Cache Slot G3 Upgrade - weird reboot?

[ObeyDaleks]

Hey all. I recently acquired an Interware Booster "6454" (G3 400Mhz/1MB) for my new PM5500. It works great and provides about 4 times the performance over the original 250Mhz 603e. The weird thing is, when you first boot the machine, it gets to the part when it starts loading extensions, but then it reboots, and then it boots up fine the second time. I know I have the right drivers because the card came boxed with at the original driver floppy.

Is this reboot normal? I've not seen this before on any other machines, but then again, this is my first "cache slot accelerator", as well as my first Interware accelerator. I wonder if it's some sort of a hack to bypass the CPU? Or maybe it's an Interware-specific feature?

 

[Phipli]

Hey all. I recently acquired an Interware Booster "6454" (G3 400Mhz/1MB) for my new PM5500. It works great and provides about 4 times the performance over the original 250Mhz 603e. The weird thing is, when you first boot the machine, it gets to the part when it starts loading extensions, but then it reboots, and then it boots up fine the second time. I know I have the right drivers because the card came boxed with at the original driver floppy.

Is this reboot normal? I've not seen this before on any other machines, but then again, this is my first "cache slot accelerator", as well as my first Interware accelerator. I wonder if it's some sort of a hack to bypass the CPU? Or maybe it's an Interware-specific feature?

My Cache Sonnet doesn't do it, but other cards do. The 7200 card sort of does in some OS versions, and the Radius Rocket... And some other stuff.

I'd say if it works, it is perhaps meant to.

Only thing is, do you have a battery in the computer? Perhaps the extension has to keep putting an openfirmware patch in if you don't have a battery?

 

[Powerbase]

From what I'm reading, only the Sonnet L2 upgrades didn't require a second boot to work.

 

[ObeyDaleks]

Thanks for the replies. Yes, it does have a working battery and keeps time between power-downs, and the machine is rock solid with or without the accelerator. Sounds like this is probably intended behavior. It doesn't bother me, I've just never seen this before. Thanks again!

 

[macuserman]

Yep I can confirm that the interware cards all seem to do this. I believe it’s expected behavior.

 

[ObeyDaleks]

Thanks, @macuserman. In case you couldn’t tell, this is your old machine. It’s been through a full regimen of disassemble, clean, retrobright, full recap, CRT adjustments, and now I’m just pimping it out. Provided hours of tinkering fun so far. The recap was intense, over 80 capacitors in this machine. Fun stuff.

 

[croissantking]

Every time you cold boot? Wow, that’s kind of crude.

 

[cheesestraws]

Every time you cold boot? Wow, that’s kind of crude.

If it works reliably, it's better than something less crude that doesn't work reliably. Handing over control to another processor is a ticklish business and it is often easier to start again.

 

[croissantking]

I would have been disappointed if I'd spent a lot of money on this upgrade back in the day. I guess it would add around 30 seconds to boot time?

From a hobbying perspective in 2023, it doesn't matter so much, of course.

 

[Phipli]

I guess it would add around 30 seconds to boot time?

Less than that - it's a warm start, no RAM test, and if you make sure the extension loads first, or use a System enabler, it happens straight after the happy Mac.

It's really not that much of a thing. Both Mode32 and Compact Virtual do similar things.

 

[ObeyDaleks]

I would have been disappointed if I'd spent a lot of money on this upgrade back in the day. I guess it would add around 30 seconds to boot time?

From a hobbying perspective in 2023, it doesn't matter so much, of course.

So just out of curiosity I timed it. One test was with the Booster extension enabled (and booting to 400Mhz G3 and with the reboot), and one with extension disabled (and booting to 250Mhz 603e). All other aspects were unchanged.

I was booting into OS 9.1, timing it from boot chime to desktop showing drives.

• G3 (reboot) - 1 minute 24 seconds
• 603e (no reboot) - 1 minute 26 seconds.

Obviously, with the G3 and without the reboot, you'd get a faster boot. But even with the reboot, it still loads slightly faster due to your faster CPU.

P.S. I performed the same test with a PM8500 running MaxPowr 500Mhz G3 (which sits in the CPU slot and therefore no reboot) and a Sonnet ATA133/SSD drive and booting into OS 9.2.2, I get 1 minute, 3 seconds.

 

[croissantking]

Well I guess y’all were right. It’s no big deal

 

[Phipli]

So just out of curiosity I timed it. One test was with the Booster extension enabled (and booting to 400Mhz G3 and with the reboot), and one with extension disabled (and booting to 250Mhz 603e). All other aspects were unchanged.

I was booting into OS 9.1, timing it from boot chime to desktop showing drives.

• G3 (reboot) - 1 minute 24 seconds
• 603e (no reboot) - 1 minute 26 seconds.

Obviously, with the G3 and without the reboot, you'd get a faster boot. But even with the reboot, it still loads slightly faster due to your faster CPU.

P.S. I performed the same test with a PM8500 running MaxPowr 500Mhz G3 (which sits in the CPU slot and therefore no reboot) and a Sonnet ATA133/SSD drive and booting into OS 9.2.2, I get 1 minute, 3 seconds.

Do any extensions load before the accelerator's extension?

If they do, you could rename it to make it load earlier, and speed the process up.

 

[ObeyDaleks]

Do any extensions load before the accelerator's extension?

If they do, you could rename it to make it load earlier, and speed the process up.

Nope, it’s the very first one. Probably by design.

 

[ObeyDaleks]

So I got the Sonnet G3 card (same clock speed) to see how it compares and, while the card doesn’t reboot like the Interware card, it pauses for a pretty long time before it starts loading extensions. I assume that pause is where the “magic” happens.

So it’s pretty much a wash, although the Sonnet card does have that cute little banner during startup. I timed the boot at 1 minute, 19 seconds, which is 5 seconds faster than the Interware card.

 

[cheesestraws]

So I got the Sonnet G3 (same clock speed) card to see how it compares and, while the card doesn’t reboot like the Interware card, it pauses for a pretty long time before it starts loading extensions. I assume that pause is where the “magic” happens.

Yeah, I forgot that - I've got two machines with the Sonnet G3s in and both of them pause for ages mid-boot, so I think that's a feature of those cards in general

 

[Phipli]

So I got the Sonnet G3 card (same clock speed) to see how it compares and, while the card doesn’t reboot like the Interware card, it pauses for a pretty long time before it starts loading extensions. I assume that pause is where the “magic” happens.

So it’s pretty much a wash, although the Sonnet card does have that cute little banner during startup. I timed the boot at 1 minute, 19 seconds, which is 5 seconds faster than the Interware card.

Something I found with one of my Sonnets (in a different machine that I won't name to avoid unsolicitated PMs from Amiga users) is that it takes forever in older systems, but boots faster in... I think 8.1 and later? Certainly 8.6 and 9.1.

Not sure why. Incentivises me to run newer OSes on that machine though.