SCSI vs
EIDE
SCSI is a standard mechanism
for connecting devices to a computer system via a SCSI controller. SCSI by
definition is Small Computer Systems Interface. The biggest difference between
SCSI and EIDE when touching the storage scene is that SCSI almost doesn't
use your CPU while operating the device simply because the processor of the
SCSI controller handles all the tasks instead of wasting the precious ressources
of your central CPU. EIDE still depends on the available CPU ressources. IDE
has made a nice route since the last few years on how it operates with the
system via DMA. However, SCSI remains the standard for the end user even with
it's high prices.
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"The
Burn proof test"
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To test and at the same time demonstrate if the Burn proof technology
Ended being useful, we decided to run several applications while burning,
To reach the maximum CPU performance, we decided to run a mp3 playback,
And at the same time run a VCD movie from the system's hard drive.
We
used Two Maxell 74mins media for the test and nero 4.0.9.1 and NTI CD-Maker
2.0.26 for the burning. We nabbed 630mb worth of different system files
and started the process. At the end of both tests, the cds were surprisingly
made without any errors. The Burn proof technology proved to be a very
promising.
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A new technology, BURN-Proof.
BURN-Proof stands for
buffer-Under-Run proof. This new buffer technology lets users forget about
Buffer-Under-Run-Error. A perfect CDR- (W) drive would have anything from
50M to 650Mbytes of buffer memory on board, but this is far from being possible
these days because the production costs of such units would be awfully high.
The average buffer that
today's CDR- (W) drives may play around with is 1M-4Mbytes. If you own an
older model bought around 98, chances are that it uses even lesser (2 x 256k=512k)
or (3 x 256k=768k). If you already own a CDR- (W) drive, you may already know
or at least heard about this low memory error (Buffer-Under-Run-Error), especially
if you tried to perform other tasks on your PC when you were burning.
Errors are something that
every CDR- (W) drive does, especially the ones with lesser than 1Mbyte of
buffer. This occurs when the drive records the data which is more than the
normal buffer size on your drive, which is the case almost all the time. Your
drive needs to continue receiving the data from the PC after starting to record.
But when the data receiving is delayed, the drive can't continue the normal
recording procedure simply because the drive can't have any data for recording.
This is what is called the Buffer under Run Error.
CDR- (W) drives record
data using using a disc at Constant Linear Velocity. When the drive starts
to record, the computer sends the data to the CDR- (W) drive at much faster
speeds than the average speed of the disc it self.
This can be simply explained
by the recording speed increasments. The Buffer under Run error becomes more
and more pronounced as recording speeds increase. And without sacrificing
the need of more Buffer memory to be present on board, the BURN-Proof technology
at the same time saves a considerable amount of money in the production of
the unit and gives an interesting route for CDR- (W) makers that will decide
to incorporate the technology.
The BURN-Proof technology
can't be enabled on a CDR- (W) of any kind, not even if you bought one of
the latest 12X recording combos. Even a firmware update couldn't do it simply
because BURN-Proof is accomplished by a combination of hardware and firmware
that is resident on the drive control electronics. 
