From all my lurking on this site, and looking elsewhere (ie chevythunder) I have found the major problem on the MAF cpu's is their speed. Something like 8kbps I think. Pretty slow, making their max reading a value of 255 (if I am remembering all this correctly). That being the major advantage of using vaccum versus air flow speed.

My question is this, what viable (read relativly easy and/or cheap) alternatives are there to the stock tpi cpu's?

Things I have read;

Power COmmander is "ok" but not as gnat's *** as you can get the GM cpu's.

Alot of aftermarket EFI users love the accel mpfi rig.

I have seen adds in mags about the FAST xfi efi stand alone computer, but have heard no consumer reviews.

On a side note, has anyone bothered with the aeromotive stand alone electric fuel pump computer thing-a-ma-bob? I can't seem to find any reviews on it.

 

The MAF problem as I can see it is the restriction it imposes on the intake tract and cost. The 255 limit can be worked around.
The MAP ecm's don't need a work around and don't have the expensive maf or it's air restriction. The ecm's are easily found too. So replacement is cheap. -$20 to $45.
The main problem with MAP ecm's is the tune is complicated.
Lots of settings to make it difficult to fiqure out.
But they can be tuned to higher level than an aftermarket because of it.
The aftermarket spent there R&D on the tuning interface.
The hardware isn't much if any of an improvement over OEM unless you go to a Motec. But you can add a few zeros to the oem price for them. This doesn't include the small number of users that need >60lb injectors.
The only current hardware advantage that the aftermarket has is WB closed loop operation & out of the box support for 8 p&h injectors. But we're working on that for the stock ecms.

CPU spd isn't an issue. Code bloat makes cpu spd a restriction.
Slow datalogging speed on the early ecms is a tuning issue.
But the 10 fps speed of the map ecm's is ok for most things except transient tuning to perfection. But a HS datalogger is $50 or less. For the price of one C950, you can have a laptop, HS datalogger, WB, ECM, harness, and new sensors. The big difference is the time involved in completion. The more money you spend, the faster you can swap on efi and get it running ok.
If you have efi already, then it's $200 vs $800 or so.
Loose an ecm and your out at least $650 unless it can be repaired. Price????
The XFI has more I/O than it's predecessors and a few other features I can't recall. The hardware is where it should have been a generation ago now. And I'm sure the operator interface was improved again. They keep adding tuning features that were in the oem's 15 yrs ago.