TN9606A - Guria V4 File Transfer Speeds

Vaughan Wesson, June 1996

With larger amounts of storage becoming more common on Kelunji Classic recorders, file transfer speed has become more of an issue recently. Guria V4.10A considerably improved this over previous versions and V4.11A has improved it again. The other issue is the system (both hardware and software) receiving the file. As is shown below, this is probably the most important aspect.

The tables below indicate the speed at which useful data (i.e. not counting block headers, checksums etc) is transferred from a Kelunji Classic to a Macintosh computer. Variations in baud rate, file transfer protocol, Macintosh software and Macintosh hardware are covered.

Guria Versions

This first table shows the variation in file transfer speed over the last few versions of Guria. All these tests were performed on a Macintosh PM7100/66AV using ZTerm 1.01. The Guria V4.09A figures were the best possible with that version, using a KA2 and 64 samples per second.

Guria Version	Baud Rate	Transfer Mode	Bytes/ Second	Minutes/ Megabyte
V4.09A	9600	128 byte	760	23.0
V4.10A	9600	128 byte	785	22.3
V4.11A	9600	128 byte	775	22.6
V4.09A	19200	128 byte	765	23.0
V4.10A	19200	128 byte	1330	13.1
V4.11A	19200	128 byte	1325	13.2
V4.09A	38400	128 byte	765	23.0
V4.10A	38400	128 byte	1620	10.8
V4.11A	38400	128 byte	1645	10.6
V4.09A	9600	1K block	665	26.3
V4.10A	9600	1K block	895	19.5
V4.11A	9600	1K block	900	19.4
V4.09A	19200	1K block	665	26.2
V4.10A	19200	1K block	1190	14.7
V4.11A	19200	1K block	1410	12.4
V4.09A	38400	1K block	665	26.2
V4.10A	38400	1K block	1185	14.8
V4.11A	38400	1K block	1920	9.1

In summary, this table shows that the fastest transfers possible are:

• Guria V4.09A -> 765 bps
• Guria V4.10A -> 1620 bps and
• Guria V4.11A -> 1920 bps

Computer End

This second table shows the variation in file transfer speed for the different terminal emulator programs and computer system. All these tests were performed on using Guria V4.11A and 1K block transfers. Similar results were obtained for 128 byte block transfers.

Emulator	Computer	Baud Rate	Bytes/ Second	Minutes/ Megabyte
ZTerm 1.01	PM 7100/66	38400	1920	9.1
ZTerm 1.01	PowerBook 170	38400	1920	9.1
MacTerminal 3.0	PM 7100/66	38400	1900	9.2
Mac340 Comms	PM 7100/66	38400	218	80
Mac340 Comms	PowerBook 170	38400	480	37
ZTerm 1.01	PM 7100/66	9600	875	20.0
ZTerm 1.01	PowerBook 170	9600	895	19.5
MacTerminal 3.0	PM 7100/66	9600	880	19.8
Mac340 Comms	PM 7100/66	9600	235	75
Mac340 Comms	PowerBook 170	9600	485	36
Mac340 Serial	PM 7100/66	9600	-	-
Mac340 Serial	PowerBook 170	9600	-	-

In summary this table shows that on a PowerMac, Mac340 is horribly slow - twice as slow as a PowerBook 170. In either case, Mac340 is considerably slower at transferring files than either ZTerm or MacTerminal (the Apple freeware emulator).