My SE/30: w/ Turbo 040, ROM-inator, Ethernet and 8.1

[JDW]

You can feel the difference between the 50MHz DiiMO 68030 and the Turbo040, but the 030 accelerators offer better overall software compatibility.

 

[ktkm]

Hey there! Just replying after all these years to see if you are gonna work on the 601 card now that “The Quarantine” is upon us!

This would be a perfect opportunity for 68k genius to figure it out (I have a Turbo 601 and extra SE/30 standing by for that day).

 

[Bolle]

Well, after some messing around this is as far as I got some time ago https://imgur.com/a/AnDMGOB (turn on audio)

It's doing *something* at least. It seems to be poking the soundchip when it shouldn't so I think it totally doesn't know what's going on in the SE/30.

This is all coming from the 601 though, the logicboard itself has no CPU installed.

 

[pb3623]

You can feel the difference between the 50MHz DiiMO 68030 and the Turbo040, but the 030 accelerators offer better overall software compatibility.

Plus the ability to run A/UX, since DayStar apparently never got around to adding compatibility for the 040. 

 

[ktkm]

Well, after some messing around this is as far as I got some time ago https://imgur.com/a/AnDMGOB (turn on audio)

It's doing *something* at least. It seems to be poking the soundchip when it shouldn't so I think it totally doesn't know what's going on in the SE/30.

This is all coming from the 601 though, the logicboard itself has no CPU installed.

I have never heard that sound from a PPC, sounds like something went really wrong!?

 

[pb3623]

Yeah, that’s the same failure “chime” (minus the blips) that the other PPC 601 cards for Quadra PDS have, which include the nice brass flourish on boot that I think was taken from the 5200. 

 

[JDW]

Plus the ability to run A/UX, since DayStar apparently never got around to adding compatibility for the 040. 

While unfortunate, I'm guessing that relative few of us vintage Mac enthusiasts run A/UX.

 

[pb3623]

While unfortunate, I'm guessing that relative few of us vintage Mac enthusiasts run A/UX.

That's all I use my 950 for. You haven't lived until you've gotten an A/UX box talking to an SGI and a NeXT with a full TCP/IP and OpenSSL stack.

 

[JDW]

...A/UX box talking to an SGI and a NeXT

I don't have an SGI or NeXT, so what other reasons would one have to put A/UX on a vintage Mac and run it 24/7?

 

[pb3623]

Because it's probably the best machine to run it, I enjoy working with a CLI and Lord knows I have enough 7.6.1/8.1 machines (though I think my 950 has an 8.5 folder).

I'm sure my wife and friends outside of this hobby of ours could ask precisely why one would want to play with 30-yr old computers, much less repair them.

That surprises me - you are much more enlightened than that

 

[JDW]

That surprises me - you are much more enlightened than that

Well, just because I've been using Macs since my 128k in 1994 and repair them since the 80's doesn't mean I've been enlightened about the practical merits of running A/UX over standard MacOS.  In all honesty, I've never installed A/UX before.

There are so many different things to occupy our brain power, especially those of us with families and kids at home.  Until now, A/UX merely hasn't been one of those things for me.  Even so, if there were some compelling reasons to for the average vintage Mac enthusiast to run A/UX, then it might make good material for a future video.  And really, that's why I inquired about it.  Thanks for sharing your reasons!

 

[Fizzbinn]

Well, just because I've been using Macs since my 128k in 1994 and repair them since the 80's doesn't mean I've been enlightened about the practical merits of running A/UX over standard MacOS.  In all honesty, I've never installed A/UX before.

There are so many different things to occupy our brain power, especially those of us with families and kids at home.  Until now, A/UX merely hasn't been one of those things for me.  Even so, if there were some compelling reasons to for the average vintage Mac enthusiast to run A/UX, then it might make good material for a future video.  And really, that's why I inquired about it.  Thanks for sharing your reasons!

I’m somewhat interested in playing with A/UX. I wonder if there is a version of Perl that would run on it for network related utility CLI scripts doing ftp, etc. Maybe just shell scripts would work there. Would it make a useful server for other old Macs running System 7.5 or below? In anyway better than an old Mac running Mac OS 9 from a Unix level integration prospective? Likely limited by telnet and ftp for integration with modern systems...

 

[cheesestraws]

what other reasons would one have to put A/UX on a vintage Mac and run it 24/7

I installed it for the fun of it on my Q950; then I keep using it because I really like how each user has their own System Folder.  So I kind of use it to spin up System 7 "playgrounds", if you like, to try stuff out (at least, stuff that will run A/UX).

 

[nickpunt]

Slightly esoteric question, but to reduce the swapping of accelerators, is it possible to have BOTH a socketed Daystar Powercache 030 AND a Daystar Turbo 040 in the machine, and simply flip the 040 software switch to pick between them? That way you'd have the fastest 030 and 040 in a single machine without having to swap. This of course assumes you have the power to power these, but that's doable with new power supplies. 

 

[pb3623]

Slightly esoteric question, but to reduce the swapping of accelerators, is it possible to have BOTH a socketed Daystar Powercache 030 AND a Daystar Turbo 040 in the machine, and simply flip the 040 software switch to pick between them? That way you'd have the fastest 030 and 040 in a single machine without having to swap. This of course assumes you have the power to power these, but that's doable with new power supplies. 

I'd be happy to try if anyone wants to trade me one  The only PowerCache I have is a non-P33 model - which I've read here should work in the SE/30 but it's a PDS card.

I don't see why it wouldn't work... that's what I have to do to the PPC 601 cards to run A/UX on my IIci, 700 and 950 (though it requires a shut down and not just a restart to get that PM 5200 startup "bong")  

 

[JDW]

...is it possible to have BOTH a socketed Daystar Powercache 030 AND a Daystar Turbo 040 in the machine, and simply flip the 040 software switch to pick between them? 

Forget the switch, I don’t even know if you can safely have both in the machine at all. 
 

@Bolle the repair wizard, with the help of @joethezombie who found super rare replacement Daystar ICs, was able to resurrect my Turbo040 from the dead. Sadly, DHL took money for shipping (from Germany) but then told him they won’t ship. So when it will finally ship is unknown. But honestly, I’m a bit fearful to try both in the machine at the same time. I would assume the Turbo 040 would take over, and if not they would merely be a minor hardware conflict that would prevent booting.  But having just gotten a miracle repair from Bolle, I’m a scared little baby to attempt a test like that. Yet, it has me very curious!

 

[Bolle]

There is no switch for the Turbo 040. The 040 will always be active. The switch in the control panel just disables all the caches on the 040 to make it more like a 030 but that’s it.

You could do this with a Carrera040 though. The switch in its control panel actually disables the 040 and hands control back to whatever is on the logicboard.

 

[JDW]

There is no switch for the Turbo 040. The 040 will always be active.

But electrically speaking, would having the socketed 50MHz 030 PowerCache installed while also having the Turbo040 in the PDS slot pose an electrical problem?  I doubt the socketed board would power down simply because the 040 takes over processing, in which case the load on the PSU would be quite high.  But even if the PSU could handle that load, I still wonder if the two boards are compatible such that they both could be installed at the same time.

Why even do this if no "switch" exists?  Well, for quick testing with the back case off.  Your "switch" is "remove the Turbo040 to disable it" or "insert it to enable it" (with the power off, of course).  It would be nice if that was feasible because you wouldn't need to pull out the motherboard, remove the socketed accelerator, put in the CPU, then put it all back, then put in your Turbo040 and test.  Theoretically, all you should need to do is just insert the Turbo040 (with power off), then power on and test.  Then power off, remove the Turbo040, and you're back to your 50MHz 030 SE/30.

Thoughts?

 

[Bolle]

It would work electrically if your PSU can handle the load. The PowerCache will disable all data and address drivers when an external device is becoming the bus master (the Turbo 040 in this case)

I might have to give this a try with two stacked adapters and a PowerCache and Carrera installed at the same time.

 

[JDW]

Here is the ROM image (thanks again to OlePigeon): olePigeonPatchedROM-normalchecksum_disabled.bin - so it's the 040 driver, memory test disabled and some other features that you won't see with the accelerator installed (again courtesy of OlePigeon - his custom boot chime and icon are pretty awesome). So give it a try with your programmer. Just make sure the SIMM capacity is correct and write to the entire thing.

@Bolle Very kindly fixed my Turbo040 PDS accelerator, so I am eager to program my ROM-inator II MEGA with the above ROM.  But it's been a while since I've used my SIMM Programmer and for the life of me I cannot find the documentation (USER MANUAL) for the programmer anywhere on the BMoW website.  Do I need to convert that *.BIN file to a *.ROM file?  If so, what is the procedure?  And if anyone has a link to the programmer documentation (which covers things like concatenate, ROM image, etc.) I would be eternally grateful.

(Yes, I remember that we cannot use a ROM image with the above olePiegon ROM.  Thanks.)