What programs took advantage of the IIfx's special features?

[Huxley]

Hi guys,

I was just wondering - since the IIfx was designed with a number of special features (apparently including some ASIC's, or Application-Specific Integrated Circuits), what commercially released software could take advantage of those extra features / horsepower? I'm sure I've read that Photoshop could run faster because of those chips (my IIfx has PS 3.0 on the drive), but were there others?

Just curious,

Huxley

 

[TylerEss]

I don't think there were really any features of the IIfx that needed special software support... there was the IOPs on the floppy drive, SCSI, and serial ports, but those were all supported by the Toolbox, and any software that used the Toolbox got the acceleration for free.

 

[Unknown_K]

Not sure if MacOS used the DMA of the SCSI controller, A/UX 2.1+ most likely did.

 

[trag]

Not sure if MacOS used the DMA of the SCSI controller, A/UX 2.1+ most likely did.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Apple never really optimized the Mac OS to make use of the cool features in the IIfx, while A/UX did make use of them.

If one looks at the IIfx board the IOPs are pretty obvious. The regular I/O chips are there and next to each one is another chip, which has markings on it which indicate it is a custom version of one of the microcontrollers. I can't remember the details at the moment though. Grrrr.

 

[TylerEss]

Format a floppy disk on any normal Mac, and move the mouse around while you're doing it. Now do the same thing on the IIfx.