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Originally Posted by wawa
okay so where do we have a newer hardware without that "feature regression" you are talking about, (namely featuring mmu and fpu as i assume)?
fpga arcade?
..
i dont know. can you give me an example?
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The FPGA Arcade with 68060 expansion has no regression in CPU units from the C= days.
CPU(integer)+MMU+FPU+FPGA+faster memory
Quote:
Originally Posted by BSzili
I think this comes from the fact that the Apollo Core was advertised as the fastest and most compatible continuation of the 680x0 line. Most sites even include the "Fully pipelined, double/extended FPU" as a feature.
The accelerators you listed weren't advertised as such to my knowledge.
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Most important is the main site!
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Originally Posted by http://www.apollo-core.com/index.htm?page=features
Fully pipelined, double/extended FPU
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I expect it will disappear like the ColdFire support feature before that was abandoned by Gunnar too.
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Originally Posted by http://www.apollo-accelerators.com/
Apollo Accelerators is an Amiga Classic accelerator board product line. It uses the Apollo core which is a code compatible Motorola M68K and ColdFire processor but is 3 to 4 time faster than the fastest 68060 at time
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The "3 to 4 times faster than the fastest 68060" is grey area false marketing from benchmarks I have seen. The most overclocked Apollo Accelerator might be 3 to 4 times faster overall than the slowest 68060@50MHz using slow or no fast memory (CPU integer benchmarks usually do *not* include SIMD use and Amiga benchmarks do not include SIMD use). I expect both processors are roughly equivalent in integer performance/MHz (excluding SIMD) but the Apollo accelerator has faster memory than practically any 68060 accelerator. Maybe we will have a benchmark contest between the Apollo Core and FPGA Arcade with 68060@100MHz soon.
More questionable advertising includes the new Amiga Kit announcement.
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Originally Posted by http://amigakit.com/news/News_Release_Apollo_Accelerators.pdf
The new accelerator is powered by the Apollo/68080 Core which is the natural and modern evolution of latest 680x0 processors. It's 100% code compatible, corrects bugs of 680x0 designs and adds on top most of the cool features which were invented the years after.
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The "68080" is likely *not* "100% code compatible" with any 68k CPU or ISA. The one it is most compatible with is the 68000 but I expect that comes up short as well. The "corrects bugs of 680x0 designs and adds on top most of the cool features which were invented the years after" makes me cringe too. There were few 68k CPU bugs and the Apollo Core likely introduces more bugs than it removes. I guess a FPU does not count as a cool feature.
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Originally Posted by http://amigakit.com/news/News_Release_Apollo_Accelerators.pdf
Apollo surpasses the performance of 68060 ASIC by far - even when only using low cost FPGA.
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Again, highly questionable. See above.
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Originally Posted by http://amigakit.com/news/News_Release_Apollo_Accelerators.pdf
The Apollo accelerators are faster than a 68060 at 100MHz, delivering more performance to Amiga than ever before. It now makes web browsing, listening to MP3 music, watch videos a more enjoyable experience.
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I'm still not sure an Apollo accelerator is faster than what is possible with a 68060@100MHz and modern memory. Maybe plasmab will make a 68060@100MHz capable accelerator with SRAM and we will see. As far as web browsing, NetSurf, AWeb and IBrowse use floating point and prefer to have an FPU.