cjs@sppy00.UUCP (SCHALLER CHRIS) (04/12/91)
Greetings. A few weeks ago I purchased the ADspeed 14mhz cpu accellerator for my A500. First off, I must say that Im glad I did. Almost al of my software show a noticable increase in speed. Games like Falcon, Indy, Their finest hour are now an absolute joy to play. Now the problem. My Amiga guru's most of the time when I attempt to use Turbo Sliver or Sculpt-3D, to render Images. Now granted I didnt expect much of an increase in speed with these programs, but I did expect the system to stay up. When it does work I am able to render at at least twice the speed of 7mhz mode. My setup consists of the A500 with 3meg ram (a501, and 2meg minimeg). External disk drive, and a modem. Could it be that Im not pushing enough power through the system. The reason I say this is because, when I user the Gravis mouse stik with falcon, the Gravis processor will not let me into the editor to select another setup and the LED readout is very dim. this only happened when I introduced the Adspeed to my system. I am saving up for when I can afford an 030 board with a 68882 co-pro, but for now ADspeed is gonna have to do, and Id like to be able to play with my 3D programs. Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks Chris Schaller
IO92257@MAINE.BITNET (04/12/91)
You say it might be the power supply which is causing your machine to flake out when using the ADSpeed. This could be. I have know many A500 problems (such as hard disks not booting) that were related to the whimpy power supply. Maybe the CPU-intensive Sculpt stuff just pumps to much juice for the ol' 30-watt thing to handle! Get a Bigfoot ! :) (What is that, 180 watts?---Plenty, in any case!) I know someone who hooked up a gigantic IBM 200 watt supply, and have never had any spin-up problems with his HD since! Of course, he knew something about electronics... I am really intrested in that AdSpeed, especially if it is compatible with everything. Can you easily shut it off to play games that don't support faster processors? Does Falcon's frame rate speed up, or does it just play like it's on amphetimines? :) -Brent
amouse@phoenix.pub.uu.oz.au (Rik Wheatley) (04/17/91)
has anyone noticed any problems yet with the adspeed? what sort of speed increase occurs in normal amiga operations?? I'm running an a500 with a gvp series I hd (with 2 meg fastram) and and an a501 and an external drive. sorry if this has already been discussed, but i've been on holiday for a month. -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ \ Anony Mouse | You can't have everything: where would you put it? / / amouse@phoenix.pub.uu.oz.au | one-line starfield: . .. . . .. . . .. \ +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
cjs@sppy00.UUCP (SCHALLER CHRIS) (04/19/91)
In article <1991Apr17.082135.18158@phoenix.pub.uu.oz.au>, amouse@phoenix.pub.uu.oz.au (Rik Wheatley) writes: > > has anyone noticed any problems yet with the adspeed? > > what sort of speed increase occurs in normal amiga operations?? > > I'm running an a500 with a gvp series I hd (with 2 meg fastram) and > and an a501 and an external drive. I am using the Adspeed 14mhz cpu accellerator for my A500. I can tell you I am glad I did. Some of the games that I wouldnt play because they seemed to slow and klunky are an absolute joy now. Most software is compatable at 14mhz, but there are a few exceptions. Take heart however because you can install a simple hardware switch to switch between 14mhz and true 7mhz 68000 mode, where all software is compatible. You ask about Sculpt/Turbo. There is where I have a problem. When I attempt to load an object from disk to the object editor in either sculpt or TS at 14mhz, my system guru's. When I go to render an object I create in the editor , sometimes my system gurus, sometimes not. Its really wierd. When sculpt and TS do work, there is a noticable increase in speed. at least twice as fast. Dont let me scare you from picking up this board because I believe I may be overloading my power supply, which could be why I experience intermitent guru's. My setup is the A500 w/ a501 512k exp, 2meg fastram minimeg, external disk drive, 2400bd modem, and the ADspeed. The reason I say power may be the problem is because when I attach my Gravis mouse stick to the system, its resident cpu LED light is very dim, and I cant get into the gravis editor to change joystick modes. So after I replace my power supply, maybe I'll have some better words for you. Thanks Chris
cjs@sppy00.UUCP (SCHALLER CHRIS) (04/20/91)
In article <91102.110643IO92257@MAINE.BITNET>, IO92257@MAINE.BITNET writes: > > You say it might be the power supply which is causing your machine > to flake out when using the ADSpeed. This could be. I have know > many A500 problems (such as hard disks not booting) that were related > to the whimpy power supply. Maybe the CPU-intensive Sculpt stuff > just pumps to much juice for the ol' 30-watt thing to handle! Get > a Bigfoot ! :) (What is that, 180 watts?---Plenty, in any case!) > I know someone who hooked up a gigantic IBM 200 watt supply, and > have never had any spin-up problems with his HD since! Of course, > he knew something about electronics... > I am really intrested in that AdSpeed, especially if it is > compatible with everything. Can you easily shut it off to play > games that don't support faster processors? Does Falcon's frame > rate speed up, or does it just play like it's on amphetimines? :) > -Brent Yes, Adspeed is compatible with all amiga software. the games or other programs that dont work in 14 mhz mode, dont really nees 14mhz mode, and run just fine in adspeeds 7 mhz mode. for example: my buddy brought over the killing game show, and my machine would not boot it under 14 mhz, one quick flip of the hardware switch I installed myself to get back to 7mhz and poof! no problem. If you are concerned about installing a hardware switch to the adspeed, dont be. I had never seen the guts of my 500 before, and I was able to install the CPU and the switch in a little over half hour. Its quite simple. As for Falcon! Awsome! I think it was actually supposed to be used with accellerated systems. The frame rate is easly doubled, and its not that the plane flies faster, its just the frame rate that increases. This is my favorite flight simulator. It is really fun to use the Gravis mouse stick with it also. I would highly recommend this board, even with the power problems I am encountering. That will be rectified soon.......... Have fun Chris Schaller.
markv@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (04/21/91)
> Yes, Adspeed is compatible with all amiga software. the games or other > programs that dont work in 14 mhz mode, dont really nees 14mhz mode, and run > just fine in adspeeds 7 mhz mode. I got my AdSpeed this weekend...Its pretty compatible, however, if you are a delveloper with 2.0, ZKick croak with a yellow screen (Custom chips?), on the reboot if in fast mode, however it works just fine in slow mode. > for example: my buddy brought over the killing game show, and my machine > would not boot it under 14 mhz, one quick flip of the hardware switch I > installed myself to get back to 7mhz and poof! no problem. > If you are concerned about installing a hardware switch to the adspeed, > dont be... Or, if you are real nervous, and dont use much that you want to custom boot in fast mode, you can set AdSpeed into slow mode by default, and then use the AdSpeed program in your Startup-sequence to turn it on with your normal disks. Note the current release notes mention problems with the new FastROM II GVP controllers that have RAM and SCSI on the same board (they do DMA onto the board without informing the bus) that is fixed with a patch from GVP, and a problem with Xetec controllers that Xetec is working on. I have a simple C benchmark program that shows a comfortable 90%+ speed-up in most areas. > Have fun > > Chris Schaller. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mark Gooderum Only... \ Good Cheer !!! Academic Computing Services /// \___________________________ University of Kansas /// /| __ _ Bix: mgooderum \\\ /// /__| |\/| | | _ /_\ makes it Bitnet: MARKV@UKANVAX \/\/ / | | | | |__| / \ possible... Internet: markv@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
rbabel@babylon.rmt.sub.org (Ralph Babel) (04/21/91)
In article <1991Apr21.123548.29871@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>, markv@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes: > Note the current release notes mention problems with the > new FastROM II GVP controllers that have RAM and SCSI on > the same board (they do DMA onto the board without > informing the bus) that is fixed with a patch from GVP, It's not related to the on-board RAM, rather the AdSpeed cache being stale after a DMA read operation and 1.3 not providing a ClearCache() function entry for the AdSpeed to patch into. The GVP fix simply tells the Series-II DMA driver to clear the AdSpeed cache after a read. Ralph
colas@lemur.inria.fr (Colas Nahaboo) (04/22/91)
ADspeed seems interesting! Do you know if I can use it in a 500 with already a spirit-in-500 memory board? Since the 68000 is piggybacked on the spirit, there might be a room problem under the amiga shield... -- Colas Nahaboo, colas@sa.inria.fr, Bull Research, Koala Project, GWM X11 WM Phone:(33) 93.65.77.70(.66 Fax), INRIA, B.P.109 - 06561 Valbonne Cedex, FRANCE.
cjs@sppy00.UUCP (SCHALLER CHRIS) (04/22/91)
In article <10976@mirsa.inria.fr>, colas@lemur.inria.fr (Colas Nahaboo) writes: > ADspeed seems interesting! > Do you know if I can use it in a 500 with already a spirit-in-500 memory board? > Since the 68000 is piggybacked on the spirit, there might be a room problem > under the amiga shield... > > -- When I installed Adspeed into my A500, I had to slightly bend the cover shield to allow a little room between the chip and the shield. I dont know how tall the spirit board is, but I do know that there isnt much room left once you install the Adspeed. The Adspeed is about a 1/4 inch taller than stock 68000.