[comp.sys.amiga.hardware] GVP 040 board

gilgalad@dip.eecs.umich.edu (Ralph Seguin) (06/28/90)

First off, sorry about the repost, I forgot to crosspost.
Does anybody know if GVP is working on an 040 board for the 2000?
If so, I will be selling off my 2630.

What things will they have?

-space for a large cache external to the 040 (in addition to internal caches)
-support for SIMM modules for 32 bit memory expansion
	-hopefully, support for higher density packages (ie, 4 meg and 16
	 meg SIMMs)
-a cheaper memory subsystem.  The current memory prices for the 030 boards
is ridiculous.  How about just plain old memory, or the option of plugging
in whatever type of memory you want.  My 2630 has excellent performance
(its memory performance is not much slower than the GVP at 25 MHz), and
it costs MUCH, MUCH less.
-booting off of 68000
-UNIX

			Thanks, Ralph

 
gilgalad@dip.eecs.umich.edu       gilgalad@zip.eecs.umich.edu
gilgalad@caen.engin.umich.edu     Ralph_Seguin@ub.cc.umich.edu
gilgalad@sparky.eecs.umich.edu    USER6TUN@UMICHUB.BITNET

Ralph Seguin               |  In order to get infinitely many monkeys to type
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Ann Arbor, MI 48103        | have infinitely many monkey editors as well.
(313) 662-1506

krooglik@moroka4.ecr.mu.oz (Alex KROOGLIK) (07/02/90)

In article <2836@zipeecs.umich.edu>, gilgalad@dip.eecs.umich.edu (Ralph Seguin) writes:
> Does anybody know if GVP is working on an 040 board for the 2000?

  Even here in Australia we are told GVP is working on a 68040 board.
  Truth is, the only people that know for sure are Great Valley Products.

> What things will they have?

  If you are familiar with 68040 architecture, it is a turbo charged 68030.
  The 68040 runs somewhat faster than the 68030, it has much larger
  data and instruction caches, both running in at around 4K, and it also
  has a fair few of the 68881 maths co-processor instructions to reduce
  the familiary 'cpXXX' instructions.

  As for external caches, that remains to be seen. They could be emulated
  in software, but not even the fastest RAM chips could approach the speed
  of the internal cache.

> -a cheaper memory subsystem.  The current memory prices for the 030 boards

  Unfortunately, one of the reasons the 68030/040 run so fast is because they
  have extremely fast memory interaction. If you wanted 'plain old memory'
  chips, then I am afraid that would kind of defeat the purpose of a 68040.

> -booting off of 68000

  Most developers today, even ones here in Oz, have vanilla 68000 boot.
  I know, as you probably do also, that holding down both mouse buttons on
  the 2630 board enables you to choose your boot processor. It can also be
  done on a GVP board, but I can't remember how.

> -UNIX

  As far as I know, C= is currently arranging licensing agreements with
  two large UNIX distributors and developers. I am lead to believe they
  are Sun Corp and BSD (Berkeley). However, UNIX on the Amiga will be
  * EXPENSIVE * and will require a minimum of 2 megs of RAM, and 
  preferably 4 to even start resembling something on a Sun or the like.



I hope my humble Australian information has been of help to you.



    krooglik@moroka4.ecr.mu.oz.OZ.AU
             [128.250.64.1]

markv@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (07/05/90)

>> Does anybody know if GVP is working on an 040 board for the 2000?
>   Even here in Australia we are told GVP is working on a 68040 board.
>   Truth is, the only people that know for sure are Great Valley Products.

I'd like to see a 040 board for the 3000s CPU slot (it has some of the
fancy signals the available that the 040 uses for cache control).
 
>> What things will they have?
>   If you are familiar with 68040 architecture, it is a turbo charged 68030.
>   The 68040 runs somewhat faster than the 68030, it has much larger

That is like saying a Formula I racer runs somewhat faster than a VW
bug. At 25MHz the 68040 does 20 MIPs (which puts it in the ballpark
with a Sparc processor, but obviously the 040s CISC MIPs do a whole
lot more than the Sparc's RISC MIPs).  The 030 I belive does 7-8 MIPs
at 25 MHz, which puts the 040 being about 3 times faster.

>   data and instruction caches, both running in at around 4K, and it also

The data and instruction sections of the chip have completely seperate
pipelines, MMUs, etc (the FPU has some of its own stuff too), giving
rather incredible performance.  Effective throughput of the 040 is
supposed to be around 1.2 cycles per instruction.

>   has a fair few of the 68881 maths co-processor instructions to reduce
>   the familiary 'cpXXX' instructions.

Actually it has all the arithmatic operations and does them 5 times
faster than a 882 (3.5 MFLOPs at 25MHz -vs- .5 MFLOPs for an '882).
Given that the 882 is about twice as fast as an '881, the 040 is a
screamer.  Even though the transcendentals have to be done in
software, given the 040s much faster arithmatic Motorola claims that
the 040 should still be faster than an 882 on even the
transcendentals.  Of course the OS (are you listening Commodore ?)
needs to support the traps.
 
>   As for external caches, that remains to be seen. They could be emulated
>   in software, but not even the fastest RAM chips could approach the speed
>   of the internal cache.

No, but a large cache properly implemented could be tons faster than
normal memory at about 95% of the performance at much less memory
(which is why they are so popular, a 64K cache of 0 ws memory with a
multimeg system is a lot cheaper than making all multi megs of RAM 0
ws).

>> -UNIX
> 
>   As far as I know, C= is currently arranging licensing agreements with
>   two large UNIX distributors and developers. I am lead to believe they
>   are Sun Corp and BSD (Berkeley). However, UNIX on the Amiga will be
>   * EXPENSIVE * and will require a minimum of 2 megs of RAM, and 
>   preferably 4 to even start resembling something on a Sun or the like.

Commodores Unix will be System V, Rel 4 with OpenLook which means it
is liscensed from AT&T and Sun.
 
>     krooglik@moroka4.ecr.mu.oz.OZ.AU
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vik@lynx.uucp (Vikram Sohal) (07/06/90)

How about the Amiga 500?, does GVP have any kind of '030 or '040 board
for the 500?


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Vic Sohal
Lynx Real-Time Systems
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