[OT Humor] "Obviously designed by morons"

[les]

On Wed, 2011-04-06 at 20:11 +0930, Tim wrote:
> Lamar Owen:
> >> Lots of DVD drives use the Z80 and the successor chips
> 
> Tom Horsley:
> > That must explain why it takes 'em 10 minutes to figure
> > out what kind of disk you just put in the drive :-).
> 
> LOL!  I've never really understood why computer hardware is handled so
> crapily.  The computer can do millions of somethings a second, but it
> takes 15+ seconds to recognise a disc and mount it, or notice that
> there's a wireless network, spend ages connecting to it, etc.
> 
> I've still got a Z80 based personal computer in the spare room (a
> VZ300), that I've never figured out a practical use for.
> 
> -- 
> [tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
> 2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686
> 
> Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.  I
> read messages from the public lists.
> 
> 
> 

That is not the problem.  The actual response to the system is an ID
code.  The system then hunts through a database of ID codes to find the
appropriate control structures, at least the first time.  If the disk
has formatting and control software that must be loaded, then that
software has to be read off the disk before its local controller can
respond.  Disk latency is milliseconds, and if the information is stored
for retrieval by a fast system, the slower Z80 or microcontroller may
require several revolutions to retrieve various bits of information.
The partition table and other records must also be read, taking
additional time.  However, you are luckily working on Linux, and you are
free to improve the software ;-)  The disk drive controller software may
not be changable, depending upon the design, and whether or not you have
access to information about the controller architecture.

Regards,
Les H