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1992-08-28
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Date: 26 Mar 92 08:57:00 CST
From: FJVANWET@zeus.unomaha.edu
Subject: Accelerators for MacPlus: Report
Here is a summary of the responses I received from the network regarding
MacPlus accelerators. The information was helpful.
Well, I did it... I ordered the Novy Quick30 for the Mac Plus @ 25Mhz.
I decided NOT to go with the Brainstorm product because I have a MacPortable
with a 16Mhz 68000 chip, and I wanted something faster. So, Novy Quick 30
got my vote.
All I can say is WOW !!! It installed with no problem ('cept for the shitty
manual that they give you...) but I soldered the connections, installed
the memory, adjusted the power supply with the potentiometer supplied,
replaced the video/power cabling, and sewed everything up. It works great!
So far, I have not noticed any incompatibility with any of the software on
my machine.
I am running system
7.0 with System 7 Tune-up, and no problems at all with installation. My
hard disks (Quantum 52 and Jasmine 20) are formatted with the SCSI software
in System 7, and they came
up right away also. To be honest, it has been smooth sailing after soldering
all the pins to the 68000 chip. Heck, I feel like a techie pro now! :-)
All the replies that I received regarding accelerators for the
Plus are included here in a summary to info-mac. Perhaps it should be
archived as a report?
I'll keep you posted if I run into any compatibility problems, but I doubt t
that I will :-)
***************** opinions from internet responses *****************
From: ed@titipu.meta.com (Edward Reid)
Subject: Re: Accelerators for MacPlus
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 20:17:54 EST(-0500)
Here's info I've collected on the Brainstorm. I don't have one, but I'm seriously
considering it. It sounds like a much better buy than the others.
-----------------------------
Subject: Plus accelerator: anyone done it?
In general, if you want a faster Mac, the best move is to sell your
old machine and buy a new one.
However, there is one accelerator for the Mac Plus that is
inexpensive and yields a significant performance boost. It is from
Brainstorm, but I'm not sure what it's called.
Last time I checked, it's price was $130 for educational users if
you install it yourself. They will also install it for you for a
total price of something like $249. Prices may have changed since
I talked to Brainstorm. I did not buy their product, I just made
inquiries in case the need arose.
The kit consists of a 16MHz 68000 which is installed by soldering a
socket over the existing 68000 and plugging the new 68000 over the
old one.
It also includes another chip that replaces a PAL on the motherboard
(i.e desolder the old one and solder the new one in). This PAL chip
allows the bus of the Mac Plus to operate at a full 16MHz.
According to Brainstrom, graphics operations are tripled in speed,
SCSI hard drive transfer rates are up to five times faster, and
computationally intensive tasks are accelerated by a minimum of
250%.
I have no affiliation with Brainstorm.
--------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 91 07:28:06 PST
From: Les.Ferch@mtsg.ubc.ca
Subject: Plus accelerator: anyone done it?
In my previous message that described the Brainstorm accelerator,
I forgot to include the address for the company. Here it is:
Brainstorm
1145 Terra Bella Ave.
Mountain View, CA 94043
415 964-2131
415 964-2135 FAX
-------------------------------------------
From: hankin@sauron.osf.org (Scott Hankin)
Subject: Re: Anyone heard of BRAINSTORM ACCELERATOR?
I've been running one in my Mac+ since the end of October. I hesitated
to submit a review because there are some funny things about Brainstorm
which gave me pause. Here's my view.
You end up with, for all intents and purposes, a Mac+ which runs about
2.5x faster than it used to. SCSI performance is much improved as well,
with the company claiming up to 5x the performance for some operations.
Screen updates are supposed to be nearly 3x faster.
AppleTalk might be a problem. I don't know, since my Mac+ is a solitary
machine, connected only to an Imagewriter. Some sounds are a bit
garbled; others sound just fine. It probably depends on the format.
(There are surely others who know more about sound formats than I do who
could explain that better.)
I have not run a single piece of software which ran prior to upgrading
and doesn't run now. Other than speed, you still have a Mac+ - this
means that programs which make simple-minded checks still work. Adding
a 68030 while still running the original ROMs doesn't guarantee that.
And the price is right. (Mine came to $219 installed.)
I got mine locally from a guy who upgrades machines as his whole
business (as far as I can determine.) He is often out of his office
when you call, because he is at some commercial site installing 50 of
them on their Macs. He even mentioned that if someone wanted it done
mail-order, he could accommodate them as well. I think he said they'd
just have to send him their logic board. I can provide details if there
is any interest.
Brainstorm is another matter. They are a small outfit which has been
around for a while in the Mac world in one form or another. It is
nearly impossible to get information from them directly, irrespective of
what they promise on the phone. Dealing with my local vendor, however,
seems to work ok. He's told me that sometimes supply is held up because
they get bumped from the place that produces the chips because someone
bigger comes in and wants something NOW. It's one of the problems with
being small. I'm not sure it would be a good thing if they gained
worldwide acclaim for their product, because they would have trouble
meeting the demand. This is subject to change, of course. Maybe
they'll get a more reliable chip maker. Maybe the house that they use
now will start treating them better. Who knows?
The upgrade arrives without packaging or documentation. My dealer said
that they considered supplying a manual, but didn't have anything to
say. In a sense, they are right. Operating instructions for a
Brainstorm accelerated Mac+ are no different than for a plain one. It
just runs faster. I tried Speedometer on it briefly and got 2.n times
the speed of a Classic, where n varied depending on what was tested.
My subjective impressions are that my Mac runs faster, and that System 7
is a fine system, performance-wise. (This was not my impression prior
to upgrading.) Think C runs much faster, things just don't annoy me any
more in terms of the wait. I'm a happy camper.
But if something went wrong, it would be my dealer I'd talk to, not
Brainstorm.
- Scott
Scott Hankin (hankin@osf.org)
Open Software Foundation
11 Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142
----------------------------------------------------------------
RE: Subject: Plus accelerator: anyone done it?
'Les.Ferch@mtsg.ubc.ca' (sorry, I didn't catch your name) proclaimed that
the Brainstorm accelerator is a solution to speed-up the Mac+. I tried this
"upgrade", but in the end, I sent back the board.
The Brainstorm does speed up the Plus UP TO 250%. When scrolling, the
lines just smoke up/down your screen. The SCSI port is supposed to be 5
times faster; this I could not test, because I didn't have any test
programs. New ROM updates (oh, oh) are sent directly from the States (I'm
in Holland: Europe) and the software can burn itself in, because of the
EEPROM on-board (I wonder if anyone tried to access the signal lines in
order to reprogram the thing; Watch-out for buggy programming?) Anyway, of
course, there had to be a snag (or two).
- The Brainstorm must use an init to initialize the accelerator and the
keyboard (if you leave it out, the keyboard simply won't work). So, if you
are using an old system (like 4.x.x) or have a bootable disk that is
absolutely full, you can not place the init, and thus the keyboard doesn't
work.
- The Brainstorm messes up your sound output. I programmed a small APPL
using the sound manager, and my sounds also sounds in many other commercial
applications are produced in a scratchy manner. Surprisingly some games and
SoundEdit(TM) produce natural sound. I guess it probably has to do with
using the sound driver routines directly, instead of accessing the Sound
Manager (I didn't try this).
- My Brainstorm accelerator even crashed persistently when the computer was
at 'full operating temperature'. When I tried to resize a window :-( Crash!
or Application has unexpectedly quit. Sorry. (You can imagine how sorry I
was after I had typed in a report for 30 minutes and tried to access my
hard disk in the finder.) This fault was probably due to bad connections of
the ROM chips. Brainstorm puts capacitors under the ROMs (for whatever
reason) and because Apple tried to spare some change when fitting the Mac+,
the connectors are worn-out quickly which causes the bad connection.
- A certain HyperCard stack with sounds from the group 'Propaganda' crash
the Brainstorm, when you click other tunes before the first is finished. On
my old Plus they worked just fine.
Luckily I got a refund for my board. I have learned to live with my slooow
Mac (of course this means not using System 7.x). My advice is: don't buy
it. Of course there could be updates for this product that work, so don't
flame me all at once.
If anyone has had positive experience with Accelerators for the Plus or the
Classic, I would be very interested to hear from you. For example has
anyone tried out the NewLife accelerator for the Classic, which is
proclaimed to be twice as fast as the Classic II (and thus 6 times as fast
as the Classic).
Anyway, have a nice day !-) (smiley with a pencil in its eye, because it
fell asleep, or a criminal type of guy with one heavy eyebrow)
Andre' (pronounced Andray)
Email address: 'andreh@et.tudelft.nl'
---------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1992 23:38:53 +0100
>From: holst@diku.dk (Bo Holst-Christensen)
Subject: Brainstorm accelerator
I have a Plus with a Brainstorm running as a combined workstation and
server (FileShare,TimeLord,PortShare) with only minor problems. I had a few
problems getting it to work when it was installed, but after an upgrade of
the soft- and firmware most things have been fixed.
When I received the Brainstorm, it contained version 1 software, version 2
hardware, and version 1 firmware (EEPROM). This configuration gave me
problems. I have since received version 2 of the hard- and firmware.
In info-mac digest V10 #17 Andre' <andre@dutera.et.tudelft.nl> said:
>- The Brainstorm must use an init to initialize the accelerator and the
>keyboard (if you leave it out, the keyboard simply won't work).
There is a problem with Apple's Easy Access, that results in the keyboard
not functioning with the Brainstorm. This problem can be resolved by using
the supplied init/cdev, or removing Easy Access.
>- The Brainstorm messes up your sound output.
Many accelerators have this problem. The ROM routines are made for an
unaccelerated Plus, and give scratchy results with an accelerator. The
Brainstorm comes with an init, that tries to resolve this problem. When
using the init, you loose 7% of the accellerators speed. As I seldom have
use for sound, and the system beeps are ok even without the init, I don't
use it.
The problems I had was :
- If the AppleTalk driver isn't patched, the speed on a LocalTalk net will
be approximately 4800 baud. As part of the upgrade to version 2 software, I
received a patched AppleTalk version 56 for system 6 and 7. This solved all
problems, until I needed to run AppleTalk version 57 (for remote
AppleTalk). I'm still waiting for it :-(.
- The SCSI port is much quicker, so drivers and/or harddisks can give
problems. The Rodime I had on the Plus, had big problems when trying to
restart the machine, and when trying to use the original driver with the
Brainstorm, the disk wouldn't boot at all. I finally swapped the harddisk,
and things began to work. The new firmware should have solved some of these
problems, but I haven't
checked.
With the new firm- and software I find the Brainstorm to be a cheap and
stable solution, with only a few minor problems. The resulting machine is
rated by speedometer as twice as quick as a Classic.
Bo Holst-Christensen
holst@diku.dk
dikubhc1@uts.uni-c.dk
Edward Reid (8-}>
eel: ed@titipu.meta.com or nosc.mil!titipu.meta.com!ed
snail: PO Box 378/Greensboro FL 32330
1 I'm in the same boat. I haven't taken the plunge yet, but I'm
2 also considering the Brainstorm, which is even cheaper than the
3 Novy.
4 For $250, it includes:
5 16 MHz 68000 - note, not a 68030 like the Novy
6 Bus accelleration chip - they claim that jamming a high speed processor
7 into a Plus is not too useful because the rate limiting steps now are
8 due to the other parts of the data bus, which operates at 8 MHz on the
9 Plus. So the processor does lots of waiting. Their bus accelerator
10 increases bus speed (including the SCSI port) to 16 MHz.
11 I'm not techie qualified to evaluate this argument, but people who
12 have the Brainstorm say it's like having a two-fold faster plus, no
13 more or less.
14 The main advantage, IMHO, is price. I think that there's only so much
15 one can do to improve a Plus, and it isn't worth sinking too much
16 $$ into it. I view this as a stopgap that makes my machine more
17 usable while I continue to play the "wait for prices to drop" game.
18 If the cost of the upgrade exceeds the price difference between now
19 and when I give in and buy a replacement, then I lose. Since I
20 don't think _any_ upgrade will stave off a new machine for more than
21 a year or so, in my case, cheap is priority #1.
22 Anyway, check it out.
23 Brainstorm
24 1145 Terra Bella Ave.
25 Mountain View, CA 94043
26 415-964-2131 voice
27 415-964-2135 fax
28 >From the lit they sent me, there is a dealer in Omaha:
29 Hard Copy Inc.
30 402-331-2144
31 Let me know what else you find out.
32 -jim (Not affiliated with Brainstorm or any other hardware or software
33 companies)
34 **********************************************************************
35 Subject: Accelerators for MacPlus (C)
36 Your list of Mac Plus accelerators leaves out probably the best buy
37 of the bunch, the "Brainstorm Accelerator". Sorry, I don't have
38 product details handy at the moment, but if no one else sends you
39 information on it, I'll see what I can dig up.
40
41 *******************************************************************
42 bill@chaos.cs.umn.edu
43 *******************************************************************
44 I installed a 25 MHz NOvy Quik 30 with FPU on my Mac+.
45 It works well---the inits we use are
46 Startup Manager (from Now)
47 Suitcase II
48 Quickeys 1.1
49 ATM 1.2 (note that 2.0.3--the current version--doesn't work)
50 Moire screen saver (After Dark works too)
51 Now Multimaster
52 Now Save
53 SuperBoomerang
54 Gatekeeper (anti-virus)
55 Flashit 2.1
56 Popchar 2.5
57 and probably some others.
58 (ah yes--Sumshield and Norton Util work too)
59 Programs
60 we use
61 WriteNow
62 2.2
63 Canvas 3.0
64 Versaterm 3.0.1
65 Freehand 3.1
66 Ready Set Go 4.5a
67 and some others.
68 (oh yes Excel 2.2--an important one--and Think Pascal 2.0 also work well)
69 Problems--
70 Some of the other NOw Utils (screen saver, NOw Menus, etc, don't work)
71 For Kid Pix, you have to change the accel settings (software) so that
72 the ROM routines are NOT loaded into hi ram to boost speed.
73 I tried Virtual 2.0 to use virtual memory (we have 4 MB of RAM on accel
74 and 1 MB on the motherboard as a cache) and it worked fine, except
75 that floppies would n't read. Virtual 3.0 is supposed to fix this
76 and is on the way. It also allows one to go to 16 MB (4 mB chips)
77 on the accel board.
78 When I added a Mirror quantum LPS 105 MB drive, I had to buy Silverlining
79 to get formatting to work with accel. This was easy to use--S/L did
80 a friendly takeover of the drive and I didn't lose any data.
81 If you buy an HD I'd suggest getting a La Cie--price is competitive
82 and Silverlining ($150 if bought separately from Dr Mac, which seems
83 to be the only source) is included.
84 All in all we are happy with the NOvy. Support is good.
85 You might consider their Image Pro version, which allows you to
86 add a large screen easily (still monochrome, though).
87 Good luck.
88 JHH
89 ************************************************************************
90 Subject: Mac Plus accelerator (R)
91 Hi there!
92 We decided to try the "Brainstorm Accelerator" which more than
93 doubles the speed of anything you do on a Plus, for a mere 250$
94 (the accelerator is 150US$, figure s/h, tax and one hour of tech).
95
96 We were so pleased by the first sample that we bought 18 more!
97
98 I believe this upgrade to provide the most "bang for the buck" ;-)
99
100 Sincerely,
101
102 Philippe Casgrain
103 casgrain@ere.umontreal.ca
104 I have no affiliation with Brainstorm.
105
106 Brainstorm
107 1145 Terra Bella Ave.
108 Mountain View, CA 94043
109 415 964-2131
110 415 964-2135 FAX
111 ************************************************************************
112 Subject: Accelerators for a Plus
113 You might want to look into an item called NewLife Plus which comes in a
114 variety of clock speeds and sports a 32 bit data path. It in effect converts
115 a Plus to an SE30. A friend of mine just got delivery of his and seems
116 amazed and very happy (so far!). He has encountered no incompatibilities
117 (so far!), and find that the accelerated Plus runs rings around his FPU'd
118 Classic II.
119 I intend to accelerate my son's Plus using the same board when comes home this
120 summer.
121 The friend I speak of is Professor Peter D. M. Macdonald at McMaster University
122 who may be reached at pdmmac@sscvax.cis.mcmaster.ca, and who I am sure will be
123 happy to give you a first hand account.
124 NewLife may be reached directly on applelink: cda0740@applelink.apple.com
125 My contact there is Patrick Rouble, who is quite helpful. I would recommend
126 sending all queries to his attention.
127 I hope this is of some help.
128 Cheers.
129 **************************************************************************
130 Subject: Novy MacPlus accelerrator
131 I installed the 25 MHz Novy Accelerator with the 16 mHz math co-processor
132 in my MacPlus about 9 or 10 months ago. I have been very happy with it.
133 Actually, I should say that Novy installed it for me. They do so at
134 no charge and I suggest that you take advantage of that offer. They turn
135 it around in about 4 -5 days.
136 A couple of things to keep in mind: (1) you still have the MacPlus ROM
137 so that you are limited to 4 MB of RAM on the accelerator. You can still
138 use the motherborad RAM as a RAM disk, but I don't suggest going to System 7
139 with the accelerated MacPlus. (2) You actually lose a little in disk access
140 speed because of the way the accelerator works. this is only annoying if you
141 tend to enjoy running comparison software. It doesn't seem to annoy me in
142 practice, and the overall increase in speed is WELL worth it.
143 I have had VERY good experience with NOVY's support. They have always quickly
144 upgraded the software to keep up with system changes, and never charged me for it.
145 If you have, or plan to have, a large screen monitor you should discuss that
146 with Novy at the time you order the accelerator. Some video cards don't
147 work with the Novy accelerator.
148 Have fun. I have.
149 Barry G. Hall
150 University of Rochester
151 DRBH@UORDBV
152 **************************************************************************
153 I helped a friend install a Brainpower accelerator in his Mac Plus
154 that substitutes a 16Mhz 68000 for the original 8Mhz cpu chip. The
155 installation is not suggested for the squeemish as you have to
156 remove an existing chip (cut the leads & unsolder it) to install a
157 socket for the accellerator. Another modification bumps up the SCSI
158 buss speed by up to 250%. The price he paid for the package (bought
159 at the last Boston MacWorld Expo) included a coupon for installation
160 at an area dealer. But, we couldn't wait and since we both have
161 previous hardware experience we tore right into it. Works great!
162 One of the main factors in going with the Brainpower
163 accelerator is that it is soldered into place, not just clipped
164 on and likely to come loose. Since the upgrade uses a faster 68k,
165 rather than an '020 or '030, there is no mis-match between the ROM
166 and cpu type to surprise some applications. There was a problem
167 initially with some sounds, but Brainpower send an update diskette
168 with the fix to all the owners.
169 My friend is quite happy with his "new" Mac Plus, only now he
170 craves a large screen.
171 *******************************************************************
172 Subject: Mac+ Accelerator
173 Hello,
174 I found a cheap accelerator for Mac+: 145$ (if you install it yourself).
175 >From Brainstorm. I'm very happy with it.
176 Brainstorm Products
177 1145 Terra Bella Avenue
178 Mountain View, CA 94043
179 voice: 415-964-2131
180 fax: 415-964-2135
181 AppleLink: D6800@applelink.apple.com
182 America Online: BRNSTRM16
183 --
184 Dr Jean-Pierre Szikora e-mail: szikora@licr.ucl.ac.be
185 Institut Ludwig pour la Recherche sur le Cancer tel: 32-2-764.74.76
186 74, av. Hippocrate LICR/UCL 7459 fax: 32-2-762.94.05
187 1200 Brussels - Belgium
188 ******************************************************************
189 Subject: Re: Accelerators for MacPlus
190 We faced the same problem. We wanted to upgrade 5 MacPlus computers. We
191 finally ordered one "Brainstorm" accelerator, mainly because of price.
192 Installation was not simple, but we are VERY happy with it. We are going to
193 order four more. We benchmarked the upgraded Plus at about half the speed of
194 our SE/30 computers, which is a significant improvement. We paid about $250
195 for it, but we found a place that will sell us the next four for $169 each.
196 It will cost more if you need to have a dealer install it for you.
197 Brainstorm
198 1145 Terra Bella Avenue
199 Mountain View, CA 94043
200 (415) 964-2131
201 (415) 964-2135 (fax)
202 Give Brainstorm a call and have them send you their color brochures....
203 If you have any questions, let me know.
204 Jay Rolls
205 BBN Communications
206 Stuttgart, Germany
207 From ncr-sd!blkhole!titipu!titipu.meta.com!ed@nosc.mil Tue Mar 24 20:21:50 1992
208 Received: by trout.nosc.mil (5.59/1.27)
209 id AA15551; Tue, 24 Mar 92 18:27:11 PST
210 Received: by ncr-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM; 24 Mar 92 18:16:50 PST
211 Received: by blkhole.resun.com; Tue, 24 Mar 1992 18:18 PST
212 Received: by titipu.meta.com (uA-1.9b1); Tue, 24 Mar 92 20:17:54 EST(-0500)
213 From: ed@titipu.meta.com (Edward Reid)
214 To: fjvanwet@odin.unomaha.edu
215 Subject: Re: Accelerators for MacPlus
216 Date: Tue, 24 Mar 92 20:17:54 EST(-0500)
217 Organization: Metalogic
218 Reply-To: ed@titipu.meta.com (Edward Reid)
219 Message-Id: <01010064.vafnip@titipu.meta.com>
220 X-Mailer: uAccess - Macintosh Release: 1.9b1
221 Content-Type: text
222 Content-Length: 12341
223 Status: R
224 Here's info I've collected on the Brainstorm. I don't have one, but I'm seriously
225 considering it. It sounds like a much better buy than the others.
226 Date: Mon, 16 Dec 91 20:55:10 PST
227 From: Les.Ferch@mtsg.ubc.ca
228 Subject: Plus accelerator: anyone done it?
229 In general, if you want a faster Mac, the best move is to sell your
230 old machine and buy a new one.
231
232 However, there is one accelerator for the Mac Plus that is
233 inexpensive and yields a significant performance boost. It is from
234 Brainstorm, but I'm not sure what it's called.
235
236 Last time I checked, it's price was $130 for educational users if
237 you install it yourself. They will also install it for you for a
238 total price of something like $249. Prices may have changed since
239 I talked to Brainstorm. I did not buy their product, I just made
240 inquiries in case the need arose.
241
242 The kit consists of a 16MHz 68000 which is installed by soldering a
243 socket over the existing 68000 and plugging the new 68000 over the
244 old one.
245
246 It also includes another chip that replaces a PAL on the motherboard
247 (i.e desolder the old one and solder the new one in). This PAL chip
248 allows the bus of the Mac Plus to operate at a full 16MHz.
249
250 According to Brainstrom, graphics operations are tripled in speed,
251 SCSI hard drive transfer rates are up to five times faster, and
252 computationally intensive tasks are accelerated by a minimum of
253 250%.
254
255 I have no affiliation with Brainstorm.
256 Date: Tue, 17 Dec 91 07:28:06 PST
257 From: Les.Ferch@mtsg.ubc.ca
258 Subject: Plus accelerator: anyone done it?
259 In my previous message that described the Brainstorm accelerator,
260 I forgot to include the address for the company. Here it is:
261
262 Brainstorm
263 1145 Terra Bella Ave.
264 Mountain View, CA 94043
265 415 964-2131
266 415 964-2135 FAX
267 Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
268 Path: blkhole!ncr-sd!sdd.hp.com!think.com!paperboy.osf.org!sauron!hankin
269 From: hankin@sauron.osf.org (Scott Hankin)
270 Subject: Re: Anyone heard of BRAINSTORM ACCELERATOR?
271 Message-ID: <hankin.693178803@osf>
272 Sender: news@osf.org (USENET News System)
273 Organization: Open Software Foundation
274 References: <fk6qn!+@rpi.edu> <jwoods.693162819@pixel> <1991Dec19.191516.17522@news.media.mit.edu>
275 Date: 19 Dec 91 21:40:03 GMT
276 Lines: 87
277 Status: RS
278 das@media.mit.edu (David Sheppard) writes:
279 >I'm contemplating getting a BRAINSTORM ACCELERATOR upgrade
280 >for a Mac Plus and wonder if anyone out there knows about
281 >this particular beast.
282 >Evidently it's a replacement 68HC000-16 and a couple of
283 >outboard chips supposed to let the Plus' busses run at
284 >16 MHz, increasing performance by "a minimum factor of
285 >250%", and also boosting SCSI speed, e nnabling the disk
286 >to be interleaved at 1:1.
287 >Brainstorm says that compatibility issues are nearly non-
288 >existant. Any ideas of things to test (in the showroom)
289 >or to watch out for?
290 There are supposed to be some problems with AppleTalk, but they have an
291 INIT to get around them.
292 >This is a $249 list upgrade, and seems worth it...
293 >Any knowing users out there?
294 >[Brainstorm is in Mountain View, CA, (415)964-2135]
295 >--das dave
296 I've been running one in my Mac+ since the end of October. I hesitated
297 to submit a review because there are some funny things about Brainstorm
298 which gave me pause. Here's my view.
299 You end up with, for all intents and purposes, a Mac+ which runs about
300 2.5x faster than it used to. SCSI performance is much improved as well,
301 with the company claiming up to 5x the performance for some operations.
302 Screen updates are supposed to be nearly 3x faster.
303 AppleTalk might be a problem. I don't know, since my Mac+ is a solitary
304 machine, connected only to an Imagewriter. Some sounds are a bit
305 garbled; others sound just fine. It probably depends on the format.
306 (There are surely others who know more about sound formats than I do who
307 could explain that better.)
308 I have not run a single piece of software which ran prior to upgrading
309 and doesn't run now. Other than speed, you still have a Mac+ - this
310 means that programs which make simple-minded checks still work. Adding
311 a 68030 while still running the original ROMs doesn't guarantee that.
312 And the price is right. (Mine came to $219 installed.)
313 I got mine locally from a guy who upgrades machines as his whole
314 business (as far as I can determine.) He is often out of his office
315 when you call, because he is at some commercial site installing 50 of
316 them on their Macs. He even mentioned that if someone wanted it done
317 mail-order, he could accommodate them as well. I think he said they'd
318 just have to send him their logic board. I can provide details if there
319 is any interest.
320 Brainstorm is another matter. They are a small outfit which has been
321 around for a while in the Mac world in one form or another. It is
322 nearly impossible to get information from them directly, irrespective of
323 what they promise on the phone. Dealing with my local vendor, however,
324 seems to work ok. He's told me that sometimes supply is held up because
325 they get bumped from the place that produces the chips because someone
326 bigger comes in and wants something NOW. It's one of the problems with
327 being small. I'm not sure it would be a good thing if they gained
328 worldwide acclaim for their product, because they would have trouble
329 meeting the demand. This is subject to change, of course. Maybe
330 they'll get a more reliable chip maker. Maybe the house that they use
331 now will start treating them better. Who knows?
332 The upgrade arrives without packaging or documentation. My dealer said
333 that they considered supplying a manual, but didn't have anything to
334 say. In a sense, they are right. Operating instructions for a
335 Brainstorm accelerated Mac+ are no different than for a plain one. It
336 just runs faster. I tried Speedometer on it briefly and got 2.n times
337 the speed of a Classic, where n varied depending on what was tested.
338 My subjective impressions are that my Mac runs faster, and that System 7
339 is a fine system, performance-wise. (This was not my impression prior
340 to upgrading.) Think C runs much faster, things just don't annoy me any
341 more in terms of the wait. I'm a happy camper.
342 But if something went wrong, it would be my dealer I'd talk to, not
343 Brainstorm.
344 - Scott
345 Scott Hankin (hankin@osf.org)
346 Open Software Foundation
347 11 Cambridge Center
348 Cambridge, MA 02142
349 Forward of article <9201220107.AA24924@SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU> by info-mac-request@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (The Moderators):
350 RE: Subject: Plus accelerator: anyone done it?
351 'Les.Ferch@mtsg.ubc.ca' (sorry, I didn't catch your name) proclaimed that
352 the Brainstorm accelerator is a solution to speed-up the Mac+. I tried this
353 "upgrade", but in the end, I sent back the board.
354 The Brainstorm does speed up the Plus UP TO 250%. When scrolling, the
355 lines just smoke up/down your screen. The SCSI port is supposed to be 5
356 times faster; this I could not test, because I didn't have any test
357 programs. New ROM updates (oh, oh) are sent directly from the States (I'm
358 in Holland: Europe) and the software can burn itself in, because of the
359 EEPROM on-board (I wonder if anyone tried to access the signal lines in
360 order to reprogram the thing; Watch-out for buggy programming?) Anyway, of
361 course, there had to be a snag (or two).
362 - The Brainstorm must use an init to initialize the accelerator and the
363 keyboard (if you leave it out, the keyboard simply won't work). So, if you
364 are using an old system (like 4.x.x) or have a bootable disk that is
365 absolutely full, you can not place the init, and thus the keyboard doesn't
366 work.
367 - The Brainstorm messes up your sound output. I programmed a small APPL
368 using the sound manager, and my sounds also sounds in many other commercial
369 applications are produced in a scratchy manner. Surprisingly some games and
370 SoundEdit(TM) produce natural sound. I guess it probably has to do with
371 using the sound driver routines directly, instead of accessing the Sound
372 Manager (I didn't try this).
373 - My Brainstorm accelerator even crashed persistently when the computer was
374 at 'full operating temperature'. When I tried to resize a window :-( Crash!
375 or Application has unexpectedly quit. Sorry. (You can imagine how sorry I
376 was after I had typed in a report for 30 minutes and tried to access my
377 hard disk in the finder.) This fault was probably due to bad connections of
378 the ROM chips. Brainstorm puts capacitors under the ROMs (for whatever
379 reason) and because Apple tried to spare some change when fitting the Mac+,
380 the connectors are worn-out quickly which causes the bad connection.
381 - A certain HyperCard stack with sounds from the group 'Propaganda' crash
382 the Brainstorm, when you click other tunes before the first is finished. On
383 my old Plus they worked just fine.
384 Luckily I got a refund for my board. I have learned to live with my slooow
385 Mac (of course this means not using System 7.x). My advice is: don't buy
386 it. Of course there could be updates for this product that work, so don't
387 flame me all at once.
388 If anyone has had positive experience with Accelerators for the Plus or the
389 Classic, I would be very interested to hear from you. For example has
390 anyone tried out the NewLife accelerator for the Classic, which is
391 proclaimed to be twice as fast as the Classic II (and thus 6 times as fast
392 as the Classic).
393 Anyway, have a nice day !-) (smiley with a pencil in its eye, because it
394 fell asleep, or a criminal type of guy with one heavy eyebrow)
395 Andre' (pronounced Andray)
396 Email address: 'andreh@et.tudelft.nl'
397 #include <StDisclaimer.h> /* if you don't like it, don't. */
398 CUL8R(); /* Smile, you're on candid camera! */
399 Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1992 23:38:53 +0100
400 >From: holst@diku.dk (Bo Holst-Christensen)
401 Subject: Brainstorm accelerator
402 I have a Plus with a Brainstorm running as a combined workstation and
403 server (FileShare,TimeLord,PortShare) with only minor problems. I had a few
404 problems getting it to work when it was installed, but after an upgrade of
405 the soft- and firmware most things have been fixed.
406 When I received the Brainstorm, it contained version 1 software, version 2
407 hardware, and version 1 firmware (EEPROM). This configuration gave me
408 problems. I have since received version 2 of the hard- and firmware.
409 In info-mac digest V10 #17 Andre' <andre@dutera.et.tudelft.nl> said:
410 >- The Brainstorm must use an init to initialize the accelerator and the
411 >keyboard (if you leave it out, the keyboard simply won't work).
412 There is a problem with Apple's Easy Access, that results in the keyboard
413 not functioning with the Brainstorm. This problem can be resolved by using
414 the supplied init/cdev, or removing Easy Access.
415 >- The Brainstorm messes up your sound output.
416 Many accelerators have this problem. The ROM routines are made for an
417 unaccelerated Plus, and give scratchy results with an accelerator. The
418 Brainstorm comes with an init, that tries to resolve this problem. When
419 using the init, you loose 7% of the accellerators speed. As I seldom have
420 use for sound, and the system beeps are ok even without the init, I don't
421 use it.
422 The problems I had was :
423 - If the AppleTalk driver isn't patched, the speed on a LocalTalk net will
424 be approximately 4800 baud. As part of the upgrade to version 2 software, I
425 received a patched AppleTalk version 56 for system 6 and 7. This solved all
426 problems, until I needed to run AppleTalk version 57 (for remote
427 AppleTalk). I'm still waiting for it :-(.
428 - The SCSI port is much quicker, so drivers and/or harddisks can give
429 problems. The Rodime I had on the Plus, had big problems when trying to
430 restart the machine, and when trying to use the original driver with the
431 Brainstorm, the disk wouldn't boot at all. I finally swapped the harddisk,
432 and things began to work. The new firmware should have solved some of these
433 problems, but I haven't
434 checked.
435 With the new firm- and software I find the Brainstorm to be a cheap and
436 stable solution, with only a few minor problems. The resulting machine is
437 rated by speedometer as twice as quick as a Classic.
438
439 Bo Holst-Christensen
440 holst@diku.dk
441 dikubhc1@uts.uni-c.dk
442 Edward Reid (8-}>
443 eel: ed@titipu.meta.com or nosc.mil!titipu.meta.com!ed
444 snail: PO Box 378/Greensboro FL 32330