Performa 578

[Gil]

So I am hooking up my Performa 578 in my bedroom, ideally for everyday use. I'm wondering what the best OS and internet software to use, to make it run its best. What would you guys recommend?

I'm also wondering - What are the advantages of swapping the 68LC040 processor for a full 68040?

Thanks in advance.

 

[defor]

It just gives you an FPU, now contrary to popular belief, and experience from doing this when the machines were apple's current systems... there is next to NO real speedup for general purpose apps.

check out wikipedia or similar for an explanation of FPU's, but in reality, there are a few apps that use them.. the main things I used them for was 3d rendering (why bother on a 68k these days), font design (works without, but is slower to image to postscript), and a few photoshop filters that took advantage of them...

in addition, if you run up against software that NEEDS an FPU, softfpu works as a slower alternative to at least let you run it emulated.

FPU's are amazingly powerful on 68k, but their limited usage meant that their inclusion into LC and Performa class machines was pointless as 90% of the target audience would never need one.

 

[Blessed Cheesemaker]

Hi,

Regarding the FPU, I can only think of a handful of math-intensive software titles that used an FPU, stuff like hardcore statistical programs...this morning, I ran across an "Orbital Tracker" program, that would compute satellite orbits, circa 1992. It had two versions, an FPU version, and a plain vanilla, non-FPU version.

For those who *had* to run programs without an FPU, there was a workaround, called "Software FPU" that would emulate an FPU, via software (it was a control panel). Of course, it ran very slowly.

Unless you are an intensive hobbyist/do-it-yourselfer, I wouldn't bother switching an 68LC040 for a regular 68040. My LC 575 is perfectly happy with its -LC040 brain.

 

[Gil]

I figured I'd conserve space by posting in this thread, versus starting a new one. Last night i hooked up my Performa. It ran very shitily, so I was going to format and start fresh. I started the HD SC Setup utility (horrible utility, BTW) and started formatting the drive. Well since it had no progress bar or anything, and the hard drive wasn't doing anything for a long time, I quit HD SC and shut down. On reboot, no drive recognized at all. I plunked the drive into my 9500 and it came right up, as "untitled". I formatted it again just in case, with an HFS partition. plopped it in the Performa, doesn't recognize it. So I take another SCSI drive I have, that worked fine, formatted it, and popped it in the Performa. Doesn't recognize it.

so now my performa won't recognize hard drives? Any ideas what the problem might be?

 

[Scott Baret]

To answer your question about system software: I would use System 7.5 for optimal performance. 7.6 should run fine too although Apple does not offer it free of charge on their support site.

 

[Morrick]

so now my performa won't recognize hard drives? Any ideas what the problem might be?

Just a (maybe educated) guess. Perhaps the Power Mac 9500, upon formatting the drives, installs a newer driver that the Performa 578 doesn't recognise.

Cheers,

Rick

 

[Gil]

Good guess, but it turns out that by changing a jumper setting, it works. Very weird, seeing as I've never changed it before, and it has worked previously.

 

[register]

What are the advantages of swapping the 68LC040 processor for a full 68040?

Few applications make use of the FPU, for example DraftBoard, TScript, Mathematica. Some of them work just slower, if the FPU is not present (like TScript). Some do not work at all (like DraftBoard). Some come in different flavours to be installed for use w/wo FPU. To run applications that need a FPU in many cases the software SoftFPU helps (as already mentioned). Some applications do not like the emulated FPU and will even with softFPU refuse to work, as DraftBoard.