The PortaSCSI/SCSICable Plus compares favorably to Adaptec/Trantor's MiniSCSI/EPP and Shuttle's Connection, Parallel to SCSI Adapter. Including the PortaSCSI, these selected products represent the highest performing portable interface adapters available, with the PortaSCSI, as shown below being the highest of all.
Hard Disk Access:
Benchmark tests were done utilizing a 486DX2 40mhz CPU, equipped with an Intel 82360SL I/O chip with EPP mode enabled. Daisy-chained to the SCSI interfaces were a IBM-DPEA31080 (1080MB) SCSI-II hard drive and a Toshiba XM-4100A portable CD-ROM drive. The Toshiba CD-ROM provided the termination power. The benchmarks were established using PC Magazine's Benchmark Series 6.0 - File Access, Large Records tests. Units of performance are bytes / second.
Manufacturer PSS, Inc. Adaptec Shuttle
Product PortaSCSI MiniSCSI/EPP Connection
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16 Records of 16k bytes ave. 419k ave. 365k ave. 380k
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File Creation 280k 256k 273k
Sequential Write 430k 340k 356k
Sequential Read 562k 527k 541k
Random Read 403k 338k 352k
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8 Records of 32k bytes ave. 484k ave. 433k ave. 448k
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File Creation 306k 280k 292k
Sequential Write 531k 421k 432k
Sequential Read 579k 533k 549k
Random Read 523k 498k 518k
Conclusion: PSS's PortaSCSI / SCSICable Plus outperforms competitors by 10% or more, consistently.
CD-ROM Access: Benchmarks done with the CDSPEED Benchmark 1.0 from Microsoft, for data streaming transfer rate.
Manufacturer PSS, Inc. Adaptec Shuttle Product PortaSCSI MiniSCSI/EPP Connection Total Data Read 2240kb 2240kb 2240kb Overall transfer rate 299.4kb/second 262kb/second 266kb/second Total CPU utilization 33.1% 47.5% 48.5%
Manufacturer PSS, Inc. Adaptec Shuttle Product PortaSCSI MiniSCSI/EPP Connection ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Integrated Cable Design YES YES YES ASIC Chipset custom CMOS Actel A1010A PLCC custom SCSI Chipset NCR53c80 NCR53c400 Not Available Termination Power YES NO YES SCSI Connector MD 50 or Centronics 50 MD 50 or SCSI Connector Centronics 50 - Centronics 50 Auxilary +5V jack YES NO YES Lowest Operating 3.6V 4.75V 5.00V Voltage(TERMPOWER) Current Consumption lowest approx. 60ma <65ma(Highest) Daisy Chain Clearance Enough NO Enough Single Deck Design for YES NO In middle of printer pass through assembly port Manufacturing and Cable Cable with IDC Hand Soldering 25 Soldering to Soldering Techniques connector plug lines into board DB25 List Price $ 199.00 $ 249.00 $ 199.00 CorelSCSI II Drivers YES NO NO
PortaSCSI/SCSICable Plus provides the best performance with a sleeker, simpler design. The PortaSCSI offers both older centronics 50 position (SCSI-I) as well as microdensity 50 position (SCSI-II) solutions. The sleek design allows for a single deck with enough clearance to allow for "daisy-chains" of peripherals. The PortaSCSI was designed as the hardware test component for the SCSITool Box software (over 8,000 installations) used for SCSI bus testing and can co-exist with other SCSI adapters on the same bus (multiple hosting). Adaptec and Shuttle can not provide support for a host with a existing SCSI bus (i.e. Texas Instruments Notebooks, as well as a large percentage of desktop DOS/Windows hosts).
Verse Adaptec; The PortaSCSI-II also provides for auxiliary +5V (great for certain devices, like 8mm tape drives), this is not available from Adaptec. The PortaSCSI provides complete SCSI bus functionality whereas Adaptec's does not (including multiple initiators on same bus). The PortaSCSI's parallel to SCSI arbitration is much more elegant allowing better CPU utilization. At CD-ROM data rates (300KB to 600KB/s) PortaSCSI is MPC-II compliant whereas Adaptec's CPU utilization is not within that specification. With the capabilities of Corel SCSI Version-2, the PortaSCSI provides a complete, attractive solution, and at equal or lower prices than any competitive product.
Verse Shuttle; The PortaSCSI-II is faster while being more efficient. At similar data rates PSS's PortaSCSI is much more elegant in CPU utilization, being MPC-II compliant (whereas at similar CD-ROM data rates of 300-600KB/s Shuttle's Connection interface is not). PSS design requires and consumes much less current than the Shuttle Connection.