Why accelerate an Amiga?

[Bug_racer]

Due to my lack of understanding of computers I'd like to understand the acceleration thing a little more .

How is it done ?
Apart from the extra heat are there any other negative aspects ? Can hardware/software wear out quicker ?

How much can you accelerate it by ?

Are there any programs that require an accelerator to work vs not having one and waiting for the program to load a bit slower (Im hoping I understand the basics of the accelerator to ask this question )

 :-D

[James]

There are many types of accelerator. Although today the term is mostly used only for CPUs, there was a time when video cards were called graphic accelerators There are two ways to accelerate something, brute force and clever tinkering.

Brute force is just putting more Mhz somewhere. A 14mhz CPU is capable of processing data twice as fast as a 7mhz CPU. But even then, it's not that simple... You still have to take into account how large a 'chunk' of data the CPU can handle at a time. A good analogy would be coke bottles. Let's say the amount of liquid it can hold is the MHZ. A 2 litre bottle would be twice as fast as a 1 litre bottle right? If you were to turn them upside down an empty their contents into indentical receptacles, the one under the 2 litre bottle should fill twice as fast no? Well no, because on both bottles, the opening is the same size, so there's only so much liquid that can pass through at the same time. So they would empty themselves at the exact same speed. But INSIDE the bottle... there is a lot more liquid!

Same analogy again.. but with identical bottles. One with a 1" opening, one with a 2" opening. Even though they hold the same amout of liquid (read: same amount of Mhz) one will definately empty much faster than the other because it can have a lot more liquid go through its opening. This is called the bus size.

The other type of accelration, clever tinkering does not rely as much on raw speed rather than on ways of doing things. One example of such a thing is fixed point mathematics which was once hugely popular as floating point units used to cost an arm and a leg. Think of the CPU as a human being. It's much simpler for you to calculate 2000 + 2000 than 2000 X 2000. It is the same with computers, the simpler the operation, the faster it will get done. When dealing with fractions (floating point maths) like 1.111 + 1.111 you need a floating point unit to do it in hardware, or you need to do it in software (read: slow). However.. clever thinking leads to fixed point. In fixed point maths, you simply assume the decimal point is always at the same place. So our previous operation could be simplified to 1111 + 1111 and when the CPU returns 2222, you place an imaginary decimal point at 2.222 and there you go... fast floating point operations. This is an overly simplified example as there are other thing to take into account here, such as the fact that your integers can only hold smaller numbers since you dedicate a part of it as being after the decimal... then again this can be circumvented by yet more creative thinking...and that is why computers are so complex

[gdanko]

Don, I accelerated my 2000 and also put in a NIC and VGA video card. This made my 2000 usable for most home tasks (word processing, email, etc..) You don't need to have the latest and greatest for most things. Keep in mind, in high school I used a C64 and SpeedScript.. so I know an Amiga is viable.

[ChaosLord]

To make all software run faster.

[Ratte]

@Don:
.. for fun!
 :-D

[DonP1]

I think I fall into that category of "stuck in 1991" :lol:

My A1000 is very nice. I've installed the Rejuvinator, it's got a 2MB Agnus, Super Denise, Kickstart 2.05 or 3.1 onboard, or 1.3 through a floppy, and an extra 1.5MB inside. Outside I have a Dataflyer with a 540MB drive and 1.3, 2.04, and 3.1 each bootable in a different partition.

I have sitting unused a CSA Derringer 50 with 32MB ram, but I'm not sure if I should use it or not. I tried once, but I think I ran into compatibility issues with games, so I went back to the 68020 (no speed increase really). This was 10 years ago, and I didn't know much about Amigas, so I might not have installed the 68030 libraries at the time, or known of WHDload.

I think I might give the Derringer one more try, but my only use of the Amiga is mainly Deluxe Galaga, so I'm just not sure if it's worth it because the system works great as-is.

For any high-powered computing task and all day-to-day stuff I would use my dually PCs. If the Amiga was my only computer, I could see that it would be a great idea to upgrade it.

[orange]

just don't accelerate it 9,81m/s^2  as some jerk suggested.. :roll:

[Karlos]

In response to the original poster, I'd just say... why not?

[DonP1]

Karlos wrote:
In response to the original poster, I'd just say... why not?

Because I could sell the CSA Derringer 50 for $$$ if it isn't going to do me any good. If I'm not doing anything that requires a faster CPU (and I haven't .... yet) I should probably just sell it.

[Karlos]

True but you generally never fail to find a use for a faster CPU. None of my systems are running on anything under a 68040. Occasionally I have used a bare 020 based A1200 with fast ram only for compatibility testing. As soon as the testing is over, in goes an 040 card :lol:

[Zac67]

OP: Why accelerate an Amiga?

Because you CAN!

*SCNR*

[Ratte]

@Don:
Are you FastRob from A1k?

If not ... I know 2 other people in the world with rejuvenator-boards.

 :-D

[Angus]

Akiko wrote:


Absolutely! I'm especially looking forward to a whdload version of Wing commander! :-)

 

You know about the existing patch for the CD32 version? And as you probably know the CD32 version is the version to have.

[Minuous]

It's a silly question. Why would you accelerate any computer? To make it faster. So that applications, emulators etc. run faster and more smoothly.

It's like saying "Why accelerate an IBM-PC" or "Why accelerate a Macintosh".

[Crom00]

I actually use a modded xbox with the homebrew uae. The results are pretty good and I run every emulator out there.

Emulation has become a reality for me. It became too expensive to store all the amiga bits I had.

[DonP1]

Ratte wrote:
@Don:
Are you FastRob from A1k?

If not ... I know 2 other people in the world with rejuvenator-boards.

 :-D

Sorry, not me.