Radius Rockets

[quicksilver]

A few years ago I knew all about these rare beasts but have forgotten most of it now (hopefully some of the resources I read before are still up somewhere). Anyway, I have one Rocket lying around that I think was missing a processor when I got it. I believe it was a 33 MHz 040 but I remember putting a 40 MHz chip from a 840av into it. Does anyone know if there's a way to play with resistors to turn my Rocket into a 40 MHz'er? I haven't tested it out yet but hopefully its still working.

Tom

 

[Unknown_K]

There is a metal can oscillator I believe that controls the board speed. I have 2 Rocket 25's and was going to convert one to a 33 but have yet to get around to it.

 

[Charlieman]

Produced by the Pickle before he was banished from most forums and mailing lists:

http://macfaq.org/rocket/index.shtml

 

[Unknown_K]

Produced by the Pickle before he was banished from most forums and mailing lists:
http://macfaq.org/rocket/index.shtml

Banished for what reasons?

 

[bluekatt]

i belivee for being overly rude towards people

or at least very antagonistic

if i remember correctly when i was on the classic lem email lists there were regular arguments but that has been a while so dont take my word for it

 

[quicksilver]

Thanks. Though I think I'll pass the card on rather than get down to playing with them again myself. Other toys to hold my attention at the moment. If anybody's interested let me know. Be warned it probably works but I can't test.

 

[Bunsen]

one Rocket ... was a 33 MHz 040 but I remember putting a 40 MHz chip ... into it.

8-o You know, that never occurred to me. I've got a 25MHz Rocket here somewhere - might try it myself.

If you check my blog on AF, there's a link to square wave oscillator ICs which can be speed controlled by a serial data signal or a pot. One of these would allow you to tweak till you find the exact best stable speed.

Otherwise check Output Enablers

 

[TylerEss]

I always just buy sockets and oscillators from DigiKey, or swipe oscillators out of other junked equipment.

I bet that a 33MHz 68040, a nice heatsink (think fast 486 or pentium HSF), good thermal compound, and the right crystal would be all you'd need for 40MHz. Beyond 40MHz your mileage may vary with a 33MHz chip. Some have reported 45+ on 33MHz rated chips, whereas I couldn't get my Turbo040 stable at 48 until I bought a real 40MHz chip.

I think it would be awesome to use Rockets to do the kind of MP things that old Macs actually did back in the day. Network-rendered AfterEffects all inside one box comes to mind. Another idea would be for maximum Mathematica 68k performance: run the kernel on the Rocket and the frontend on the motherboard Mac.

 

[Maccess]

Just don't install the rocket on a Nubus PPC....slows down the main mac. It's best on a Quadra 650/800. I haven't tried it on an 840AV, but it should work, and work well, with the 840AVs advanced Nubus system.

The 40Mhz Rockets were different beasts, called the "Stage II," and couldn't be used as accelerators, only as multi-macs.

 

[Unknown_K]

The rockets were more usefull in 030 based machines in my opinion. A slow Mac II or IIx would be killer with a few rockets. I ran my original IIfx once with two rocket 25's for a while (one with 80MB of RAM).

Why waste a precious slot in a Q650/800?

 

[Bunsen]

Just don't install the rocket on a Nubus PPC....slows down the main mac.

Can you tell us a little more about this? How does it work, what's the limiting factor, and what machines does it affect? All PPCs?

 

[Maccess]

Tried it on the following:

7100, 8100. Configs: both have max ram (136MB, 264MB).

* 8.1 is the highest system you'll be able to run on the host mac.

* It doesn't work if there is a G3 accelerator in your host Mac.

* You need to find RocketWare (it's in the macdrivers yahoogroup)

Rocket Card 33 Mhz with 32MB RAM

*Don't use parity RAM, makes the RocketMac slower

*For networking, it helps to connect a NuBus ethernet card. Assign the host mac to the NB card, and the Rocket to the on board ethernet (it won't work the other way around)

*7.1.x without thread manager is the highest system that works on the Rocket Mac. That means, no netscape, or any modern web browser.

It works, the Rocket Mac shows up as a Window on the host Mac (just like parallels), but it slows down a PPC host Mac because of all the 68K patches and traps.

Radius video cards accelerate video output of both the Rocket and the host Mac, however, any Nubus Video card is slower than AV/HPV video on a Nubus PPC, so that's a strategy for a Rocket in a 68K Mac.

 

[kreats]

using a rocket in a ppc is perhaps the only useful application of a rocket - there are better accelerators than these for almost every 68k mac.

I doubt anyone's making renderfarms using quadras these days, even for giggles.

 

[Charlieman]

*7.1.x without thread manager is the highest system that works on the Rocket Mac. That means, no netscape, or any modern web browser.

Nice report, Maccess. Thread Manager definitely does not work under any circumstances (Extension order etc)? Have you tried patching the Thread Manager resources from System 7.5.x into 7.1.x? I doubt whether it would work, but worth a try. Does the 33MHz Rocket support System 7.0.1 and have you tried patching it?

 

[Unknown_K]

using a rocket in a ppc is perhaps the only useful application of a rocket - there are better accelerators than these for almost every 68k mac.
I doubt anyone's making renderfarms using quadras these days, even for giggles.

I only used mine as 2nd CPUs and not to take over the system (they are too slow and cranky for that). As an example I used one with 80MB of RAM on my IIfx to browse the web. You could also run a server in the background (even better if you have the SCSI addon for storage).

They make more sense on a slow 020/030 system with little RAM and no FPU then they do on a PPC. Why bother with 68k code on a PPC machine when you can find PPC native coded apps now.

 

[Maccess]

*7.1.x without thread manager is the highest system that works on the Rocket Mac. That means, no netscape, or any modern web browser.

Nice report, Maccess. Thread Manager definitely does not work under any circumstances (Extension order etc)? Have you tried patching the Thread Manager resources from System 7.5.x into 7.1.x? I doubt whether it would work, but worth a try. Does the 33MHz Rocket support System 7.0.1 and have you tried patching it?

Hmm, that's interesting. Under 7.1.x thread manager is an extension (v2.1.3), but I haven't tried patching it into the system with Res Edit.

the reason I had it hooked up (or tried to) was because I wanted to run a scanner with some batch processing while using the 7100 for other things.

When I get around to it I'll install it in a Quadra 650 and see how it goes. I expect it to work great in that machine.....now if I can only find 16MB 30pin SIMMs for my rocket.

Mine has a SCSI accelerator card, BTW, which is great since I have a Quadra PDS Photobooster which can be shared by both the Host and the Rocket.

Radius Rocket Technical Overview (all variants) However, I have to correct this error on that page:

1 megabyte and 4 megabyte SIMMs will not work with the Radius Rocket. This therefore means a minimum of 8 megabytes needs to be installed on the Rocket.

On the contrary, 1 and 4MB SIMMs work on the Rocket. It is 2MB SIMMS that don't work. Many 16MB SIMMs are also known to work (there is an accompanying READ ME file in RocketShare that lists 16MB SIMMs known to work).