Subject: REVIEW: DKB Cobra accelerator and Ferret SCSI adapter
From: [email-masked] (Ronny Cook)
Date: 11 Mar 1996 20:32:47 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	DKB Cobra '030 Accelerator (28MHz)
	DKB Ferret SCSI adapter for DKB accelerators

	[MODERATOR'S NOTE:  This review was updated on 11 May 1996 to
	provide a correct vendor name and address.  -Dan]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	The Cobra is a 28MHz 68030 SCSI accelerator with MMU for the A1200.
	The Ferret is a SCSI adapter which work together with the Cobra.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		DKB
	Address:	Post Office Box 930344
			Wixom, MI 48393-0344
			USA

	Telephone:	(810) 348-3821
	Fax:		(810) 348-3755
	Tech Hotline:	(810) 348-3531

LIST PRICE

	Cobra with 4MB RAM: AUD$499 (I think - I paid $449)
	Ferret: AUD$199 (again, I paid $199 so this may not be right.)
	I bought the card with a 68882/33 FPU & crystal which cost an
		additional AUD$75.

DEMO VERSION

	None.

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		An Amiga 1200. A screwdriver would probably be handy.

	SOFTWARE

		None.

COPY PROTECTION

	They probably decided that the engineering team needed to
duplicate the device would be sufficient protection.

	I suppose that this makes it a dongle. :-)

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga A1200. 2MB Chip, 2MB PCMCIA RAM (=> 16 bit, VVEERRYY SSLLOOWW)
	1 external 880K floppy.
	Supplied (Seagate?) 40MB internal hard drive.
	IOmega ZIP Removable Disk SCSI drive (100MB cartridges).
	Kickstart & Workbench 3.0

INSTALLATION

	Installation was a nightmare.

	Initially I put the 4MB SIMM onto the card.  Then, with an
unreasonable amount of force, I managed to get it into the trapdoor
connector. This was the first place that I used the screwdriver. :-) I
then pulled out the back panel on the A1200 to fit the Ferret. The
Ferret attaches to the Cobra with a special lay-flat connector which
is somewhat finicky about exact positioning.

	Turned it on. Nothing happened. Blank screen.

	To cut a long story short, part of the board was scraping
against the shielding around the motherboard. I ended up opening up
the system (the second time that screwdriver came in handy) and put a
wad of paper between the board and the shielding. After this the
system booted correctly. But it didn't recognise the Ferret.

	I detached then re-attached the Ferret and it started
working. That finicky connector.

REVIEW

	The installation process was my main problem with the
board. Since the initial problems, the board has worked flawlessly.

	I was pleasantly surprised by the speedup with my internal
hard drive; being an IDE drive, the accelerator sped up access
noticeably.  The PCMCIA RAM no longer had an opportunity to slow down
the system.  SysInfo reported that the system was a little faster than
an A3000, as I would have expected.  The system in general was
noticeably snappier.

	Unfortunately I can't give any solid benchmarks at this
point. :-( Compiling Angband with SAS/C 6.55 and full optimisation
took a couple of hours. The Angband sources are about 700K.

	The 28MHz Cobra includes an MMU (the main reason why I bought
it rather than the 40MHz model, which is only slightly more
expensive.)  I haven't yet had opportunity to use it but it should be
very useful for development work.

	The system included a floppy containing a utility to map
Kickstart to RAM; I have not yet used this utility. The Ferret
included some fairly powerful software for disk setup (the same as
that used by the RapidFire II, apparently - sorry, I can't remember
the name) but essentially no documentation for this software. The
Ferret documentation focussed on an older software package.

	I bought the Cobra and Ferret in conjunction with an IOmega
ZIP drive. I have had no errors with this drive or the controller, but
the ZIP's transfer rates are not exactly astonishing enough to push
*any* SCSI controller. The Ferret's software did a reasonable job of
recognising and setting up the ZIP drive but I could not find any way
of setting up the drive using "standard" settings.

	The boards have been highly reliable since installation.

	Although they don't make a fuss of it, the Cobra includes a
real-time clock (unlike some earlier boards). The 68882 has been
minimally useful (mainly used for Scenery Animator).

DOCUMENTATION

	Documentation for the Cobra was of reasonable quality given
that there wasn't really all *that* much to document. I picked up a
clue about the board scraping against the shielding by reading the
manual closely. The actual installation instructions *could* have been
more helpful, however.

	Documentation for the Ferret was moderately woeful. Certain
points in the installation procedure were not explained well (the
lay-flat connector has two sides, slightly different; did it matter
which was on which side? I have no idea.) Not really suitable for
beginners.

	Documentation for each product basically consisted of standard,
cheap-photocopy, stapled, 8-page booklets. Could be better, could be
worse.

LIKES

	It's proved fairly reliable. It is, to the best of my
knowledge, the cheapest way (barring a standalone MMU) to obtain an
MMU for the Amiga. The Ferret, since it's not limited by the PCMCIA
port, I expect to be faster for SCSI operations than (say) the
Squirrel.  The PCMCIA port is left free.

	It's probably one of the most versatile cards available in
this price range.

DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

	The problem where the board scrapes against the shielding
during installation needs fixing. It wouldn't matter if there were no
*circuitry* on the board at that point, but there *is*.

	Documentation for the Ferret needs work.

	The Ferret's SCSI port sort of hangs loosely in the back port
of the A1200. There's nothing holding it in place but the Cobra
itself.  The potential for disaster here makes me nervous. A sudden
tug could wreck the machine. It's far too easy for dust and other
foreign substances to get into this hole.

	There was no way to confirm independently that the Ferret was
being recognised.

	The board isn't all that fast compared to other accelerators,
but you get what you pay for.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	I haven't seen other accelerated Amigas for some years, so I
can't make a fair comparison.

BUGS

	None so far, although I found it curious that the software
included with the Ferret to upload a firmware update to the Cobra did
so even when the board didn't *recognise* the Cobra.

VENDOR SUPPORT

	Having ordered the hardware on a Wednesday, I was getting
nervous on the following Tuesday when it hadn't yet arrived. I was
pleasantly surprised when the vendor (Fonhof Computer Supplies) called
to explain the delay. The hardware arrived the next day.

	I was going to call at one point when I was having trouble
with installation, but sorted out the problems without needing to call
the vendor.

WARRANTY

	To be honest, I can't recall. Both boards came with warranty
cards to sent to the local Australian distributor.

CONCLUSIONS

	After using the board for a couple of weeks, I wish I had
waited a month and bought the (50MHz) Mongoose instead. :-) It would
have been almost twice the speed for not all that much more. Oh well.
4MB fast RAM also isn't really enough; after it's chewed up the system
slows down dramatically.

	Except for the problem I had in installing the card I've been
very happy with it. Knock off a star for the installation headaches
and half a star for the rotten Ferret documentation. Call it three and
a half starts out of five.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	This review is placed in the public domain. No rights reserved. :-)
	Ronald Cook, 8th March, 1996.

Ronald Cook, Technical Support - Message Handling Systems/The Message eXchange
Email: [email-masked] ------ Phone: +61-2-550-4448 ----- Fax: +61-2-519-2551
All opinions are my own and not those of TMX unless explicitly stated
otherwise.
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