Interware Booster 30-SE50F Info Dump

[zigzagjoe]

The ROM-booster function does seem to help disk access too. Another extreme case as this is using my compactflash card though.

There's a bit of jitter in the write results (CF card, rather than the accelerator) but there is an evident trend the calls that are overhead-heavy (more time spent running code than reading data) noticeably improve from it. I suppose it makes sense the filesystem/disk intermediate layers between user application and my disk driver would also remain in ROM.

 

[zigzagjoe]

I bought a Booster 50-SE30F v1.2 (goes in PDS slot) from ZigZagJoe last August for my SE/30 and it works great except for audio. I loaded up Sid Meier's Civilization last night and the opening music is distorted. For the last few months, I've been working on getting my BlueSCSI up and working and thanks to the help I got from the people here, my drive images now work great on my SE/30. Anyway, out of curiosity, I pulled the Booster out and restarted Civilization and the audio is fine. I also found out that in the 2.0 version, this issue is fixed.

So what are my options here? There are no controls to adjust the speed of the accelerator so can I upgrade the firmware to fix this issue?

Thank you for your time,
Gerry

(continued from feedback thread.) It sounds like you're using System 7.5 and/or Sound Manager 3.0. This is the 'the garbled sound on 7.5' I mentioned that affects the V1.X boosters (and the original Interware boards too). The 2.0 cards I completely redesigned with a new programmable logic device to enable the new features, so there's no way to backport this feature to the earlier cards.

I would recommend running 7.1 if possible as that's the only workaround here.

 

[Fizzbinn]

(continued from feedback thread.) It sounds like you're using System 7.5 and/or Sound Manager 3.0. This is the 'the garbled sound on 7.5' I mentioned that affects the V1.X boosters (and the original Interware boards too). The 2.0 cards I completely redesigned with a new programmable logic device to enable the new features, so there's no way to backport this feature to the earlier cards.

I would recommend running 7.1 if possible as that's the only workaround here.

I much prefer System 7.1 on an SE/30 to 7.5 (and up), it just feels more responsive. You can disable a lot of the extensions and control panels in 7.5 that I think lead to some of this but at that point why not just run System 7.1? I do add BeHierarchic and SuperClock! as having a hierarchical Apple Menu and menu bar clock are two features I like most from 7.5.

 

[zigzagjoe]

I much prefer System 7.1 on an SE/30 to 7.5 (and up), it just feels more responsive. You can disable a lot of the extensions and control panels in 7.5 that I think lead to some of this but at that point why not just run System 7.1? I do add BeHierarchic and SuperClock! as having a hierarchical Apple Menu and menu bar clock are two features I like most from 7.5.

Same here. The boosters at least make 7.5 tolerable, but even if the newer Boosters correct audio on 7.5, I think 7.1 is still the better choice. With a couple of add-ons I find it functionally close enough to 7.5 as well as much faster. Especially to boot. No need to bother with resediting the system file when using a different ROM image.

By the by, did you ever have any luck with those cache modules? Fully understand if you don't want to pull that pin out though.

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Unrelated to both topics, the ROM booster/acceleration functionality seems stable and being field tested now. It appears to provide a minor but still relevant performance gain. All existing booster 2.0 cards can support this functionality, if you're interested in having the upgrade applied just send me a PM. Due to the lack of an easy way to configure it, the best option I've got is to add a bodge wire that would need to be desoldered in order to switch the enabled state.

 

[Fizzbinn]

By the by, did you ever have any luck with those cache modules? Fully understand if you don't want to pull that pin out though.

Life has gotten in the way of me getting back to that. Hopefully soon!

 

[zigzagjoe]

Life has gotten in the way of me getting back to that. Hopefully soon!

No worries! Just idly curious, as I'd like to some day come up with a faster booster design that maintains the simplicity that's nice about the current ones.

I still flirt with the idea of sticking 16MB of fast SRAM on one of these (at least in a SE/30 version), as that would provide some extremely interesting potential. It'd be extremely expensive and more complex than is sane, unfortunately, but it's fun to think about.