Apollo 060 fault (A1200)

[Tricky]

I've had this problem ever since I bought this card 2nd hand, I'm sure I remember it being sold as a Blizzard 060 (I have a Blizzard box) but it seems to actually be an Apollo card (it says "Apollo" on the little power converter board that comes off).

Anyway.  The problem is, there is a jumper to select between 2 different clock modes, one is for if it has a 040 chip on it, which basically halves the clock frequency (the 040 comes with 80MHz clock which makes 40MHz for the processor), the other setting is for if the board has an 060 which doesn't halve the clock frequency.  However, although it has a 68060 on it, it doesn't work in 060 mode (doesn't boot or anything, just get a blank screen), although it works in 040 mode so instead of running at 50MHz I'm only getting 25MHz.

It hasn't bothered me so much because it was much faster than the previous board anyway, and I don't have much problems with it being too slow.  I just wondered if anyone here had experience of this sort of thing, because it would still be nice to get it to run at the proper speed.

I guess I could replace the clock for an 80MHz one and at least run at 40MHz.

[Wayne]

look....there are 4 diferent versions of that apollo turboboards...

1-apollo 040/25mhz
2-apollo 040/33mhz
3-apollo 040/40mhz
4 apollo 060/50mhz

maybe you have an apollo 1240 with a 040/25mhz
Im sure...
check again
the 040 have a small heat disipator on it with a small fan
the 060 not have any heat disipator or fan

bye, Laser

[Tricky]

It's definitely an 060.  It says on it "XC68060RC50".  I'm not that daft!  And no fans or anything.

There are in fact two sets of jumpers.  One has "RAM" (on) "SCSI" (off) and "060" (on).  The other selects between 040 and 060 clock modes and has to be 040 for it to work.  The other jumper for 060 has to be on for it to work!

[alexh]

Your best bet is to contact the swedish person (PG) who is on this board who repairs and upgrades these exact Apollo boards

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=23080

He know's everything about everthing about these boards.

[Tricky]

Who is this swedish person?

Oh and another information: the TTL clock says 50.000MHz on it, and yet SysInfo reports 25MHz.  So it is definitely true that the 040 mode halves the clock frequency for the processor.

[Wayne]

Trycky,

ok you have a 1260 turboboard
but why you say that works at 25mhz?
it can't be
The program sysinfo is old and not recognize well the 060 cpu
get here the program sysspeed and check what says:

http://de4.aminet.net/util/moni/sspeed26.lha

also do a test on cpu speed and compare results with another modules...you can download modules on aminet as well

btw, how many mips report sysinfo when you press SPEED button?



bye,Laser

[Tricky]

The function of the 040 jumper setting, according to the manual, is that it halves the clock signal sent to the processor.  The 040/40 board is apparently the same as the 060/50 board except with a different processor and jumper settings.  The 040 board has an 80MHz clock that is halved to 40MHz by the jumper setting.  Hence a board with a 50MHz clock will run at 25MHz with this setting.

The overall performance of the processor is also half what I would expect it to be for an 060/50.

I've downloaded that program, it seems to crash my computer for any test I try to run.  Although now SysInfo crashes too, I don't remember it doing that but I could be wrong.

The CPU command reports "68060 (INST CACHE BURST) (DATA CACHE BURST)"

[Wayne]

Tricky,

I'm reading my manual
and I forgot to say that there are other model
the fastest:apollo 1260/66mhz

check what says:

Jumper CLK settings

68040-cpu installed           position 040
68060-cpu 50mhz installed     position 060
68060-cpu 66mhz installed     position 040


so....maybe you have a 68060//66mhz that's why your card work only on jumper set on 040 side


btw,which 68060 library are u using?

[Tricky]

The clock on the board clearly says 50MHz, and yet still it does not work with the jumper in the 060 position.

68060.library version 44.3.

[PG]

Who is this swedish person?

I am.. :-)

Well, your card is an Apollo 1260 and yes, it has the correct jumper settings...

The fact is that most Apollo:s are not stable at 50Mhz FSB, thats why for example eyetech always used the 040 position for the FSB (FSB =1/2x cpu clock), regardless what cpu they used, 040 or 060.

If you want to try and overclock your card to 80Mhz, you could do so by simply changing the crystal oscillator.
However, unless you have the latest MC68060 cpu, im afraid your card wont run.
Always use a cooler when overclocking!

The other option you have is to try the 060 setting (FSB = cpu clock) but you MUST then also move one soldered resistor on the board from GND (where it is now) to the CLKEN position.
If your card still wont run at 50Mhz, now try a 40 MHZ crystal oscillator and your card will run fine.
Of course, you will now UNDERclock your cpu but will have a faster FSB.
I havent done any overall performance test because i have MC68060 cpu:s, and they run fine at 80Mhz with 40Mhz FSB.. :-)

If you or anyone else need a cooling solution you could contact me.
I have new coolers for both desktop and tower versions.
I will soon also have the PLD:s as spare part (Mach 210, 130/31) in stock.

[Tricky]

Hello there PG!  Thanks for replying.  But now I'm really confused...

The manual says it should be on the 060 setting but you say it should be on 040?  So do I have a 50MHz processor or a 25MHz processor?  It seems cheeky that they claim it's a 060/50 if it's the latter.

Also is it not true that the 040/40 uses a 80MHz clock, hence a 40MHz processor speed?  If so a 80MHz clock is surely not overclocking the board.

How about a 66MHz clock, if I can get my hands on one?  And is MC68060 better than XC68060?

Also any ideas why benchmark programs seem to crash now?

[PG]

"Hello there PG!  Thanks for replying.  But now I'm really confused...

The manual says it should be on the 060 setting but you say it should be on 040?  So do I have a 50MHz processor or a 25MHz processor?  It seems cheeky that they claim it's a 060/50 if it's the latter."

Your cpu runs at 50Mhz internally but with 25Mhz external speed.
I agree with you, i dont like it either.
But eyetech wanted to be safe, and used the 040 setting with all cpu:s.
Beside from that, the Apollo is a really good card.

"Also is it not true that the 040/40 uses a 80MHz clock, hence a 40MHz processor speed?  If so a 80MHz clock is surely not overclocking the board."

Its exactly the same thing here, the 040 runs at half speed externally.
I think Motorola could have marked the 68040 cpu 80Mhz instead of 40Mhz.
However, its a different thing with the 060.
Its DESIGNED to run at same speed internally as externally.
It is just the Apollo board that runs the cpu at half speed externally in most cases...

"How about a 66MHz clock, if I can get my hands on one?  And is MC68060 better than XC68060?"

It could work with a good cooler.
You could buy the oscillator from me, if you cant find any.
The MC68060 is a better cpu than XC68060 but with amiga accelerators the XC cpu work fine also.

"Also any ideas why benchmark programs seem to crash now?"

It could be that you are using the wrong libs?
You must use the correct Apollo libs, otherwise your card wont run stable.
Dont use Phase5 libs, it wont work.

[Tricky]

Ah, I understand now... I thought the 040 was getting half the board speed, but rather, the board gets half the clock speed and the processor gets the full speed.  Very odd behaviour of the 040 in that case...

As for resoldering a resistor, well that's a scary prospect in any case, but all these seem to be surface mount!  Unless it's on the other side of the board.  I'm not taking it out again just now.

Does the 1260/66 use a cooler?  I'd prefer a slightly slower computer than a much noisier one.  If there's one thing I can't stand it's a noisy computer.  So I'll probably just leave it as it is in that case.

I probably don't have the right library, I don't remember getting any disks with the card.  Where can I get the correct one?

[PG]

Yes, you must use a cooler if you want to try 66Mhz.
Regarding the Install disk, you have PM.. :-)

[alexh]

The MC68060 is a better cpu than XC68060 but with amiga accelerators the XC cpu work fine also.

It should be said that there are several revisions of MC68060RC50 chips. If you are considering replacing one you SHOULD only get a revision 6 (denoted by a mask suffix of 1E41J)