The PowerPC accelerator for the Amiga 3000 (T) /
4000 (T)
CyberstormPPC
Description
Equipped
with the 604e PowerPC processor the CyberStormPPC
is the fastest Amiga accelerator card available. A
604e processor at 200 MHz is about 10-15 times
faster than a 50MHz 68060. The Board has 4 SIMM
sockets and can take up to 128 Mb of RAM. The
sockets need matched pairs of SIMMS (e.g. two 16 Mb
SIMMs and two 32 Mb SIMMs). The memory interface is
very fast so an '060 processor should run about 15%
faster than the older CyberStorm MkII. The 604e
also has an Ultra Wide SCSI controller on board
which follows the WIDE fast-20 standard for highest
performance with modern mass storage devices (tests
have shown speeds of around 12 MB per second). An
integrated high-speed bus based on the PCI standard
allows you to connect expansion hardware such as
the CybervisionPPC.
The 604e works without problems on an Amiga 4000
or the Micronik A-1500 Ti. To get it to work in a
Amiga 3000 you will need to upgrade the _int2 line.
phase5 will send you information on how to do this
if needed but you can also follow this
link.
The 604e is compatible with any 68040 or 68060
processor and is shipped with a 180 MHz, 200 MHz or
233 MHz PPC processor. Prices for the CyberStormPPC
start at about 1200 DM (500 UKĀ£ or 800 US$)
without a 68k companion CPU.
CyberstormPPC
Benchmarks
You will find some benchmarks taken from various
applications here. Notice that benchmarks made with
Reflections have shown that a CyberStormPPC renders
as fast as a Pentium MMX (at the same clock speed).
Overall
If you feel like your MC68060 is not fast enough
anymore you should get this board. It will even
allow you to turn your Amiga into a PowerMac when
the right software becomes available. As proven by
our Software list there is already a huge amount of
Amiga-PowerPC software out there so why wait?
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