LongAlphabet
Member
Wow, how are you designing the build for this project? Very impressive! Are the pictures enough to go off of?
Wow, how are you designing the build for this project? Very impressive! Are the pictures enough to go off of?
Any ROM SIMM is compatible with the booster, but ROM images must be SE/30 or IIsi based. Others (IIfx, IIci) will boot but sound will probably be glitchy and you will not be able to use floppy drive.I bought a MacSIMM from GGLabs, how would you rate the compatibility?
I suspect the ROM on my SE/30 is bad, but considering I get nothing but a black screen with the GGLabs ROM, I have no idea what's actually on it.
Yeah I had the accelerator in there briefly and didn't really notice much of a change. I'll have to fool around with it more.
A fast 68040 accelerator however, is noticeable almost immediately.
Hello all, posting to report my success and failures with a booster. This may sound crazy but I got a booster a while back when I don't actually have an SE/30, I actually got it to try on a sun 3/60 and sun 3/80.
First on the 3/80 the booster unfortunately does not fit directly, not surprising since it was designed for another machine. I had to use an extra socket to raise it up to clear the memory and P4 socket. This means it's not a practical upgrade for the machine but I thought I'd test it anyway. On my first test with the booster it did not work, I believe because the machine runs the CPU at 20MHz so the booster would be running at 60MHz, well out of spec. So I removed the original crystal and put in a 33.33MHz crystal. I tested it first with the original CPU and it did not work in this config, it just output garbage on the serial port, but I tested the booster with this crystal anyway and it also output garbage on the serial port. So I believe the booster could work on this machine with a 2x multiplier and a 40MHz crystal. Here's some pics with it in the machine.
View attachment 78232View attachment 78233
On the 3/60 I ran into an unexpected problem. For those that don't know the 3/60 originally shipped with a 68020 but had solder holes for a 68030. I've heard reports that an 030 will work in the machine but haven't tested myself. When I tried to put an 030 socket on the board I found it was missing 2 pins. They are, I believe, pins F4 and F10 in the middle labeled as NC. I will have to see about modifying the socket and booster to fit in this machine.
Just sharing my experiences trying to get upgrades on machines that aren't normally upgraded.
The booster seems to "fit" best with system 7.1.
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Personally, as far as most "noticeable" accelerators go, I find the the Diimo and powercache make the UI quadra-levels of snappy.
Having designed and built socketed versions of the Diimo and Carrera, yeah, I can confirm the costs are easily an order of magnitude (or two) greater to design, consistently source obsolete parts, build cards, and QC each. I've flirted with the idea making more socketed cards but currently I don't think I could do it without both a disproportionate amount of time and frustration, nor a halfway attractive price point. I assume the Rockets had a different value proposition due to their unique capabilities.Yeah, most of the time I don't even install 7.5 on the SE/30 as if I need to access 10.4, 7.1 with OT can do that already (ish, but usually I just use MacTCP for less system overhead) or I just use FTP which works fine. 7.5 is rather overrated on most 68030s, even faster ones like IIfx, you'd be surprised how much 7.1 can actually do. On a 68040, sure, but ...
I was reading that wiki on peterhuman about the PowerCache and I believe it. Your accelerator doesn't make aggressive use of caching, and that's fine. Drop-in driverless accelerators have some value in their own. I don't know what PowerCaches cost back in the day but I imagine they weren't that cheap. Apparently Turbo 601s were cutting it close to costs, which the company does need to make enough to survive the dips and downs of computing back then. Rockets, retrospectively, must have been somewhat expensive, but good value in that they were the only accelerator I know of that could function as either a hardware VM or an accelerator, which isn't that bad for roughly 1200$ back in the day for the 33MHz version.
Glad to hear it's working well for you!I purchased a @zigzagjoe Interware Boost Clone from eBay. It comes with a nice 3D printed case.
I dropped the booster into a newly recapped IIx today. Snug fit.
Performance is immediately noticeable in System 7.1. Norton shows a 67% overall performance boost (640x480 256 colors). Slightly better than the IIci.
View attachment 78337
The only problem is that sound is too fast. My test was to play alerts in the Sound control panel. I thought this would only be an issue is later systems. Maybe something about the IIx ROMs?
All in all, a really nice performance improvement. Keep up the good work!
David
For those not familiar with Sun terminology, the "P4" is that familiar DIN connector you can see on the right underneath the booster, where the framebuffer would go [1]. From the schematics of the 3/60, it's basically a PDS for the MC68020 (so no /STERM). From some tracing and discussion for the 3/80, they are identical between the two - it seems the only differences are physical and minor (basically the bracket).First on the 3/80 the booster unfortunately does not fit directly, not surprising since it was designed for another machine. I had to use an extra socket to raise it up to clear the memory and P4 socket.