Epson Equity 386/20 Product Support Bulletin(s) - Page 21

incorporated into the new ROM BIOS.

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PSB No: S-0086A Page: 3 of 8 Q7. What is the Auto Speed function? A. The Equity 386/20 is capable of operating at 20 MHZ or 8 MHZ. Some copyprotected applications require the computer to run at 8 MHZ while accessing the program diskette. By enabling the Auto speed function the computer automatically switches to 8 MHZ when accessing the diskette drive. it then switches back to 20 MHZ for optimal performance. Auto speed is accessed through the setup program under the Auto speed option. Q8. What types of floppy disk drives will work on the Equity 386/20? A. The Equity 386/20 will support a 5.25" 1.2 Mb half height drive (standard) as well as the 360 Kb floppy disk drive. To provide industry wide compatibility, the support of both 1.44 Mb and 720 Kb 3.5" floppy disks drives is also incorporated into the new ROM BIOS. Q9. What size hard disk drives will be available for the Equity 386/20? A. Two Hard disk drives will be available. The first is a 90 Mb ESDI drive with a 1:1 interleave and an average access time of 18 mSec. The second is a 40 Mb. 1:1 interleave ST-506 MFM drive that has an average access time of 28 mSec. Q10. What are the drive types of the Epson Hard Drive options? A. The Epson 90 Mb ESDI drive is a type 42 and the Epson 40 Mb drive is a type 17. Q11. What is hard disk cache? A. The Epson disk cache program improves the access time for program operation on the fixed disk by copying the most recently accessed data as well as data anticipated to be accessed next, into RAM. Epson's hard disk cache program allows the user to define the amount of RAM reserved for cache data. If no size is specified, the system automatically allocates 64K of memory. The larger the disk cache, the better the system performance. Epson utilizes a full track disk cache, which can further reduce the data access time of programs that read information one sector at a time, by retrieving the entire track of data when a single sector is requested. When the application then requests the next sector, it is retrieved from RAM, thus saving disk access time. This application is particularly useful with database programs.

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PSB No: S-0086A
Page: 3 of 8
Q7.
A.
Q8.
A.
Q9.
A.
Q10.
A.
What are the drive types of the Epson Hard Drive options?
The Epson 90 Mb ESDI drive is a type 42 and the Epson 40 Mb drive is a
type 17.
Q11.
What is hard disk cache?
A.
The Epson disk cache program improves the access time for program
operation on the fixed disk by copying the most recently accessed data as
well as data anticipated to be accessed next, into RAM.
What is the Auto Speed function?
The Equity 386/20 is capable of operating at 20 MHZ or 8 MHZ. Some copy-
protected applications require the computer to run at 8 MHZ while accessing
the program diskette. By enabling the Auto speed function the computer
automatically switches to 8 MHZ when accessing the diskette drive. it then
switches back to 20 MHZ for optimal performance. Auto speed is accessed
through the setup program under the Auto speed option.
What types of floppy disk drives will work on the Equity 386/20?
The Equity 386/20 will support a 5.25” 1.2 Mb half height drive (standard) as
well as the 360 Kb floppy disk drive. To provide industry wide compatibility,
the support of both 1.44 Mb and 720 Kb 3.5” floppy disks drives is also
incorporated into the new ROM BIOS.
What size hard disk drives will be available for the Equity 386/20?
Two Hard disk drives will be available. The first is a 90 Mb ESDI drive with a
1:1 interleave and an average access time of 18 mSec. The second is a 40
Mb. 1:1 interleave ST-506 MFM drive that has an average access time of 28
mSec.
Epson’s hard disk cache program allows the user to define the amount of
RAM reserved for cache data. If no size is specified, the system automatically
allocates 64K of memory. The larger the disk cache, the better the system
performance.
Epson utilizes a full track disk cache, which can further reduce the data
access time of programs that read information one sector at a time, by
retrieving the entire track of data when a single sector is requested. When
the application then requests the next sector, it is retrieved from RAM, thus
saving disk access time. This application is particularly useful with database
programs.