Fresh Fish 8/FreshFishVol8-CD1.bin/useful/reviews/hardware/accelerators/a500-040

Internet Message Format | 1993-05-07 | 18KB

Path: menudo.uh.edu!usenet
From: [e-mail] (Kerry Emerson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: Progressive Peripherals 040/500 accelerator
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Date: 28 Mar 1993 17:06:22 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
Lines: 469
Sender: [e-mail] (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator)
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <1p4lue$[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Kerry Emerson)
NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu
Keywords: hardware, A500, accelerator, 68040, commercial


PRODUCT NAME

    Progressive Peripherals A500/040 accelerator


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

    The PPI A500/040 is an accelerator especially designed for the Amiga
500.  It comes standard with WB2.04 ROM, 68040 from Motorola, and either 4MB
or 8MB of 32-bit Fast RAM.


COMPANY INFORMATION

    Name:        Progressive Peripherals Incorporated
    Address:    464 Kalamath St
            Denver, CO  80204
            USA

    Telephone:    [phone]
    Fax:        [phone]


LIST PRICE

    I paid $1079 (US) in mid-October 1992.  This was the cheapest price
I had seen for it anywhere.  (Mail me if you want to know the company name.)
Since this time, the price has apparently dropped by about $200.

    I also paid $108 for "overnight" shipping.  Unfortunately, due to
the fire at PPI, the board didn't actually arrive until December!  I was
very annoyed.  Now that PPI is back on its feet, I expect they'll be able
to send them overnight now for real.


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

    HARDWARE

        An Amiga 500.  Depending on the model of your 500, the
        Technician (yourself) that installs the board will need to
        remove the RF shield, since the 040 is too big to fit under
        it.  This is the only modification to the computer you need
        to make.  Its a simple operation of removing approximately 4
        screws, and it does nothing to harm the computer in any way.

    SOFTWARE

        Version 2 of Kickstart and Workbench.  A Kickstart ROM is
        supplied with the board, but the Workbench distribution is
        NOT!  You will need to purchase a 2.04 or 2.1 Workbench
        distribution separately.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

    Before installation of the A500/040:

    Amiga 500, Kickstart/Workbench 1.3
    1 MB Chip RAM.
    GVP A500-HD+ SeriesII 105MB hard drive with 2MB 16-bit Fast RAM.
    DCTV
    2 extra floppy drives.

    After the installation, the machine is running version 2.0 of
the operating system and has 4 MB of 32-bit Fast RAM.


DOCUMENTATION

    Due to the unfortunately fire which left PPI up the creek for
several months, the manual which I received with the 040 was a photocopied
one.  This had with it a note saying that due to their current position [blah
blah blah blah], they could not send me the proper manual, but that if I
wanted one, I could get one when I sent in my Warranty form.  Thats fair
enough I suppose.  The photocopied manual was bound and did its job very
well, so I have no complaints there.

    The documentation/manual I received goes into a lot of detail to
explain what the 040 is all about and how to install both the hardware and
the software.  It also refers to programs which are 100% compatible with the
040 and how to use the operating system version 2.0x.  It has technical
support notes and various other Trouble shooting notes.  It's very easy to
read with "nice" pictorials and was well laid out, highlighting important
points, etc.

    One problem with the documentation I found is that it doesn't help
the user move from a 1.3 system to a 2.0 system.  When I first tried using
the accelerator, I had the 2.0 Kickstart ROM installed but no 2.0
Workbench.  As a result, my startup-sequence for my 1.3 system had nothing
like IPrefs or ConClip or ANY of the 2.0x commands.  This posed a problem as
my computer kept crashing EVERY time I put the computer into WB2.0 and
booted up.  Not having used 2.0 before, I had NO idea what was happening,
and the manual said NOTHING!  (I live in this little place called New
Zealand, so calling the Technical Support line would have cost me the
earth!)  But once I got and installed the WB2.0 software, everything worked
fine.

    Note: If you have already got WB2.0, then there will be no problem;
but for those who are upgrading from WB1.2 or WB1.3, be warned:  WB2.0 is
very different!!



THE HARDWARE

    The 040/500 is a pretty small and sophisticated piece of hardware.
It consists of a small PCB [printed circuit board] which has simply attaches
directly onto where the old 68000 was.  On its surface is has the main 68040
(the "Beast Master" :-)) which has no heat sink, but has a FAN on top of it
to keep it cool (gives your Amiga 500 some air-conditioning).  This fan is
quiet, almost silent.  There are 2 banks of 4MB ZIPs which are both full if
you buy the 8MB version, or only one is full if you have the 4MB version.
The WB2.0 Kickstart ROM is also on here, along with CMOS technology supply
regulators and detached CPU custom chips (FPU etc) for minimum power
consumption and greater performance.  All chips are surface-mount technology
except the 68000 socket, in which the old 68000 chip sits (on the board) for
fallback mode.

    The Motorola 68040 usually has a limit of 25 MHz data speed; but due
to the 040/500's custom implemented unique FAN-COOLED CPU, the 040 can be
safely driven at a roaring 28 MHz WITHOUT data corruption!

        [MODERATOR'S NOTE:  This is a controversial topic.  Some
        people believe that "overclocking" a 68040 CPU -- running it
        faster than its intended speed -- is risky, whereas other
        people believe it can be done safely.  So the above claim
        should be treated as opinion.  - Dan]

     The entire accelerator is approximately 20cm x 10cm in size and fits
*VERY* snugly inside the A500.  It is not permanently stuck there though, so
you can easily remove the card when you want to show it off at a User Group,
and simply plug it into someone else's A500.  (READ THE WARRANTY WARNING,
BELOW.)


THE SOFTWARE

    The software which you get with the 040/500 is good and very useful.
You receive a program to switch the CPU between 68040 and 68000 mode, and
between Native ROM and On Board ROM.  These mean you can have any combination
of CPU and operating system, except 68040 booting from WB1.3!  This is due to
speed and caching modes which don't exist on (aren't supported by) WB1.3.
These changes take effect after rebooting, and you are prompted to reboot the
machine after you've selected a different configuration.  I assume that this
configuration gets written to the hard drive or somewhere, because even
after a week, it still remembers which mode you last booted in.

    There are various other CPU and memory speed testing programs that
tell you how fast your system now is.

    There is one other program which is used to initialize the 68040.
This means when the board is in 68040 mode, it is in fact running a 14 MHz
68000 until you initialize it which switches it into 68040 at 28 MHz.  This
seems weird, but all you do is run the program "Init040" in your
startup-sequence, near the beginning.  No hassles.

     The Data Cache, Instruction Cache and CopyBack Data Cache can be turned
on/off independently also.

     The software seems to be stable, and hasn't crashed on me yet.



LIKES AND DISLIKES

    This accelerator is FAST!  I have used SysInfo(TM) by Nic Wilson
(great plug there :) ) and it said...

SysInfo V3.11 by Nic Wilson
---------------------------
CopyBack Mode.................................. ON
Instruction Cache.............................. ON
Instruction Burst.............................. ON
Data Cache..................................... ON
Data Burst..................................... ON
Central Processing Unit Type................... 68040
CPU speed in MHZ............................... 25 MHz
Memory Management Unit Type.................... 68040 (Disabled)
Floating Point Unit Type....................... 68040+68882
Vector Base Register (VBR) Address............. $08000020
Ramsey Chip Revision (A3000)................... N/A
Gary Chip Revision (A3000)..................... N/A
DMA/Gfx Chip................................... ECS AGNUS - 1Meg
Display Mode....................