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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Kernel on November 27, 2014, 02:55:36 PM
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My A3K is a rev 6.1 25MHz with 16MB page mode ram and he 2MB of chip; I have a DENEB and a 4GB SCSI drive installed.
SYSINFO V4 reports me as being .87 as fast as a stock A3K.
Can anyone provide insight as to why I'm not at least a 1.0 of a stock A3K?
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My A3K is a rev 6.1 25MHz with 16MB page mode ram and he 2MB of chip; I have a DENEB and a 4GB SCSI drive installed.
SYSINFO V4 reports me as being .87 as fast as a stock A3K.
Can anyone provide insight as to why I'm not at least a 1.0 of a stock A3K?
wow, revision 6.1 ,thats one old board ;)
Is the jumper on the motherboard set to 25mhz(is sysinfo reporting it as 25mhz?).
Its may be the page mode ram, most 3000's came with static column ram and its probably good for 15% speed increase over page mode and can handle burst modes with the 030. Other accelerators 040 and better can only use the ram in page mode.
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Yes, it's reporting 25MHz.
And old... yep.. serial number on the board is 00199 :)
And I suppose it makes sense because another 15% on top of the .87 would be just about 1.0.
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When I bought my Amiga 3000 (25Mhz) I maxed it out with 16 mb of static column memory and boy was it fast. I just loved my Amiga 3000.
When I bought my Amiga 4000 w/040 I thought it was a great machine but the memory access just felt slow than my old Amiga 3000 with static column memory.
Sorry, this is off topic...good times though. :-)
-P
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When I bought my Amiga 3000 (25Mhz) I maxed it out with 16 mb of static column memory and boy was it fast. I just loved my Amiga 3000.
When I bought my Amiga 4000 w/040 I thought it was a great machine but the memory access just felt slow than my old Amiga 3000 with static column memory.
Sorry, this is off topic...good times though. :-)
-P
you needed a proper accelerator like a warp engine or cyberstorm with memory onboard is all ;)
the stock A3640 and on board ram is def. slow.
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@mechy
"the stock A3640 and on board ram is def. slow."
Is this the case for a 4KT? Would a Fast ATA be faster?
Chris
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@mechy
"the stock A3640 and on board ram is def. slow."
Is this the case for a 4KT? Would a Fast ATA be faster?
Chris
Yes, the a4000t motherboard ram is also slow.
the 3640 is a 68040 accelerator, the fast ata is a ide board,so 2 different things..
Boards that improve cpu speed would be apollo 040-060,cyberstorm series,warpengine 040/40,gvp4060DT etc.The ram is local bus on these cards.
the A4000t scsi is fast, upward of 8-10MB/s and low cpu overhead. The fast ata uses cpu especially in its upper modes.Its always best to use scsi on amiga(or better yet,aftermarket accelerator scsi).
sorry to hijack the thread here.
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I have 128M on the motherboard and 128M on the Cyberstorm3.
Chris
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I have 128M on the motherboard and 128M on the Cyberstorm3.
Aftermarket hack to get 128MB on motherboard? I've heard rumors of those. Most only support 16MB. You sure about 128? ;)
I don't know why Commodore continued to cripple their machines with such poor memory access. No fast mem on the A1200 or CD32, slow access on the A4000/4000T, etc. Oh well, just a few in the long list of dumb decisions. Aside from the finger-slicing case and mediocre airflow the A3000 really seemed like the best of them!
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Now, now; we can pick on the A3000 until the cows come home: I mean the location of the 2 identical 25-pin ports together, the flimsy ZIP RAM, the requirement to have the daughter board in to boot, Barrel NiCD battery, the D800 debaucle, the need for the INT2 jumper wire. I mean you can't just say that bleeding hands and fingers from the razor sharp sheet metal is its only issue.
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Aftermarket hack to get 128MB on motherboard? I've heard rumors of those. Most only support 16MB. You sure about 128? ;)
I don't know why Commodore continued to cripple their machines with such poor memory access. No fast mem on the A1200 or CD32, slow access on the A4000/4000T, etc. Oh well, just a few in the long list of dumb decisions. Aside from the finger-slicing case and mediocre airflow the A3000 really seemed like the best of them!
Dave Haynie wrote a nice article a few years back explaining why the A4000 has such a terrible memory interface. I can't remember many of the details, but suffice to say Commodore were unwilling to spend money, and what eventually became the A4000 was essentially a stopgap machine, quickly put together, envisioned as an A3000+.
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Aftermarket hack to get 128MB on motherboard? I've heard rumors of those. Most only support 16MB. You sure about 128? ;)
I don't know why Commodore continued to cripple their machines with such poor memory access. No fast mem on the A1200 or CD32, slow access on the A4000/4000T, etc. Oh well, just a few in the long list of dumb decisions. Aside from the finger-slicing case and mediocre airflow the A3000 really seemed like the best of them!
I'll have it here soon and check it. It always reported 25xM of free mem. I'll let you know.
It came stuffed with everything imaginable, no CF back then.
Chris
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Dave Haynie wrote a nice article a few years back explaining why the A4000 has such a terrible memory interface. I can't remember many of the details, but suffice to say Commodore were unwilling to spend money, and what eventually became the A4000 was essentially a stopgap machine, quickly put together, envisioned as an A3000+.
Yes thats why it ended up with crappy ide also. The memory bottle neck was due to them taking much of the 3000's PAL chips and combining them into the 'bridgette" chip,reducing chip count and saving money since there was almost no budget. Unfortunately brigette was slower than they wanted.
this bottle neck is not that big a deal since the motherboard only holds 16Mb,getting any quality accelerator bypasses the problem.
There were some guys who managed to hack 64M B onboard the 4000's stock simm slots,bu i could never get the guys who did the hack give me the info.
Remember one thing a stock 4000 with slow ram still blows a stock 1200 out of the water :)
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Aftermarket hack to get 128MB on motherboard? I've heard rumors of those. Most only support 16MB. You sure about 128? ;)
I don't know why Commodore continued to cripple their machines with such poor memory access. No fast mem on the A1200 or CD32, slow access on the A4000/4000T, etc. Oh well, just a few in the long list of dumb decisions. Aside from the finger-slicing case and mediocre airflow the A3000 really seemed like the best of them!
He probably has a zoram ,so 128Mb on zorro and 128 on accelerator.
16 usually on the motherboard.. I do know of a 4000 that was hacked to take 64MB on the 4000 simms slots tho.
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Now, now; we can pick on the A3000 until the cows come home: I mean the location of the 2 identical 25-pin ports together, the flimsy ZIP RAM, the requirement to have the daughter board in to boot, Barrel NiCD battery, the D800 debaucle, the need for the INT2 jumper wire. I mean you can't just say that bleeding hands and fingers from the razor sharp sheet metal is its only issue.
I love the 3000, it was the fastest design memory wise of all the big boxes(well 3000t was as good), but lets also not forget the ridiculous rom tower for rev 7 boards also :)
ok looking case but not my favorite to work on by a long shot. the 4000 case was not as pretty but way more practicle.
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My A3K is a rev 6.1 25MHz with 16MB page mode ram and he 2MB of chip; I have a DENEB and a 4GB SCSI drive installed.
SYSINFO V4 reports me as being .87 as fast as a stock A3K.
Can anyone provide insight as to why I'm not at least a 1.0 of a stock A3K?
I had this same problem once with my 3000, If I remember right it was something to do with the MMU burst modes I had turning on during the start up. I know that don't make sense as to why the CPU would be reporting slow speeds and it did not make any sense to me at the time either, but After turning it off things went back to normal. There could of been something else going on here as well because I tried multiple things to fix this, but It did eventually resolve itself. I have also found over the years that results vary depending on what version of sysinfo you are using.
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Yes thats why it ended up with crappy ide also. The memory bottle neck was due to them taking much of the 3000's PAL chips and combining them into the 'bridgette" chip,reducing chip count and saving money since there was almost no budget. Unfortunately brigette was slower than they wanted.
this bottle neck is not that big a deal since the motherboard only holds 16Mb,getting any quality accelerator bypasses the problem.
There were some guys who managed to hack 64M B onboard the 4000's stock simm slots,bu i could never get the guys who did the hack give me the info.
Remember one thing a stock 4000 with slow ram still blows a stock 1200 out of the water :)
At least the A4000 wasn't as crippled as the poor Atari Falcon with the 030 stuck on a 16bit Atari ST bus... That seriously must have be a quick work up design, which ended up in the final product due to lack of funds!?
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I had this same problem once with my 3000, If I remember right it was something to do with the MMU burst modes I had turning on during the start up. I know that don't make sense as to why the CPU would be reporting slow speeds and it did not make any sense to me at the time either, but After turning it off things went back to normal. There could of been something else going on here as well because I tried multiple things to fix this, but It did eventually resolve itself. I have also found over the years that results vary depending on what version of sysinfo you are using.
the rev6.1 board A3000's were never meant to be sold to consumers, they were sent to dealers for demo's but since they were selling well, i'm sure the dealers had no trouble selling them. I wonder what his ramsey/dmac chip revisions are?
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I love the 3000, it was the fastest design memory wise of all the big boxes(well 3000t was as good), but lets also not forget the ridiculous rom tower for rev 7 boards also :)
ok looking case but not my favorite to work on by a long shot. the 4000 case was not as pretty but way more practicle.
I love both the 3000 and 4000. Each have their advantages...
I actually prefer working on the 3000D over the 4000D. I think I may be in the minority here. :)
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the rev6.1 board A3000's were never meant to be sold to consumers, they were sent to dealers for demo's but since they were selling well, i'm sure the dealers had no trouble selling them. I wonder what his ramsey/dmac chip revisions are?
Serial number is 00199 :)
Ramsey 4, DMAC 4.
I just landed a 9/03 system and this one will be retired to SPARE duty.
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Serial number is 00199 :)
Ramsey 4, DMAC 4.
I just landed a 9/03 system and this one will be retired to SPARE duty.
excellent revision,the best actually :) check the d800 diode before you install it, many are shorted and or blown (its the temrination power diode)
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Will do.. it should be fine the previous owner sent me pics of it running and recently replaced the battery as well. Also has new GALS and a 3640.
Will change that battery out for a coin though...