68060 vs. 603PPC/040 (Opening a can of worms.)

[MrBang]

I hate to ask questions like this because I KNOW what's good for one person's needs is not necessarily what's good for another person's needs.  But....

Let's say for roughly the same money I can pick up either a used Blizzard 160 MHz 603e PPC with a 25 MHz 68040 (I do not know if it is the LC040 or the full 040) or a used Blizzard 1260 (50 MHz, right?).

Now the easy answer would be to jump on the PPC.  But doesn't the PPC only come into play with software specificaly written to use it?  If that's the case, then it stands to reason that I might get better mileage out of the (more system friendly) 060.  (Assuming I don't want to play Amiga Quake or anything.)  Am I wrong?

Thanks.

[itix]

68060 is slow. Get BPPC and if you need computing power get MOS/OS4 too. With JIT 603e/160MHz emulates 68k faster than real 68060/50MHz.

[ksk]

@itix

I would not call 060 slow amongs classic Amigas.
If one uses AOS3.x on the machine, the 060 will be faster than 040+PPC in most cases.

040+PPC only wins if PPC datatypes are heavily used or the application itself is written to use PPC.

I have no experience about MOS. But ofcourse especially native MOS apps fly on it when comparing to 68k Amiga apps on 68k 040.

[Lemmink]

I wouldn`t consider MOS on classic hardware, as only the stoneage V0.4 of MOS is publically available for the classics.
For your everydayuse a 060 will be better. I remember how I hurts me when I "stepped back" from an Blizzard1240@40 MHz to a BlizzardPPC 160/040 25 MHz. An 060 will manage MP3 Playback at the same quality as a PPC, though it will hardly any CPU-time left for something else. For MP3 encoding MPEG-playback and viewing JPEGs the PPC clearly wins with at least double the speed of an 060.
Again overall systemperformance will be around three times faster with an 060 opposed to the 25MHz 040, the PPC only comes in when you have to do heavy numbercrunching and use optimised software.
The only thing I can live with is 060 andPPC (I have the combination 040/PPC too, but that is not in my mainsystem).
Another point of view is what was the best you used till now, if it was a sole 040 @ 25MHz or even a 030 you won`t feel the week 68k that much. If you ever had an 040 @ 40 MHz or more the 040/PPC will dissapoint you.

[itix]

If one uses AOS3.x on the machine, the 060 will be faster than 040+PPC in most cases.

If the target is 3.x only machine then 060 is probably fine. But if you have PPC you can simply do OS upgrade and have taste of better software. You can still use your 040 for retro gaming.

I have no experience about MOS. But ofcourse especially native MOS apps fly on it when comparing to 68k Amiga apps on 68k 040.

Emulated 68k apps run faster than real 060 ever could.

[itix]

I wouldn`t consider MOS on classic hardware, as only the stoneage V0.4 of MOS is publically available for the classics.

That is true.

Another point of view is what was the best you used till now, if it was a sole 040 @ 25MHz or even a 030 you won`t feel the week 68k that much. If you ever had an 040 @ 40 MHz or more the 040/PPC will dissapoint you.

040 is lame CPU, but PPC gives more opportunities. You can get relatively cheap BVision there.

[Brian]

As an BPPC040/160e+, B1260 and CSPPC060/180 owner I want to put in my 2cents.

If it's an LC040 and the BPPC doesn't have SCSI then I do belive it have lost alot of it's appeal to me but the first question you should ask yourself is what are you going to do with the computer?

If it's mainly retro OS3.x and that's that then I would put all my $ on the B1260... that's what I did to my little "play and go around system".

If it's more heavy things you want to do... things that can take advantage of datatypes and the like, newer games and tools that can use PPC or you might have your hopes up for OS4 then go for the BPPC040. Especialy since it has the advantage of offering a graphiccard solusion for the A1200 without extra bussboards. I used my BPPC for my A1200T system.

But realy it's such a close call between the two I wouldn't want to the one to chuse and thank god I don't have to. :-D

[NightShade737]

Do the best of both worlds and get a 603e/060...

[x56h34]

@NightShade737:

Good thing we ordered ours in time, eh? :lol:

[NightShade737]

Yeah... hope it does arrive in the end though. I have so much stuff set up for a CyberstormPPC now...

[Quixote]

;-) Another log on the fire would be to consider that Amiga OS 4.0 is promised to be released in versions for CyberStorm and Blizzard PPC cards.  This would allow any system friendly legacy application to run at increased speed on classic hardware.

[Acill]

I was a CSPPC owner for a long time up to just a few weeks ago. I want to warn you that at present there just isnt that much stuff out there that supports the PPC on classic Amiga computers. I just about never used the PPC for more then mp3 or a few games. Its a wast getting one, and I had an 060 on mine. I would get the 060 card for sure. It will give you a lot more speed boost. The 040@25 is a slow CPU and you will be real upset over it.

Now I am using a Pegasos II system. This makes classic apps run real fast! Much faster then my A3000 with PPC ever did. It wont run anything that needs the custom hardware, but the few things I need that do I cn use UAE to run them just fine. Just about all the more modern apps will run perfectly. Thats another option you may want to look into. You can get a G3 Pegasos II for just over $300 USD. Thats about the going price for a classic PPC card.

[Damion]

I'd choose the 060, there is A LOT of software (especially demos
and anything using AGA) that will benefit from it. PPC software is
rather limited, besides at this point I'd get a Pegasos/A1 if you really
want a PPC.

I hate to ask questions like this because I KNOW what's good for one person's needs is not necessarily what's good for another person's needs. But....

Let's say for roughly the same money I can pick up either a used Blizzard 160 MHz 603e PPC with a 25 MHz 68040 (I do not know if it is the LC040 or the full 040) or a used Blizzard 1260 (50 MHz, right?).

Now the easy answer would be to jump on the PPC. But doesn't the PPC only come into play with software specificaly written to use it? If that's the case, then it stands to reason that I might get better mileage out of the (more system friendly) 060. (Assuming I don't want to play Amiga Quake or anything.) Am I wrong?

Thanks.

[Will-i-am]

I have two of these models now....got 'em for free...and I'm having a difficulty figuring out what the difference is? Obviously I am NOT a techy...I'm an artist and I like doing computer animations so having a nice fast A4000T was a great idea. I'm wondering, though, with two processors on the Cyberstorm, what happens when you boot up a program? (sounds silly, but...) If the program is written with PPC in mind, I assume it uses instructions found there, right? But if the program is an old one, like say Caligari 24, it just uses the power of the '060, right? I have two dual processor Intergraph machines running Unix with dual cisc CPUs (maybe risc, I forget) but I was under the impression that the program could parcel out work to either processor for greater efficiency. Why doesn't the Amiga do that with the Cyberstorm? I was just wondering, because I was going to net all my boxes together and use parts of various programs to design, render and animate some education films on wood fired kilns....my buddy calls it a "render farm". So all these processors won't mean a thing unless the program is designed to optimize the calculations? I was wondering how it worked because I saw how these students knitted together a bunch of Apples to make a supercomputer and I thought "Swell, maybe it'll be like that!" only now I am not so sure....

[graffias79]

SMP (multi-processing) only works with like-processors, and the Amiga was never designed with SMP in mind.  an 060 and PPC can't work together in the same way that two PPC chips or even two Xeon chips can since they are completely different architectures.