CD Speed 99 Documentation

  Features

bullet 32-bit program: works under Win95/98/2000/NT
bullet Transfer Rate Test
bullet Drive type detection: CLV, CAV and P-CAV
bullet Random, 1/3 and full seek test
bullet CPU utilization test
bullet Burst rate test
bullet Select Burst Rate transfer size (new in version 0.2)
bullet Spin up/down test (new in version 0.2)
bullet Advanced DAE quality test: determines whether the drive supports accurate streaming.
bullet More accurate results with a higher resolution timer
bullet Save status option
bullet Show RPM on grid (new in version 0.2)
bullet Speed selection (new in version 0.3)
bullet Save and load settings (new in version 0.3)
bullet Selectable grid limits (new in version 0.4)
bullet Load and save results in binary file (new in version 0.4)
bullet Save results to ASCII file which can be imported with spreadsheets such as Excel (new in version 0.4)
bullet CD quality check (new in version 0.5)

  Transfer Rate Test

The Transfer Rate Test measures the data transfer rate and displays the results in a graph.
When an audio CD is inserted, the DAE speed will be measured.

During the test, the rotation speed of the drive is displayed in another graph.
The test also determines the reading type of the drive (CLV, CAV or P-CAV)
  DAE Quality Test

The DAE quality measures how well the drive can extract audio tracks.
First some audio sectors are extracted to the HD at three different locations on the CD.
The same sectors are read again and compared to the sectors written to HD.
Depending on the number of differences, the DAE quality will be rated from 0 to 10.
10 means perfect DAE (no differences).
Next CD Speed 99 will try to determine whether the drive supports accurate streaming.
When accurate streaming is not supported the drive is unable to locate the requested audio location at any time.
  Seek Times Test

With this test the random, 1/3 stroke and full stroke seek times are measured.
To perform this test, the CD must have a capacity of at least 70 minutes.
  CPU Utilization Test

The CPU utilization at 1X, 2X, 4X and 8X is measured.
  Burst Rate Test

The Burst Rate Test measures the transfer rate from the hostadapter to the drive.
This test is mainly intended for SCSI drives.
  Spinup/spindown Test

For high speed drives it is necessary to spin down the drive to lengthen the life of the optical parts.
The spinup test measures how long it takes before the drive can read data after it has stopped.
Faster drives will have higher spinup/down times.
  Speed selection

You can change the reading speed of the drive in the Options dialog.
The speed settings in the selection box are only indicative. The drive will automatically choose the speed that's closest to the requested speed. After the selection you can see the actual speed.
This currently only works with MMC drives (CDR/W recorders and ATAPI drives).

Note : AOpen drives and possible other drives are unable to display the currently selected speed setting. Instead they always show the maximum speed or 0. All AOpen drives can be slowed down to 4x and 8x.

 The tables below show the speed settings for the Asus CD-S400 for both data and audio.

Data
CD Speed 99 Selection
Selected Speed
Actual Speed
maximum
40x
17-40x P-CAV (default)
32x
32x
16-32x P-CAV
16x
16x
10-16x P-CAV
12x
12x
10-14x P-CAV
8x
8x
6-15x CAV
4x
4x
4x CLV


Audio
CD Speed 99 Selection
Selected Speed
Actual Speed
maximum
20x
9-20x P-CAV
16x
16x
10-16x P-CAV
12x
12x
10-14x P-CAV
8x
8x
6-15x CAV (default)
4x
4x
4x CLV
  CD quality check

With this function you can check if a CD(-R/W) contains errors.
The test will read all sectors on the CD and verify the data integrity.

It can be usefull to:

- Compare the recovery strategy of different drives when a low quality or damaged CD is used.
- Check the quality of the CD(-R/W) media
- If you have a CD recorder, you can check if the data on the CD-R(W) is written correctly.

The test can be used for both data and audio CD's.

Please note that not all drives are capable of returning error information.
To make sure your drive supports this feature you should run the test with a badly damaged disc. An audio disc is highly recommended for this because you will probably get a read error when you're trying to read from a badly damaged data disc.

Drives which will definitaly work with the test are:

Plextor 8Plex/12Plex/20Plex/UltraPlex/UltraPlex40Max
Asus CD-S400/CD-S500
Afreey CD-2050E
Ricoh MP7040

The screenshot below shows the graph from a badly damaged audio disc.
After the test has finished the total number of errors and the average reading speed are reported.
  Screenshot



  Contact Information

Email
erikd@glo.be

Website
http://users.glo.be/~erikd/cdspeed.htm or
http://come.to/cdspeed