What makes SuperCache so special is that it employs a block caching technique. Rather than cache an entire file (when your system might be calling for only a portion of that file) which can contribute to system inefficiencies, SuperCache will only cache that portion of the file for which historical demand has been created. Within about 20 minutes after boot up, SuperCache will establish a cache pool of frequently accessed data thereby eliminating the need for incessant disk reads. And, similar to SuperSpeed, data written to disk is completely protected.

Installing SuperCache is completely straightforward and will not require the need to restructure your hard drive to split off a separate hard drive partition. However since caching the entire hard drive partition is SuperCache's operational standard, it is highly recommended that only your critical transactional data and programs reside on the cached partition.

SuperCache requires Windows NT 4.0, 2000, and soon WinXPPro.(5/2003)

Testing SuperCache with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 6/7.0

The engineering staff at Accudata Systems/Voxcera experienced dramatically improved system performance running Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional 7.0 with SuperCache. To conduct this test, a separate partition of 2GB was created on which Dragon NaturallySpeaking 6.0 and 7.0 were installed. SuperCache was then configured to cache this partition only. Dragon NaturallySpeaking was configured to load into the systray upon boot up. In the option settings, the "most accurate" slider bar was set to give Dragon NaturallySpeaking greater recognition accuracy. None of the options that ScanSoft recommends be turned off to maximize system performance were in fact turned off. Consequently, we chose to test the system where the demand load on system resources would be the greatest.

Test Setup Parameters

The CPU used for testing purposes had the following specifications:

In order to conduct a controlled test, we elected to run Dragon's Acoustic Optimizer with SuperCache enabled and then subsequently disabled. Testing was conducted on a number of passes using the exact file configuration that existed for pass 1.

Although ScanSoft recommends that users run the Acoustic Optimizer at a time when their computer is idle because of the system resource demands, Accudata Systems experienced a 30% reduction in time required to complete this process. Conducting a number of controlled tests with approximately 300MB of stored acoustical data and SuperCache enabled, the length of time required to run the Acoustic Optimizer was reduced from 18 minutes to11 minutes.

Summation

Dragon's overall responsiveness to acoustical input stimuli, was never compromised during the entire testing process. During the actual testing there were no discernible system latencies, with both dictation and command-and-control executing flawlessly and instantaneously. Since the introduction of Dragon Ver. 5.0 up through the current version, system responsiveness can, under certain circumstances, be compromised only because the demand upon system resources by Dragon is significantly greater than most other applications. This phenomenon is, by no stretch of the imagination, a program flaw or anomaly, rather simply a function of resource supply and demand. Witnessed in the graphic below is the efficiency with which Dragon Pro 7.0 operates using SuperCache. You will note that the blue bar graph charts the statistical calls upon the cache pool for vocabulary data during an actual dictation session. At the very beginning of this dictation session, there was an equal preponderance of disk data reads as evidenced by a higher spiking of green. This chart represents the dictation session after approximately 20 minutes, demonstrating a dramatic reduction in disk reads and a breathtaking escalation in cache hits. At this point in the dictation session, Dragon is operating, almost exclusively in a RamDisk environment.

Your Dragon Dealer will assist you in maximizing your SuperCache installation.

Certified by Microsoft, SuperCache is available for the Windows NT/2000/ OS