Blizzard 030 Mk4....show me your 68882!

[NovaCoder]

I'm going crazy (maybe), I've now got a 68882 FPU installed in my Blizzard 030 Mk4 for my 1200.  Although SysInfo reports that the FPU is installed no 'FPU intensive' games or demos that I've tried so far seem to be able to 'see' it :-?  

I've tried TFX and Alien Breed 3D along with a couple of AGA demos which reported that the FPU not present?

I thought it was just a plug-and-play type thing, anyone got any ideas?

[Metalguy66]

Do you have all the appropriate "setcpu" type commands in your startup sequence to enable all features of your accelerator? Im not familliar with the "blizzard" line, but it seems to be quite common with other brands of accelerators to have commands that turn on & off features that you do/don't want. These commands are usually executed very early in the s:startup-sequence...

[NovaCoder]

Metalguy66 wrote:
Do you have all the appropriate "setcpu" type commands in your startup sequence to enable all features of your accelerator? Im not familliar with the "blizzard" line, but it seems to be quite common with other brands of accelerators to have commands that turn on & off features that you do/don't want. These commands are usually executed very early in the s:startup-sequence...

Nope I've got nothing in my startup-sequence...maybe this is my problem?

[Piru]

Blizzard has autoconfig(TM), it doesn't require "set" command here.

Does C:CPU command see the FPU? If so, then it's working fine. However, don't expect any speed boost, most of the time the FPU is in fact slower than the fixed point math done via CPU.

[NovaCoder]

Piru wrote:
Blizzard has autoconfig(TM), it doesn't require "set" command here.

Does C:CPU command see the FPU? If so, then it's working fine. However, don't expect any speed boost, most of the time the FPU is in fact slower than the fixed point math done via CPU.

Thanks I'll the 'C:CPU' command tonight.  It's a bit strange because SysInfo can see the FPU but the AGA demo said 'FPU: None'?

[NAVVARR]

I too have a Blizzard 030 with a 68882. I originally bought the FPU so I could play a game which needed it.
I can't remember the game, but I do remember that I just had to slot the 68882 into the board and everything worked fine.
There was no configuring or messing about, it all worked without any problems.
Perhaps your 68882 is faulty?

[meega]

Piru wrote:
most of the time the FPU is in fact slower than the fixed point math done via CPU.

Apples vs. oranges. How fast is the cpu when being asked to do floats in 64-bit precision? Also, when the cpu is busy doing one thing the fpu can be doing another...

@NovaCoder, The Distant Suns demo has a "generic 1.3" version for any cpu and also an "OS2.0" version that *requires* an fpu. If yours doesn't work then that program should fall over.  ;-)

[AmigaMance]

I don't

Although SysInfo reports that the FPU is installed

 But did you perform the speed test? If it returns a value in MFLOPS, your FPU should be ok. Double check it with SysSpeed and AIBB.

I've tried TFX and Alien Breed 3D

Are you sure that AB3D utilizes the FPU?

[Kin-Hell]

An FPU will make absolutely no difference in Games.
Go render a 3D pic in a Ray Trace program like Imagine. Then take your FPU out, install the Integrer Version of Imagine & watch it CRAWL through the Render. Even the Beach Ball draw in AIBB will be MILES slower without the FPU.

Ray-tracing & DTP programs along with Database progs will fly for your FPU.  ;-)

[Eclipse]

There is a very limited amount of demo's that do use it.
Also I think someone mentioned on EAB about decrunching a large file using lhz or lha as they use it too.

[Piru]

Also I think someone mentioned on EAB about decrunching a large file using lhz or lha as they use it too.

That is not true. FPU is useless for decruncing.

[NovaCoder]

AmigaMance wrote:

Although SysInfo reports that the FPU is installed

 But did you perform the speed test? If it returns a value in MFLOPS, your FPU should be ok. Double check it with SysSpeed and AIBB.

What does it return the reading as if you don't have an FPU?

AmigaMance wrote:

I've tried TFX and Alien Breed 3D

Are you sure that AB3D utilizes the FPU?
[/quote]

No, not sure about AB3D (just a guess) but I know that TFX does as it uses a seperate exe.  I'll try that FPU demo that was suggest in this thread and see if it runs.

Thanks for all your help guys  :-D