Ok so I know the PowerPC accelerators for classic Amigas have both a PPC chip and a 68040 on board, but when does the PowerPC chip come in and how does it know? Does a program have to run on the 68k at first (like a bootstrap) and then trigger some kind of switch, throw an exception, or call a library function or something?
I had a blizzard 603e PPC 240/060. I had problems getting the PPC to run stable in the desktop case. It would run stable in a PAWS case interestingly enough, but I never could get the LCD of the PAWS working. I ended up towering the system and eventually added the g-rex PCI bussboard and a Voodoo-III.
Honestly the PPC experience was underwhelming. I recall having some datatypes (that made browsing fast) and was able to play mp3s on the PPC. In the early days most PPC apps I tried would instantly crash. I did know the PPC worked though as I could run that supplied voxel terrain demo. Otherwise I was starting to think I had been duped on a bad card
Stability did get better, but being in the middle of that whole WarpUp/PowerUP saga watching that unfolded(compatibility wrappers, bickering, etc.) was enough for me. I never could get smooth frame-rates on those Hyperion ports.
I was able to utilize the PPC with a Shapeshifter video driver that made AGA run really quickly, but I think the MMU drivers I run now are probably almost as fast. The worst I was waiting and waiting for Fusion PPC to work with the Blizzard PPC. I don't know if that ever happened.
This time around I have a nice 1200D/060
I really don't miss the PPC experience. I had one of the faster PPC cards as well, so I could imagine one of the slower ones would be even more disappointing.
I do feel that comparing the 1200D I have now to that 1200T (with all the PC parts) I had is like comparing Darth Vader to Anakin. And the bloodshot puffy eyes(that no longer see for themselves) are the AGA chips...
