NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/comp/sys/amiga/hardware/15185

Text File | 1992-09-11 | 1.9 KB | 37 lines

Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Path: sparky!uunet!nevada.edu!jimi!big-joe.cs.unlv.edu!maniac
From: [e-mail] (Eric J. Schwertfeger)
Subject: Re: A500 CPU Swap?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (News User)
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Eric J. Schwertfeger)
Organization: UNLV Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
References:  <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 18:26:33 GMT
Lines: 24

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Peter Wastholm) writes:
)   Some time ago, somebody told me it was possible to simply replace the 68000
) CPU in an A500 (1.3) with a 68010. This would make the computer 20 - 30 %
) faster. This sounds to me like a cheap way of getting a little more processing
) power in the machine. Does anybody know if this works? And if so: Have you
) tried it? Is the performance-improvement figure correct?
)
)   :-)  Peter Wastholm  ([e-mail])

I replaced my 68000 with a 68010 back when I had a non-DMA hard disk, and the
drive's DPerf ratings increased 50%!  Doesn't matter with a DMA HD, though. a few
other things improve in the 20%-30% range, with most programs showing a 5%-10%
increase in speed.  As for software compatibility, I haven't had a problem, but
I stay away from the most likely offenders (games and demos that throw out the
OS).  Anything that won't run on a 68010 either requires a 68020 or higher, which
you don't have anyway, or would break on a 68020 or higher.  The differences in
instruction modes are few.  One instruction got moved from a user instruction to
a Supervisor mode instruction (I agree that it should be there), the rest of the
differences involve interrupt stack layouts and stuff like that, which you shouldn't
have to worry about unless you're doing OS type functions (throwing out the OS,
or wedging into it like Xoper does).

--
Eric J. Schwertfeger, [e-mail]