PRESS RELEASE -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Motohiko Inada
inADA, inc.
e-mail:inada@netjoy.ne.jp
P. O. Box 401, Belmont, CA 94002-0401
inADA inc. announces availability of the RAMDISK PCI card.
Yano Electric Co., Ltd. and inADA inc. have jointly developed the RAMDISK
PCI card. The RAMDISK card was introduced at Apple Computer's Worldwide
Developer's Conference vendor exhibition. This card is now available for
sale.
The RAMDISK PCI card has the following features:
1) High Speed Data Access
2) TRUE Plug and Play
3) SCSI Manager 4.3 Compatibility
4) 2 GB Capacity
5) AC Adapter Backup (Optional)
6) CD-ROM and Internet Emulation (Under Development)
1) High Speed Data Access
The RAMDISK card performs high speed data transport, achieving the peak
transfer rate of 132 MB/second, and surveyed average transfer rate is over
40MB/second. There is no seek time and no sector wait time. If you compare
to a RAID system, 3 SCSI PCI cards with 2 hard disk drives per card, the
RAMDISK PCI card is twice as fast as the RAID when using Adobe Photoshop as
a benchmark.
2) TRUE Plug and Play
Unlike Wintel's "plug and play", the RAMDISK is true plug and play. No
special extension nor control panel files are necessary. There is no
installation program. Just plug in the RAMDISK card and power on. The
RAMDISK appears on the desktop as a hard disk volume.
The RAMDISK device drivers are in its configuration ROM. OpenFirmware loads
these drivers automatically when the system starts up. The device driver
also formats the RAMDISK card.
3) SCSI Manager 4.3 Compatibility
The RAMDISK card is 100% compatible with SCSI Manager 4.3. Its device
drivers consist of a SCSI Interface Module (SIM) and SCSI device driver.
The RAMDISK card can be formatted as a Mac OS Extended volume (also known
as "HFS Plus") with the Mac OS 8.1 Finder or the Drive Setup 1.4 or later
utility. The RAMDISK card can be selected as the startup disk by using
Apple's "Startup Disk" control panel.
4) 2 GB Capacity
Up to 2 GB of memory (eight 256 MB DIMMS) can be installed in a card. When
using 256 MB DIMMs, the RAMDISK requires 3 PCI slots due to the DIMM
height. When using 128MB or smaller DIMM, 2 PCI slots are required.
5) AC Adapter Backup (Optional)
Macintosh OS has a RAM disk feature. However, when you turn off the
Macintosh computer, the data will be lost. Our RAMDISK card allows you to
keep the data in the card by supplying power from an optional external AC
adapter. Of course, if both the AC adapter and the computer loses power,
the data in the card will be lost.
6) CD-ROM and Internet Emulation (Under Development)
Under development is a CD-ROM and Internet Emulation mode. This feature
speeds up your multimedia and Internet development.
The RAMDISK can emulate the CD-ROM accesses, thus eliminating the need to
burn a CD (a time consuming process) each time you test. Though you need to
write CD-R for final test, this emulation will reduce your development time
dramatically.
This feature can also be used to simulate the Internet. The speed of the
Internet varies depending on traffic. You can test variety of speeds by
slowing down read timing with this emulation.
IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT
The RAMDISK performance or operation is not guaranteed with other
manufacturer's DIMM and/or AC adapter. We strongly suggest the card to be
used with our DIMM and AC adapter.
RAMDISK TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
Memory Requirements
Sizes: 32/64/128/256MB
Speed: Minimum 70 ns
Pins: 168 pin DIMM
Type: 3.3 V,EDO, Unbuffered
Refresh: 4K
Note: 256MB DIMM needs to be 4RAS lines
Compatible Hardware:
Power Macintosh 7200, 7300, 7500, 7600, 8500, 8600, 9500, 9600
Power Macintosh G3 Desktop 233, 266 MHz, Mini-Tower 266 MHz
System Software Requirement:
Mac OS 7.5.2 or later (including Mac OS 8.1)
AC Adapter
7.5V or 12V at 2.5A
The following special introductory prices are offered to all orders placed
directly to inADA, inc. by the end of September 1998.
RAMDISK card $990.00
RAMDISK card with
1G byte DIMM and AC adapter $3,799.00
2G byte DIMM and AC adapter $6,299.00
Detailed product information and sales information can be obtained by
writing to (inada@netjoy.ne.jp).
Yano Electric Co.,Ltd.
e-mail: info@yano-el.co.jp
web site: (http://www.yano-el.co.jp/) (Japanese only)
mail: 7-3-1 Higashi-machi, Ibukidai,
Nishi-ku, Kobe
Hyougo, JAPAN 651-2242
inADA, inc.
e-mail: inada@netjoy.ne.jp
web site: (http://www.iijnet.or.jp/pastel/in_ada/index.html)
mail: P. O. Box 401, Belmont, CA 94002-0401
