Re: PCMCIA Adapter for SD cards: Which one, and how?

On 21 Feb 2007 08:55:13 GMT, Jan van Wijk <jvw.no.spam@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mon, 19 Feb 2007 21:45:35 UTC, sa.deutscher@xxxxxxxxxx (Stefan A.
Deutscher) wrote:
Hello Stefan (and Ilya),

Just wild guessing: my camera came with MSDuo-into-CF adapter (and a
different one with MSduo-into-MS one ;-); maybe there is an
SD-into-CF adapter?

Thanks for that pointer! A quick google search revealed that such
adapters exist, indeed, and that for about 25 bucks. I will have a go
at it and report back here. I'd hope that the SD2CF adpators contain
internally all the ATAPI/IDE logic needed to play nicely, but one
never knows. Stay tuned.

Forgot all about those, but yes these exist. There are two types, one
that is a CF/PCMCIA type I and the other is a type II, a bit thicker.
The type II ones completely contain the SD card, and can be used in
cameras, with the other the SD-card sticks out a bit, but that is no
big problem when using it with a computer. The only drawback of these
adaperse is again speed compared against a regular USB 2.0 SD reader.
However, most likely it will be significantly faster than your current
USB 1.1 reader ...

So, here is the promised follow-up:

Summary:
---------------

With a SD to CF adapter, I can now read a card faster than via USB 1.1,
but only in the built-in CF card slot of this particular Thinkpad X20.
Going the route SD to CF adapter in a CF to PCMCIA adapter did not work
with the PCMCIA adapter I could get my hands on.


Long version:
---------------

I did get a JOBO SD/MMC to CF Card adapter (Article # SE9104, capable of
PIO4 16,6 MB/s transfers) for about 25 USD. (Olympus make or used to
make something similar looking labelled as MACF-10.) This adapter is of
the CF II variety, that is, a bit thicker, and does not fit into PCMCIA
CF card adapters designed for only CF I type cards. It should fine into
those designed for CF I and CF II cards, obviously, but I don't have one
at hand.

I doubt that the card in the slot is addressed in PIO4 mode, and Dani's
output does not appear to see it at all:

R1.7.4 /DEBUG:31
OEMBuses:8,
Bus 0:[->1]& 0/39=8086/7111,0/2: P(E0:EA)1 P(A0:EA)2 [->4]
Bus 1:
Bus 2:
Bus 3:
Bus 4:
Bus 5:
Bus 6:
Bus 7:
CF:0[R(L50,50,D0,58,50'1L00,0,80,0-'0)F:0/4000u0/0I(U0s50/0)H:604B,iu0\
/8]U(aD<F:0S:5,C:2F00,F:4000;aM15,C1,I:43F,S0,U6/F3;M7,I:7,D2/F0;M7,P4\
/B4/F0;U6/D2/P4,BP4,F:4100>M:0,SMS:8010/110/255,I(U0s50/0)N:4A85300:4A\
85300,63/16/16383,63/16/16383/16514064,0
GeoI: C:16383 H:16 S:63 T:78140160
bG<MBR:0,DI:1F0/E0,4A85300/3F0=12ED0,
LGeoB: H:0 S:0
LGeo3: H:240 S:63
LGeoI: C:65535 H:16 S:63
4A85300/3B10=1430,4A85300/3F0=12ED0,4A85300/3B10=1430,>F:6000/4120S:0)\
U(G<F:0/8S:1)S:0[1/1]
CF:0[R(L50,50,D0,51a,D0,58,50'2L00,0,80,0-'0)F:0/4000u0/1I(U0s50/0)H:0\
,iu0/8]U(aD<F:0S:4,C:B00,F:4000;aM15,C0,I:407,S0,U3/F3;M7,I:7,D2/F0;M7\
,P4/B4/F0;U3/D2/P4,BP4,F:101>F:0/101S:0)U(G<F:0/8S:1)S:0[1/2]
FP4/4;UF:4120,O:6000F:204120,Cbl:00,Lvl:3,Cap:017F,I2/P4/D2/U3/F:20412\
0,FP4/4;UF:101,O:0F:200101,Cbl:00,Lvl:3,Cap:017F,I2/P4/D2/U3/F:200101,
Daniela's Bus Master IDE Driver for OS/2 Version 1.7.4
Controller:0 Port:01F0 IRQ:0E Status:OK BusMaster Scatter/Gather
Intel PIIX4 PATA host (8086:7111 rev:01) on PCI 0:7.1 @33MHz
Unit:0 Status:OK SMS:16 LBA BusMaster UltraDMA2/PIO4 BIOS
Model:TOSHIBA MK4018GAP M0.03 A
OS2:log phys BPB/BIOS IDE:log phys Total Sectors
C 5168 65535 65535 16383 Avail 78140160
H 240 16 240 16 16 OS2 78140160
S 63 63 63 63 63 % Used 100.00
Controller:1 Port:0170 IRQ:0F Status:OK BusMaster Scatter/Gather
Intel PIIX4 PATA host (8086:7111 rev:01) on PCI 0:7.1 @33MHz
Unit:0 Status:OK ATAPI BusMaster UltraDMA2/PIO4
Model:_NEC DVD_RW ND-7550A 1.01

V[aI(U0s50/0)]V[aI(U0s50/0)]


Testing this SD/MMC to CF Card adapter with 2 GB SD card (Sandisk Ultra
II capable of 16 MB/s) in the built-in CF slot of the thinkpad X20 with
my current setting of

DISKCACHE=1024,LW,32

"cp.exe" Writes the 29 images in E:/tmp/vater with a total size of 32MB
onto the SD card in 48 seconds vs. 80 seconds via the USB 1.1 attached
SD card reader. Unmounting with umount_local.exe j: is useful. Not
blazingly fast but nice.

Increasing the

DISKCACHE=2048,LW,32

yields 30 sec read from and also 30 sec write to card with "cp.exe",
with the built-in copy command reads from, and writes to the card drop
down to 24-27 seconds. This is more or less on par with the speed
observed under w2k. So, 1 MB/s may well be the internal limiation of the
connection of the CF slot to the guts of the machine.

Increasing to 4 MB cache in the config.sys

DISKCACHE=4096,LW,32

does not speed this up any further, which is most likely due to the
distribution of the file size of the 29 jpegs used for the test: Most
fit already in 1 MB, but 10 are between one and two MB, while only one
exceeds 2 MB.

3035409 dsc_0400.jpg 749947 dsc_0422.jpg
1914472 img_0092.jpg 746077 dsc_0412.jpg
1803160 img_0096.jpg 744738 dsc_0423.jpg
1744757 img_0100.jpg 740420 dsc_0413.jpg
1724345 img_0093.jpg 738871 dsc_0421.jpg
1715754 img_0099.jpg 734661 dsc_0410.jpg
1651149 img_0095.jpg 728491 dsc_0415.jpg
1640992 dsc_0403.jpg 727873 dsc_0424.jpg
1577773 dsc_0404.jpg 725661 dsc_0409.jpg
1506404 img_0094.jpg 719408 dsc_0408.jpg
1461003 dsc_0401.jpg 717409 dsc_0418.jpg
921861 dsc_0406.jpg 702440 dsc_0419.jpg
755864 dsc_0416.jpg 681269 dsc_0414.jpg
754793 dsc_0407.jpg 673418 dsc_0411.jpg
754625 dsc_0417.jpg

On w2k with write cache (size - who knows): 20 sec read from card, 25
sec write to card.

A bit later, I got a CF PCMCIA (PC card) adapter (make: Vivanco, model:
18255) that can hold also CFII cards. The JOBO SD to CF adapter fits,
the whole thing is recognized and usable in a few seconds when booted
into w2k, but it is not even seen in eCS 1.2. I suspect the PCMCIA
drivers to not recognize the PCMCIA card, but who knows.

I'd love to mail the bunch of cards to who ever is working on the
drivers so they could toy around with them for the general common good.


Anyway, thanks for all pointers & hints!


Cheers,
Stefan

--
Stefan A. Deutscher email: sad@xxxxxxxxxxx
.

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