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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: GreggBz on April 13, 2003, 06:21:25 AM
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Hello,
I recently got hold of a 68060
XC68ECO60RC60
Really cheap, and I was wondering if there is any way to buy an empty accelerator card for my A1200 and save some money. Or possibly, could I buy a cheaper 040 acceleartor and pop the 060 into it. Are there specific boards that allow this? Any suggestions on where to get one cheap?
I looked at Vesalia Computer, but I was hoping to find something stateside.
Any suggestions?
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Sure you can do that! for A1200 i do know Apollo 1240 card will alow you to do this i guess also Blizzard but its been a while since i had one of those! again you should be looking at the 040 version and NOT 030! as for finding such a card try ebay or amibench! you could also try and put out and looking for add to see if someone has a card with a faulty cpu etc to sell you cheap.
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The Apollo 1240 is a dead-end, since the cpu is soldered on...
Also, the 040 is 5V, the 060 is 3.3V, so be sure to include the power regulator before powering up.
It might be argued that this is not something for the faint of heart :-)
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If you found somebody good with soldering/
pcb's...and perhaps a socket, it could totally
be done (and the above mentioned power
regulator...and crystal). You could always
contact Vesalia, and see if they would offer
you a CPU - less board.
I think the EC060 lacks an FPU...but on the
plus side it can probably be clocked safely
to 75/80mhz.
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speak to power computing, they are selling a range of cheap accelerator cards.
there web address is www.powerc.com
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Hmm.....
This brings up a question I hadn't thought
of before...
I have an A3640 card. I have an A3000/25.
The 040 chip on the card doesn't do much
for my A3k/25.
But what if I hacked an 060 chip and a faster
regulator on the card.
As I said, the card works but there is very
little difference between an 030 and an 040
at 25mhz. It would be something I would try
if it will work.
Any ideas??
Mel Ott
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melott wrote:
Hmm.....
This brings up a question I hadn't thought
of before...
I have an A3640 card. I have an A3000/25.
The 040 chip on the card doesn't do much
for my A3k/25.
But what if I hacked an 060 chip and a faster
regulator on the card.
As I said, the card works but there is very
little difference between an 030 and an 040
at 25mhz. It would be something I would try
if it will work.
Any ideas??
Mel Ott
Not quite agree w/ you about the speed diffs between a 25Mzh 030 and a 040 one. I had the two tested, and this is light and day. And AIBB agrees w/ me.
BTW, is the Integrated FPU of a 25Mzh 040 running at 25 Mzh too ?
pX
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The a3640 has no local ram and suffers seriously due to it.
Changing the voltage on the processor is also not easy. Better to get a board designed for 060 use.
if you have a rev 3.1 board, you can "safely" clock it up to ~ 33Mhz (be sure to add cooling)... this really needs to be done to the board anyway. The whole idea of a 25Mhz accelerator with no local ram is bad... they don't sync properly with the motherboard ram unless over 28Mhz. Clocking it up to 33 makes a huge difference.
melott wrote:
Hmm.....
This brings up a question I hadn't thought
of before...
I have an A3640 card. I have an A3000/25.
The 040 chip on the card doesn't do much
for my A3k/25.
But what if I hacked an 060 chip and a faster
regulator on the card.
As I said, the card works but there is very
little difference between an 030 and an 040
at 25mhz. It would be something I would try
if it will work.
Any ideas??
Mel Ott
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Well.. it depends on what you call a big
differencein speed. With this card I see
a very minimal difference. In my opinion
it wasn't worth the bother. The way I see
it, in most things other than maybe rendering
there is little difference between the 030 and
the 040. Bumping the speed up to 33mhz would
be worth while.
How would I go about doing that??
I have a large heatsink on the chip and heat
doesn't seem to be a problem.
This could be a worth wile hack.
Mel Ott
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This brings up another question?
The Viper accelerators available now for very cheap from vesalia computer and power computer come with a 040 that has both an FPU and MMU.
The 68060 EC model neither an FPU or MMU.
So, with the cost of a 040 card being so cheap, is it worth it to try to upgrade to my 060EC chip? Or, will the performance incresse be negligible?
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Hi Erol
This is OT Sorry guys.. MY PSU on my Quickpak 4000T Blew UP today I have 2 questions
1. Can I use a standard PC AT PSU to replace it?
2. Could I have damadged my motherboard when the PSU blew up?
Thanks
magnetic
:-o
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The hassle/cost of upgrading an '040 card may
actually exceed the expense of just buying
an '060 card to begin with. The '040 is
a decent performer as far as the old machines
go.
But if you're going to do it anyway :),
an EC060 clocked at 75/80mhz probably
would be similar during FPU intensive calcs
as a full '040@40mhz. In all other areas your
'060 would be noticeably faster though.
(some programs (blizkick?) do require
an MMU however)
BTW: oempcworld.com is selling 64mb FPM
SIMM's for $14.85...I paid about $20 for mine
(inc. shipping) and it works flawless in my
1260 card.
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@melott
What, are you kidding?
The difference between 030 and 040 at the same clock rate is huge!
030@25MHz gives ~5 MIPS and 040@25MHz gives ~19 MIPS (SysInfo-MIPS, that is).
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I think the EC060 lacks an FPU...but on the
plus side it can probably be clocked safely
to 75/80mhz.
The EC models don't have FPU or MMU. The LC don't have FPU only. But it's still a nice processor. :-)
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an EC060 clocked at 75/80mhz probably
would be similar during FPU intensive calcs
as a full '040@40mhz. I
WHAT ??????????
Even CF-CPUs (without FPU) are outperfomed by a lousy 68882,
and those beasts run at up to 200mhz.
Floating-point done in Integer is atleast 10 times slower
than done with a FPU in the same range, so when you want to
do anything that uses the FPU, I would advice you to stay
with the 040 or get a real 060.
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>WHAT!???:"_)(_(_)++?<>{]]<><><><>,
It's a solid guess...the '060 stomps the '040
in integer performance, so to say that
floating point done in integer on an
overclocked '060 would be similar to a much
slower '040 is not a ridiculous wager...sure it
may not be 'EXACTLY" as fast but I bet it
wouldn't be an earth - shattering difference...
I could however be totally 'off my rocker' here.
It's agreed though a full '060 is obviously
a better choice...an FPU for FPU tasks...
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Well just take an FPU-intesive that alos exist in a non-FPU
version and give both a try :-D
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LOL, Unfortunately I don't have my '040 and
'EC060's with me right now...so I think I'll
just duck out now on this one...:)
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Sorry but I don't agree....
I only have my own experience to gage it.
But on my machine, and I'm sure the A3640
card is working OK, the difference is very
small. I'm not a gamer or do rendering or
any of the really processer intense things.
I just do some word processing and tring to
learn some programing also serfing the net.
So in my case the card wasn't worth the effort.
I don't really see a difference.
Normally, the difference has to be 10% or more
to see it and on my card it just isn't there.
Mel Ott
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060 on A3640?? No can do. The 060's are NOT 100% pin compaible, the 060's have one more row of inner pins that the 040's lack. So, an 040 can work in an 060 card, but an 060 can not work in an 040 card that has not been designed with 060 upgrades in mind.
The A3640 lacks these inner pins in the socket.
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try this link for overclocking the A3640.
A3640 Overclock (http://www.starnet.com.au/davem/overclock/A3640.html)
The difference between the overclocked 3640 and the factory 3640 is greater than the factory A3000/25 and the stock A3640.
When I did the hack, I was using a CV64/3D. The difference in p96speed was incredible for just an 8Mhz overclock. The A3640 was a poorly designed upgrade. It should have been at least 28Mhz to function properly with the motherboard.
I socketed my oscillator crystal by cutting pins off of an IC socket and soldering it to the board first as it suggests in the article. That way I could try different speeds. I have heard of people clocking the 3640 all the way up to 40Mhz.... although I was never brave enough to try. I might have done it if I had run across a good deal on an 040 designed for 40Mhz.
Good luck...this is making me want to get an Amiga again!
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I've heard it said that the best clock speeds are in the range of multiples of 7Mhz. That sounds reasonable as it then matches with the speed of the rest of the system i.e. not having to waste clock cycles.
The A1200's 020 was clocked at 14Mhz - there was one 28Mhz 020 board and there have been several 28Mhz 030 boards.