Amiga ISO Collection/AmigaDemoCD2.iso/ASCII/TEXTE/c.s.a.reviews/hardware/accelerators/A500-040

Internet Message Format | 1994-06-02 | 17.4 KB

Path: menudo.uh.edu!usenet
From: [e-mail] (Kerry Emerson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: Progressive Peripherals 040/500 accelerator
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Date: 28 Mar 1993 17:06:22 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
Lines: 469
Sender: [e-mail] (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator)
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <1p4lue$[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Kerry Emerson)
NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu
Keywords: hardware, A500, accelerator, 68040, commercial


PRODUCT NAME

    Progressive Peripherals A500/040 accelerator


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

    The PPI A500/040 is an accelerator especially designed for the Amiga
500.  It comes standard with WB2.04 ROM, 68040 from Motorola, and either 4MB
or 8MB of 32-bit Fast RAM.


COMPANY INFORMATION

    Name:        Progressive Peripherals Incorporated
    Address:    464 Kalamath St
            Denver, CO  80204
            USA

    Telephone:    [phone]
    Fax:        [phone]


LIST PRICE

    I paid $1079 (US) in mid-October 1992.  This was the cheapest price
I had seen for it anywhere.  (Mail me if you want to know the company name.)
Since this time, the price has apparently dropped by about $200.

    I also paid $108 for "overnight" shipping.  Unfortunately, due to
the fire at PPI, the board didn't actually arrive until December!  I was
very annoyed.  Now that PPI is back on its feet, I expect they'll be able
to send them overnight now for real.


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

    HARDWARE

        An Amiga 500.  Depending on the model of your 500, the
        Technician (yourself) that installs the board will need to
        remove the RF shield, since the 040 is too big to fit under
        it.  This is the only modification to the computer you need
        to make.  Its a simple operation of removing approximately 4
        screws, and it does nothing to harm the computer in any way.

    SOFTWARE

        Version 2 of Kickstart and Workbench.  A Kickstart ROM is
        supplied with the board, but the Workbench distribution is
        NOT!  You will need to purchase a 2.04 or 2.1 Workbench
        distribution separately.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

    Before installation of the A500/040:

    Amiga 500, Kickstart/Workbench 1.3
    1 MB Chip RAM.
    GVP A500-HD+ SeriesII 105MB hard drive with 2MB 16-bit Fast RAM.
    DCTV
    2 extra floppy drives.

    After the installation, the machine is running version 2.0 of
the operating system and has 4 MB of 32-bit Fast RAM.


DOCUMENTATION

    Due to the unfortunately fire which left PPI up the creek for
several months, the manual which I received with the 040 was a photocopied
one.  This had with it a note saying that due to their current position [blah
blah blah blah], they could not send me the proper manual, but that if I
wanted one, I could get one when I sent in my Warranty form.  Thats fair
enough I suppose.  The photocopied manual was bound and did its job very
well, so I have no complaints there.

    The documentation/manual I received goes into a lot of detail to
explain what the 040 is all about and how to install both the hardware and
the software.  It also refers to programs which are 100% compatible with the
040 and how to use the operating system version 2.0x.  It has technical
support notes and various other Trouble shooting notes.  It's very easy to
read with "nice" pictorials and was well laid out, highlighting important
points, etc.

    One problem with the documentation I found is that it doesn't help
the user move from a 1.3 system to a 2.0 system.  When I first tried using
the accelerator, I had the 2.0 Kickstart ROM installed but no 2.0
Workbench.  As a result, my startup-sequence for my 1.3 system had nothing
like IPrefs or ConClip or ANY of the 2.0x commands.  This posed a problem as
my computer kept crashing EVERY time I put the computer into WB2.0 and
booted up.  Not having used 2.0 before, I had NO idea what was happening,
and the manual said NOTHING!  (I live in this little place called New
Zealand, so calling the Technical Support line would have cost me the
earth!)  But once I got and installed the WB2.0 software, everything worked
fine.

    Note: If you have already got WB2.0, then there will be no problem;
but for those who are upgrading from WB1.2 or WB1.3, be warned:  WB2.0 is
very different!!



THE HARDWARE

    The 040/500 is a pretty small and sophisticated piece of hardware.
It consists of a small PCB [printed circuit board] which has simply attaches
directly onto where the old 68000 was.  On its surface is has the main 68040
(the "Beast Master" :-)) which has no heat sink, but has a FAN on top of it
to keep it cool (gives your Amiga 500 some air-conditioning).  This fan is
quiet, almost silent.  There are 2 banks of 4MB ZIPs which are both full if
you buy the 8MB version, or only one is full if you have the 4MB version.
The WB2.0 Kickstart ROM is also on here, along with CMOS technology supply
regulators and detached CPU custom chips (FPU etc) for minimum power
consumption and greater performance.  All chips are surface-mount technology
except the 68000 socket, in which the old 68000 chip sits (on the board) for
fallback mode.

    The Motorola 68040 usually has a limit of 25 MHz data speed; but due
to the 040/500's custom implemented unique FAN-COOLED CPU, the 040 can be
safely driven at a roaring 28 MHz WITHOUT data corruption!

        [MODERATOR'S NOTE:  This is a controversial topic.  Some
        people believe that "overclocking" a 68040 CPU -- running it
        faster than its intended speed -- is risky, whereas other
        people believe it can be done safely.  So the above claim
        should be treated as opinion.  - Dan]

     The entire accelerator is approximately 20cm x 10cm in size and fits
*VERY* snugly inside the A500.  It is not permanently stuck there though, so
you can easily remove the card when you want to show it off at a User Group,
and simply plug it into someone else's A500.  (READ THE WARRANTY WARNING,
BELOW.)


THE SOFTWARE

    The software which you get with the 040/500 is good and very useful.
You receive a program to switch the CPU between 68040 and 68000 mode, and
between Native ROM and On Board ROM.  These mean you can have any combination
of CPU and operating system, except 68040 booting from WB1.3!  This is due to
speed and caching modes which don't exist on (aren't supported by) WB1.3.
These changes take effect after rebooting, and you are prompted to reboot the
machine after you've selected a different configuration.  I assume that this
configuration gets written to the hard drive or somewhere, because even
after a week, it still remembers which mode you last booted in.

    There are various other CPU and memory speed testing programs that
tell you how fast your system now is.

    There is one other program which is used to initialize the 68040.
This means when the board is in 68040 mode, it is in fact running a 14 MHz
68000 until you initialize it which switches it into 68040 at 28 MHz.  This
seems weird, but all you do is run the program "Init040" in your
startup-sequence, near the beginning.  No hassles.

     The Data Cache, Instruction Cache and CopyBack Data Cache can be turned
on/off independently also.

     The software seems to be stable, and hasn't crashed on me yet.



LIKES AND DISLIKES

    This accelerator is FAST!  I have used SysInfo(TM) by Nic Wilson
(great plug there :) ) and it said...

SysInfo V3.11 by Nic Wilson
---------------------------
CopyBack Mode.................................. ON
Instruction Cache.............................. ON
Instruction Burst.............................. ON
Data Cache..................................... ON
Data Burst..................................... ON
Central Processing Unit Type................... 68040
CPU speed in MHZ............................... 25 MHz
Memory Management Unit Type.................... 68040 (Disabled)
Floating Point Unit Type....................... 68040+68882
Vector Base Register (VBR) Address............. $08000020
Ramsey Chip Revision (A3000)................... N/A
Gary Chip Revision (A3000)..................... N/A
DMA/Gfx Chip................................... ECS AGNUS - 1Meg
Display Mode................................... PAL:High Res
Display Chip................................... STD DENISE
VBlank Frequency in Hz......................... 50
Power Supply Frequency in Hz................... 50
Horizontal Frequency in KHz.................... 15.60
Card Slot Installed............................ NO
Hardware Clock installed....................... CLOCK FOUND
EClockFrequency in Hz.......................... 709379

SPEED COMPARISONS AGAINST KNOWN MODELS & PERIPHERALS
A500 512k or A600 with 1MB CHIP ONLY...........  33.75
B2000, A2000, A1000 or A500 with fast ram......  28.31
A1200  68EC020 ................................  15.28
A2500  A2620 68020 14MHZ card..................   9.62
A3000/25 SCRAM ICACHE IBURST DCACHE NODBURST...   4.27
A4000  68040 ICACHE DCACHE COPYBACK............   1.08
CPU Million Instructions per Second............  20.65
FPU Million Floating Operations per Second.....   5.23
Speed of Chip Memory vs A3000 Chip Memory......   2.50
Dhrystones per second...........................20177
Nics Comment................................... MOTOROLLIN'

    I like its speed!  The fallback mode is handy (both 68040 to 68000
fallback and WB2.0x to WB1.3 fallback).  It is compatible with virtually
EVERY program I have used (PD, Shareware and Commercial), especially since
you can switch the 68040 on/off and similarly with the WB2.0!

    I have (with the help of a local software distributor) compiled a
list of programs which work with the 68040 and WB2.0x switched on.  This
is by NO MEANS the full list of programs!!!

Shareware/PD:
    ASwarm
    AniMan
    Arq
    Bell
    Bell
    Cfx
    CfxWin
    DMS
    DarkPlay
    DiskMaster v3.0
    DreamTerm
    FKey
    FractalBlankerFFP.lha
    KCommodity
    LHA
    LHArcA
    MED v3.11
    Mach2
    MagicFileReq
    MultiRipper v2
    MultiRipper v3
    NComm v2.00
    NickPrefs
    NoisePlayer
    oSnap
    PCopy
    PM
    PMore
    PSX
    PowerPlayer
    PowerSnap
    ProTracker v3.01
    ReOrg
    ReqTools2_1
    ScreenX
    Silicon Menus
    SmartPlay
    SnoopDos
    Spliner
    Sploin
    SysInfo v3.11
    TinyClock
    ToolmanagerV2
    Turbo Imploder v4.0 (although the music doesn't play, DAMN!)
    TurboLayers
    UPD
    V8
    VCLI
    Virus_Checker (all versions)
    WBGauge
    WizardClock

Commercial:
    AmigaVision
    Art Department Professional
    ArtExpression
    AudiomasterIV
    Audition4
    BCD Frame Controller
    BME
    Cinemorph v1.00
    Cygnus Ed v3.00
    DCTV
    DCTVPaint
    DCTVProc
    DPaint III
    DPaint IV
    DPaint v4.1
    DigiView
    Digital Sound Studio
    DirectoryOpus v4.00 (nice work John)
    DiskMaster v1.3
    FinalCopyII
    FrEd
    HAM-E
    HotLinks
    IMP
    ImageFX
    Imagine 2.00
    MorphPlus
    PC-Task v1.1
    PageLiner
    PageStream v2.2
    Pixel3D
    PowerPacker V4.0
    Professional Page
    Quarterback Tools v5
    Scene Generator
    Scenery Animator v3.04
    Super Gen
    Video Toaster 2.0
    VistaPro
    VistaPro2
    Word Perfect
    XCopyPro v6.xxx(?)

And there's more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


DISLIKES:

     I have no reason to buy a HARDWARE 286 emulator now! :)  PC-Task v1.1
on my 040/500 runs as quick as a 25 MHz 286.  I have not been able to get
Windows V3.1 going yet, but DOS programs like Debug and A86 Assembler work
perfectly.  PLUS, it's multitasking :) :) :)!

    The only request I have for a newer version of the PPI 040/500 is
for a FASTER one, I want to go faster, Faster, FASTER, *F*A*S*T*E*R*, (slap),
oh, sorry about that.  I got a bit carried away.  Give a man 25 MHz and he'll
want 50 MHz! :)



COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

    I take it you ALL know what an A3000 is.  Well, mine's faster. :)  I
have performed side-by-side speed tests with a friends A3000 and my 040 is
about *4* times quicker.  I have not tested any other similar products
except an A600, no comment. :P


BUGS

    None, other than the fact that IDIOTS program lovely/incredible
track-loading demos with ILLEGAL CODE and they don't work when my 040's at
full speed :(.  But that's no fault of Progressive Peripherals.


WARRANTY

    Their warranty is laid out on the first page of the manual, and it's
written in plain English/American so there's no confusion.  As the manual is
Copyrighted and "cannot be reproduced in any way/shape/form (including
electronic store or retrieval or translation into foreign language) without
prior agreement and express consent from PPI Incorporated" (whoops) here's
the Warranty in brief form...

   - Limited ONE year warranty.

   - The warranty is for the PURCHASER !!ONLY!!

   - If you discover a fault with your 040/500 within the warranty time,
     PPI will replace the unit or faulty component ASAP at THEIR EXPENSE!
     In Other Words: they pay for the replacement of the unit, etc.

   - Their liability is SOLELY for the 040/500 unit ONLY!
     i.e., if you blow you Paula or something during installation or
     there's a power surge, etc, that's NOT COVERED!

   - If a fault is discovered, you simply send/deliver the unit to PPI
     (Progressive Peripherals Incorporated) WITH the original sales
     receipt.  You pay for delivery/postage there, they pay for
     delivery/postage back to you (method of delivery/postage is at PPI's
     discretion.  Any EXTRA shipping costs are YOUR responsibility!

   - Before sending the fault unit back, you MUST first ring PPI and get an
     RMA number (Return Merchandise Authorization number).  They will NOT
     accept units returned to them without the RMA number attached.

   - NO unit/component(s) will be replaced if the 040/500's serial number
     is damaged, altered, or missing!

   - The software which comes with the 040 are NOT under any kind of
     warranty, so if certain software does fail, then the returning and
     replacement of said programs is ENTIRELY at the owner's expense.

   - In NO WAY can PPI be liable for any amount more than the recommended
     retail price of the 040/500 unit at the current moment!

   - The Disclaimer is a mother of a paragraph to read, but I think they're
     trying to say that they will only accept Warranty forms within 90 days
     of the initial purchase of the item.  I think, but don't quote me on
     that; if the Manual wasn't copyrighted, I could have let YOU try and
     understand it, but it is, so I can't.

  WARNING!!
   - Damage whilst being installed by an unauthorized person is NOT covered
     by the warranty.  My suggestion is pay the extra $20US and get an
     AUTHORIZED technician to install the unit, then if it stuffs up, you
     DON'T pay for it!


CONCLUSIONS

    To conclude, this product is one of the fastest and most powerful
accelerators for the A500.  I thought the leap from a floppy-based system to
a hard-drive-based system was big, but it's NOTHING compared to the quantum
leap you'll discover when going from a 7.14 MHz 68000 to a 25 MHz 68040!  It
could almost be called a Revolution, a Paradine Shift!


    On scales from 1 to 10, I would have to give this accelerator...

Speed:                   10   Goes like a "Bat outta hell!"

Compatibility:            9   Both WB1.3 and WB2.0 have their incompatibility
                  problems, but overall compatibility is around
                  90% - 95%.

Hardware Compatibility:   9   MegaCHIP, GVP HDs, tape drives, CD-ROMS work
                              fine, although it would pay to check with PPI
                              first!

Performance:             10   While I'm writing this review, I have
                              SmartPlay, TinyClock, Performance Monitor,
                              NComm, Edit, DiskMaster, AlarmingClock, Bell,
                              KCommodity, ToolManager2, Virus_Checker,
                              PowerPacker v4.0 and WBGauge going (wow!) and
                              the CPU is running at 7%!  THAT'S performance!

Easy of installation:     9   The Technician said it was easy, took 20 mins.

Easy of use:             10   Easy-peazy lemon-squeezy!

Expandability:            7   Upto 33 MHz and 8MB of 32bit FAST.

Value for money:          9   For $1000US, you just can't beat it!

Overall:                  9   Well done PPI for showing us A500 users the
                              way to make the PC lovers of the world GREEN
                              with envy!  Seriously, this unit is possibly
                              the single BEST peripheral I have bought for
                              my Amiga!


LEGAL MUMBO-JUMBO

    This review may be freely distributed in any shape or form including
via telephone, electronic mail, snail-mail, telegraph, Morse code, archiving
onto an FTP site, saving in a cold dark place on your hard disk to read on a
rainy day, backed up onto 880K floppies, translated to any other language
(French, German, Australian, Fijian, South Africa, American, Spanish,
Italian, Indian, Russian, Mexican, Moari, PolyGlot, Swedish, Danish, Finish
(not just yet :) ), Japanese, Malay, Arabic, Chinese, etc.), ported to the
PC/Mac, printed out using a Dot Matrix, DeskJet, Laser, Daisy Wheel, WaxJet,
PaintJet, Thermo printer, played through SPEAK: and recorded onto C60 or C90
audio cassettes, written out by hand, or dictated outloud whilst bungy
jumping.  It MAY NOT be used as a promotion for Coca-Cola or Trojan Ribbed!

             Freeware 1993 Kerry Emerson.  No rights reserved.
         Just remember to credit me if you quote from this review.

 p.s. Write to me if you have (or are thinking about getting) a PPI 040!

     Kerry Emerson.  User: `Darknight Si'  UUCP: [e-mail]
      Co-SysOp of Silent Imperium: [phone]bps (3pm-8am).
---

   Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews
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