Some questions after upgrading Blizzard 2040 with 68060 CPU

[rodney37]

I just ran cpu060 and MyCpu060, they both said:

System: 68060MC Revision 6

[Damion]

Cool, sounds like you got a real one. There must have been some very early ones (or samples) printed with the "XC" prefix.

 

[rodney37]

@-D-
It sure looks like it's the sample like mentioned in your URL. I'm relieved about that.

I will look into a cooling solution. I don't think a heatsink is really needed, I prefer not to use one if not necessary. I like the way the Blizzard looks without a heatsink on the CPU. I will try to create some airflow over the CPU with a fan placed near it at low RPM and then test for a few hours with the cover in place to see if it remains cool. I hope that will do the trick. :-)

[kolla]

Huh, what's a fake 68060 and what's bad about them?

Is there a factory in China mass-producing cheap 68060 clones? :-)

[adolescent]

@kolla

Some unscrupulous Chinese chip sellers re-mark old/bad chips to better/more-valuable versions.  

@thread

According to the Motorola docs, samples of the last mask/revision were marked XC.  (Edit: I see that D mentioned it above. sorry for the repeat...)

Good to hear everything is correct with the CPU.  Maybe just add a heatsink for some passive cooling.  Perhaps someone with a 2060 can post about the heat.

[rodney37]

I tested with just a small fan(the one which came from the 68040 heatsink) pointed at the CPU from a small distance without any heatsink attached to the CPU. I temporarily attached the fan to my harddisk with a cable tie. That already turned out to be more than enough to keep the CPU cool. I will figure out a permanent solution using a new fan at low rpm placed next to the Blizzard.

I used the advice from stefcep2 to use the Phase 5 68060 libraries. After restoring a copy of OS3.1 which didn't have the Phase 5 libraries to start from scratch I found that without these Phase 5 libraries my A2000 won't even boot from the harddisk but crash instead. I had to boot from a floppy disk to put the libraries on my harddisk. GMB also warned to put the libraries in libs on his website before modifying the Blizzard.

It seems if I am correct that the default 68040 library which came with OS 3.1 is replaced by a library with the same name which is much smaller in size than the original, along with a new 68060 library. I searched for the latest versions and put those in my libs drawer. If I am correct the latest 68060 library is from 5-7-2005. This set of libraries can be found at http://phase5.a1k.org/

I want to thank everyone who replied for their excellent advice and valuable info to tackle my questions. Super community here! :-D

[lorddef]

I think the 060 on my dce blizzard is an XC - it gets quite hot and has 060 printed quite bold in the center.

I just stuck a massive heatsink on it and it's been fine for years.

[matthey]

The 68060 still gets warm. It shouldn't burn you like a 68040 though. With a heat sink and fan it barely gets warm which in CPU comparisons means it runs cool. My Rev 6 68060 IS marked with a MC by the way.

The newest SetPatch in AmigaOS 3.9 will load the 68060.library directly so the dummy (small) 68040.library is unnecessary.

There is an alternative 68060.library on Aminet...

http://aminet.net/search?name=mmulib&path[]=util/libs

It is newer and powerful but not as easy to use. Read the docs first. There is an update to the mmu.library in the MuMin V43.10 archive here...

http://evogt.free.fr/amigasoft.html

[Piru]

@rodney37

It seems if I am correct that the default 68040 library which came with OS 3.1 is replaced by a library with the same name which is much smaller in size than the original, along with a new 68060 library.

Actually it's not replaced, but rather you should rename the C= 68040.library as 68040old.library.

The Phase5 68040.library should be called 68040new.library.

The small 68040.library will then determine which setup you have, and load the correct library, either:
- non-p5 system: load 68040old.library
- p5 68040 system: load 68040new.library
- p5 68060 system: load 68060.library

Set up this way, the system will boot regardless if you replace the CPU card.

However, your method of just having the tiny 68040.library and the P5 68060.library works, too, but only for the 68060 setup. If you even need to replace the CPU card with a 68040 one, you will have trouble (until you provide the neeede 68040 libraries that is).

[stefcep2]

Don't forget to put cyberpatcher in wbstartup, as the 68060 doesn't have a full 68882 fpu instruction set, so when running fpu code cyberpatcher is necessary to trap these.  It makes  a huge difference to rendering speed and gives you a more responsive system when these cpu intensive tasks kick in, so multitasking improves.  Speaking of which I found that Executive (aminet, don't forget the key file) a fantastic utility to make multitasking even better than it is.  Just don't run stuff that bangs the hardware like Scala without configuring executive not to schedule it first.  A 68060 is for power users and you need all of the power utilities out there to make it shine

[delshay]

if your not sure which 68060 CPU you are buying here is a tips to make sure you are buying a real 68060 which i also fell into this trap.

1. avoid CPU marking that is printed in white possible fake.

2. according to a web site a few years back,if down the left hand side of CPU it has the marking S23328-004 it's a real E41J.

[delshay]

lorddef wrote:
I think the 060 on my dce blizzard is an XC - it gets quite hot and has 060 printed quite bold in the center.

I just stuck a massive heatsink on it and it's been fine for years.

what revision is your DCE Blizzard PPC?
does anyone know DCE Blizzard PPC revision number?

[rodney37]

@Piru
So that is what the 'old' and 'new' libraries are for.  It didn't look like they had any purpose. I thought they are just backup copies :-) It was a bit confusing in the end after seeing so many libraries added compared to a clean install so I felt I should start again from scratch.

Anyway I kept a backup of my previous OS 3.1 so I can easily copy the old and new 68040 libraries back into my libs drawer which I will do now. I also prefer an OS3.1 installation the way it was meant as long as it makes sense to me. :-) I always keep a habit of archiving my entire OS partition in a drawer on another partition just at those moments when everything is working well just before I am planning to install some software which might modify the OS. I have a lot of archived copies of everything. I just made some drawers with a useful name to remember the things which were included in that install. Several times it has been useful for quickly restoring everything back the way it was when I found some software had an undesirable effect on the entire OS after installing it.

[rodney37]

@stefcep2
Okay, I will add cyberpatcher in my wbstartup as I already planned to do, along with the 68040 old and new libraries as Piru explained. That seems like the right way to configure everything.

I do see your point as the 68060 seems to have very powerful features which the original OS in it's cleanly installed state would not know how to get the absolute most out of.

Would I have any problems with games after installing executive? I suppose that a lot of games and demos also bang the hardware? So then I would have to exclude those too?

If executive could be shut down prior to running software like games and such that would be conveniant too I think.
I want to optimize OS3.1 as much as possible but still be able to play games as well. Most of the time I am more interested in playing around with the OS trying to enhance it's capabilities and looks but games are also a fun way to see what the Amiga can do. So occasionally shutting down executive would not be a problem for me.

[rodney37]

@delshay
Thanks for the advice about recognizing a faked version 68060. From the test results which I did earlier and the URL which -D- provided I am satisfied that my 68060 is a real one as indicated. I did get worried for a moment that I might have had a fake so I can very well understand the importance of being informed about this...

@thread
For anyone who likes to see my CPU I put a photo online at this address. Here you also can see some of the modifications which I made to support this CPU.
Anyone who wants to see it can open this URL:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~echorod/amiga/DSC07667.JPG

[terminator4]

@Piru

WhichAmiga still doesn't do anything for me (crashes? i get a gray screen).  How can i check the revision of the 68060?
I should try CPU060 and MyCPU060 off aminet???

The cpu on the TekMagic 68060 board reads:
XC68060RC50
and on top right corner it reads:
O1F43G QEBF9519A.  so it looks like original 68060.

Showconfig shows my configuration to be 68060.  Sysspeed gave the following:
Mips 66.32, Mflops 26.52.  How & where can i benchmark this against?
thanks.