with numbers, so to
get the real size, multiply by 1000/1024. 

Further Information IDE hard discs 
IDE hard discs are listed separately in the FAQ . 

   Jumper settings and configuration 
Jumper settings are often a problem, and it's rare to get a manual with a
drive these days. Some manufacturers have web sites, most of these have
detailed information on their current models including jumper settings, and
some have databases covering older devices. Although sometimes biased
towards PCs, the information can be extremely useful.

Manufacturer         Web site
Seagate              http://www.seagate.com/
Conner               http://www.conner.com/
Quantum              http://www.quantum.com/
Maxtor               http://www.maxtor.com/
Syquest              http://www.syquest.com/
Micropolis           http://www.micropolis.com/
Fujitsu              http://www.fujitsu.com/

Iomega               http://www.iomega.com/

Panasonic            http://www.panasonic.com/
Toshiba              http://www.toshiba.com/
Sony                 http://www.sony.com/
NEC                  http://www.nec.com/

US Robotics          http://www.usr.com/
Hayes                http://www.hayes.com/
Zoom                 http://www.zoom.com/
Motorola             http://www.motorola.com/
Pace                 http://www.pace.co.uk/
   Many of these companies also have a faxback service which is just like
gopher by e-mail. Useful if you have a fax machine. 
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Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the list.
And to everyone else: send in your details now !
The latest version is available from my home page
http://www.c3po.demon.co.uk/ 

Any corrections or suggestions should be sent to nigel@c3po.demon.co.uk 
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CPIlist version 2.9, 09-Aug-96 
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11.4) What specification memory can I use with my RiscPC?

   RAM for the RiscPC, while a standard 72pin SIMM, must be bought with a
degree of care to avoid potential damage to your machine. EDO RAM, while it
will work, is not advised as it is both more expensive than the required
RAM and may have different power requirements that could be detrimental to
your machine. 

   The RAM required is 70ns (or faster), 72pin, square array (equal number
of bits used for row and column addressing), non-parity RAM that supports
'fast page mode' and 'CAS before RAS' refresh. Devices that contain more
than 16 memory chips (8 on each side) is not recommended as they may have
power requirements above and beyond what the computer can safely supply.
Consequently SIMM 'stackers' and 30 to 72pin adaptors are also not advised. 

   For the more technically inclined out there maximum loads possible are
:- 

   Address    128pF
   WE         140pF
   CAS or RAS  59pF
   Data bus    29pF

Finally, in the maintainers experience anyway, Hitachi parts seem to be
fine. 
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Section 12: Common Questions about the FAQ.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

12.1) Why do I get the FAQ twice?

   There are two ways this can happen. The first, and most common way, is
when you see two copies of the FAQ, one set posted to
comp.sys.acorn.announce and the other set posted to comp.sys.acorn.misc.
This occurrence is caused by your news handling software being broken. The
FAQ is, if you check the newsgroups line when it is posted, crossposted to
both of these groups. 

   This means it is actually posted just the once and with all good news
handling software you will read the post exactly once. Given that this is
supposed to be standard behaviour for newsreaders I refuse to stop
cross-posting purely because people are seeing the posts twice. Quite
simply it isn't my problem and I will need other justification before I
stop cross-posting. 

   The second way it can occur is when you see two copies of the FAQ in the
same group. Careful checking of your newsbase should reveal that one copy
is about 15 to 16 days older than the other. This comes about because I use
the Expires: header to ensure that a copy of the FAQ is always present in
all well configured newsbases. Because I currently don't use the
Supercedes: header this will result in, for one or two days, two copies of
the FAQ being present. 

   My general stance on this is that it is not a major problem as the
amount of disc space involved is small compared to general size and flow of
information that a news stream entails anyway. Certainly I have been
meaning to add the Supercedes header to the posted copy of the FAQ but it
is currently a very low priority task. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

12.2) Why does the full FAQ have to be posted?

   Simply because of the wide distribution that the FAQ has. Every time the
FAQ gets posted it gets automatically archived into various FAQ databases,
propagates on ancillary networks only loosely connected to the net (BBSes
in particular) and reaches a wide variety of people whose skills at
navigating the net vary considerably. Occasionally it gets copied onto CD
ROMs, Magazine discs and extracts get used in various publications from
time to time. 

   All this just from the posted copy of the FAQ. 

   Given this wide reaching nature and the general idea of an FAQ being to
reduce network traffic by providing the answers to common questions
immediately then I see clear justification for continuing to post the full
FAQ. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

12.3) Isn't the FAQ overly long?

   In a word, no. 

   To be slightly less terse it is worthwhile doing a comparison of the
c.s.a FAQ with other newsgroup's FAQs. For this task I used a 'snapshot' CD
ROM of the rtfm.mit.edu FAQ archive that was taken in March 1995. Here are
a few sample sizes :- 

FAQ                                      Size in bytes
---                                      -------------
comp.sys.acorn (as posted 1st Jan 1996)  118,536
soc.feminism (resources list)            239,256
comp.sys.amiga (introduction)            167,632
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware                 318,882
comp.sys.apollo                          162,638

   As can be seen by the above table the size of the FAQ is neither overly
large nor is it particularly uncommon. 
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12.4) If I find something wrong or am unhappy with the FAQ, what do I do?

   Email me first about it. 

   I mean it. Generally errors or bad information that has crept into the
FAQ has been through circumstances beyond my control. Often a lot of the
information I am provided with I simply can not, and being in New Zealand
does not help with this, check directly myself. So I accept alot of what I
am given on trust and generally try to exercise care with what I include
into the FAQ. 

   If, after getting a reply back from me, you are still unhappy then by
all means grumble about it on the newsgroups. But I want the chance to
explain things first. I take a very dim view to people posting complaints
to the newsgroups, first, about the FAQ, especially ones that imply or
impugn improper conduct on my part. I tend to view such posts as attempts
to publicly force my hand and make me do whatever said poster wants done to
the FAQ. 
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Thanks go to all the people who have contributed corrections and additions
to the list. Without this help this list would be a hell of a lot buggier
(spot the programmer... :-) ) than it is... 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
All additions, corrections & suggestions for the FAQ List should be sent to
banksie@khantazi.wn.planet.gen.nz. Being the maintainer of this FAQ I
reserve the right to be wrong, incorrect, slow, out of date and generally
how I please with the FAQ List. 
