Organization: Computing Laboratory, U of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE1 7RU.
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In article <1992Nov11.092901.1644@msus1.msus.edu>, csas400@msus1.msus.edu writes:
>In article <dpn2.65.721007601@po.CWRU.Edu>, dpn2@po.CWRU.Edu (Damien P. Neil) writes:
{Stuff deleted}
>To make a long story short "if you get a caching
> disk controller YOU LOSE THE OPTION of where the memory gets used."
I dissagree. I have a IDE chaching controller on my new PC (486DX-33). At first I was dubious of the benefits of a hardware chache over the software option, but not now.....
The main advantage is that your main CPU is not burdend with the mundane chache control functions and can get on with pushing Windows (or whatever) along.
It is particularly noticable to me when I'm compiling, I save then compile my source code, with the IDE chache this is done in parallel, software chaching could not do this.
A further advantage is gained if you use "write-back chaching" (disk writes are chached as well as reads). If you use software chaching and your machine crashes (not so unusual even under Win 3.1) bang goes your new data... This does not happen in hardware chaching.
