Update: In early 1999 XLR8 released Cache Control v1.3 that claims (and readers agree) to solve the Adaptec SCSI card/Wide drive mounting issue and any problems in Retrospect. In addition it offers the option to automatically set the cache speed and more. Check it out at www.xlr8.com's software download page. (the comments below were based on the previous version of control that was current at the time of the review).

Several months ago XLR8 released a new software control and processor information utility for their G3 cards. (For details see my XLR8 Processor Info page.) The XLR8 MACh Speed G3/400 ships with the latest version 1.02 that includes support for the 400MHz card and a special cache speed check feature that is designed to prevent backside cache lockup problems. The CDEV is said to automatically detect at boot if the backside cache is set at too fast a speed, disabling it if necessary (with a warning dialog box).

I've seen cases where owners in their quest to determine the fastest CPU speed they can obtain forgot that raising the CPU speed also increases cache speed, in some cases to the point that the cache is run beyond it's reliable speed (leading to lockups). The control also prevents setting CPU to cache ratios on the 400MHz card to faster than 2:1 settings. From the results I achieved (shown in the benchmarks and applications tests pages) this is not a performance bottleneck at all and should increase reliability.

Installing the Software:

The XLR8 G3/400 came with Cache Control v1.02 and a Processor Info utility (CPU/Cache/bus speed and CPU temperature reporting) on a floppy disk. You simply copy the control panel to your system folder, copy the Processor Info util. anywhere you like (I put it in the Apple Menu Items folder) and restart the machine. You then open the control panel and verify the proper CPU card type is selected (it should default to the correct card type) and click the "Enable Now" backside cache button. Check off 'enable cache at startup' and you're done.

Cache Control:

Typical of the plug and play I saw when running this card I never had to touch the controls other than the initial enabling of the backside cache and checking off to enable cache at startup after the first boot.

There is an option to disable the backside cache which may be of use in troubleshooting or benchmarking. I found no need to do so during the tests. Pressing the 'Advanced Options' button displays the cache size and ratio panel shown below:

For the 400MHz model at least, the 'Advanced Options' screen does not allow setting faster than 2:1 ratios for the sake of reliability. With the performance this card delivers cache speed is not an issue. CPU speed, not cache speed is the key to real world performance as the applications test results clearly show.

Processor Info Utility:

The Processor Info utility displays the current CPU speed, backside cache speed, system bus speed, cache size, CPU to cache ratio and processor temperature. As shown below the low voltage, copper design 400MHz G3 CPU never exceeded 24 degrees C (76.2 degrees F) even after hours of heavy applications use. The large heatsink is overkill for a CPU that runs this cool. You have to love those new low voltage CPUs (fast and cool running).

Software controls were easy to install and use. My only wishes would be a option to disable the motherboard cache (that may be coming soon) although I did not need to do so during the test and performance was stellar even with the 512k Genesis motherboard cache enabled. (Gary Dailey of Daystar says the latest Npower Control 2.0 allows disabling the cache with that utility and XLR8 hopes to add that feature to their control panel in the future.)

Deducting one point for the lack of a motherboard cache disable feature I rated software controls a 9.

The next page describes the documentation and installation instructions supplied with the card. Or you may use the links below to jump to a specific page.