ddavis@APG-EMH5.APG.ARMY.MIL (Dave Davis, HSHB-MLOP) (06/29/89)
Has anyone had experience with this product? In particular, I'm interested in the math-coprocessing capabilites advertised. The board apparently has a slot available for a 68881 math co-processor. What software is out that will use this capability? Are routines available for Sozobon or GNU C to access the 68881? Please E-mail responses and I'll post a summary if the interest is high enough. Dave Davis (ddavis@apg-emh5.apg.army.mil)
uace0@uhnix2.uh.edu (Michael B. Vederman) (07/05/89)
I have ordered tyhe board from them. It sounded good to me, and frankly with
as much time as I spend going from edit to compile/assemble to debug, etc., any
improvement on the speed will be greatly appreciated. The topper on the whole
deal was the blitter socket. Whenever Atari makes them available, I'll be
ready...
So, here are the details I got from them:
Current first rev boards should be back this week, and should be shipped as
soon as they get them in. They said they would call if there was trouble.
The first board is for older style 520 ST (not STFM) due to the motherboard.
(No problem for me, I have a REV A board!)
520 STFM, 1040 ST, and MEGA ST versions of the board (all the same) should be
available in the first week of August.
*FAST* ROMs are needed to allow the upgrade to work properly. *FAST* ROMs
(with TOS on them) are not available at this point! If you have a 6 chip
set (most MEGAs have 2 sockets) you can hack the ROM sockets somehow to make
them *FAST* ROMs. (I don't know how, they said instructions are included).
You also need to remove your 68000 chip to install the upgrade. (I have a
soldering iron... :-)
The speed is switchable. (I guess the switch will come out somewhere...)
The price quoted for COD delivery is $299.95
This seemed very fair.
Considering all things which have occurred concerning accelerator boards:
1) I heard the JRI upgrade was not significant
2) MegaByte here in Houston (Strange Systems) are not likely to come out with
their board (although all problems have supposedly been overcome).
3) No one has one yet...
I considered this to be the closest thing to a real product. The company
(so they have stated) has made upgrades for the IBM-PC, so I would assume they
can deliver.
I will let everyone know what I find out.
- mike
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University Atari Computer Enthusiasts : University of Houston UACElharris@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Leonard Harris) (07/05/89)
Sorry, Datafree Industries has a 16 MHz accelerator available NOW that has been shown at a few shows. It fits in ALL ST's - is the exact same size as a 68000 processor and uses a custom chip to interface to the mmu and glue chips. Speed increase is on average 35% and is switchable. Best of all it will work with ALL programs - even self modifing code. (try that you little cache!). Cost is $100.00 Datafree also makes an extremely high quality 2.5/4 meg board for the ST. /leonard
ritchie@hpldola.HP.COM (Dave Ritchie) (07/06/89)
>Sorry, Datafree Industries has a 16 MHz accelerator available NOW that >has been shown at a few shows. It fits in ALL ST's - is the exact same >size as a 68000 processor and uses a custom chip to interface to >the mmu and glue chips. Speed increase is on average 35% and is >switchable. Best of all it will work with ALL programs - even self modifing >code. (try that you little cache!). Cost is $100.00 >Datafree also makes an extremely high quality 2.5/4 meg board for the ST. >/leonard Address of Datafree Industries, please? Dave
NETOPRHM@NCSUVM.BITNET (Hal Meeks) (07/07/89)
The CMI Board has been available for the Amiga for about a year now. Reviews on it have been mixed. I don't know anything about the atari version, but the Amiga version has a socket for the math coprocessor. Unfortunately, they are handling it in a non-standard way, so no commercial software I can think of supports it. However, the potential speedup for math intensive routines is somewhere in the neighborhood of 20%. Hopefully the atari version has the support, and can be used easily. Otherwise, expect the speedup to be less than overwhelming; 15% tops. Of course, all of this is based on my knowledge of the Amiga version. Reader beware. --hal
bammi@dsrgsun.ces.cwru.edu (Jwahar R. Bammi) (07/07/89)
In article <1989Jul5.162027.18311@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>, lharris@gpu (Leonard Harris) writes: >Sorry, Datafree Industries has a 16 MHz accelerator available NOW that >has been shown at a few shows. It fits in ALL ST's - is the exact same >size as a 68000 processor and uses a custom chip to interface to >the mmu and glue chips. Speed increase is on average 35% and is >switchable. Best of all it will work with ALL programs - even self modifing please could you run qindex and post the numbers. i have a jri accl. and its pretty much useless, except for a very few programs. i suspect that most accl. without a cache are about the same. cmi has some value added in its fast-rom, 68881/82 and blitter sockets features.. bang: {any internet host}!dsrgsun.ces.CWRU.edu!bammi jwahar r. bammi domain: bammi@dsrgsun.ces.CWRU.edu GEnie: J.Bammi
stevef@well.UUCP (Steven Robert Fordyce) (07/10/89)
I work for Creative Microsystems, Inc. and am one of the designers of our accelerator for the Atari ST. There has been some confusion about our product and our company which I would like to clear up. The first ST accelerator we are shipping is for the older style 520's and the Mega (the same board works for both). These boards will start shipping early next week. The version for the 520 STFM and 1040 will be out later. It is not necessary to remove the 68000 to install our board (you can if you want, but it is easier not to). We provide a socket that you solder on top of the 68000. Our board plugs into that. Three pins on the 68000 have to be cut where they go into motherboard, and there are four wires that have to be soldered to the motherboard and connected to our board (we provide the wire harness with a connector on it). That's all there is to it. If you are uncomfortable doing the installation you can have your dealer do it. Fast ROM is a feature our board offers that speeds operation up quite a lot, but it is not necessary for our board to work. All versions of the ST are designed to run at 8 MHz. Our board (and the others) run the CPU at 16 MHz. The rest of the computer can't run that fast, so circuitry on our board slows down communication between the CPU and the motherboard so that the motherboard can't tell our board from the stock 8 MHz CPU. This is why an ST with our board (or either of the other two accelerators for the ST) doesn't run twice as fast as the standard ST. Using Fast ROM allows our board to access the ROM's at twice the normal speed. The TOS operating system is in ROM, and most Atari software makes a lot of ROM calls, so Fast ROM offers a substantial improvement over standard 16 MHz operation. You can modify your ST to use Fast ROM either of two ways: You can get a two ROM set from us (Atari's two ROM set isn't fast enough), plug them into our board, and remove the ROM's in the motherboard (they are in sockets); or if you have an ST with the six ROM set, you can lift two pins and wire them up as instructed in our manual (one pin is grounded, three wires run to our board). You can then use Fast ROM. Our board doesn't have a cache, and is compatible with all software. Our board also comes with a socket for a blitter (which you can get from your Atari dealer and we are talking to Atari about allowing us to sell them directly), and a socket for a 68881 math co-processor. I will be posting speed comparisons between our board, the stock ST, and the other accelerators soon. CMI has been in business for more than three years and has been selling accelerators for the Amiga for a year. We have a line of products for the Amiga (but none for the PC), and this is our first product for the ST (but not the last). If you have any questions post them to this group, or send me email. Or you can call customer support at CMI, (503)691-2552 and ask for Lilliane Carter. Steven R Fordyce angora \ uwvax \ tessi ---- !sequent!calvin!stevef uunet / Tektronix /