ELSA E1208+8mb+copro 68881

[frikilokooo]

I'm thinking about buying one ELSA E1208+8mb+copro 68881.I want to know if the copro 68881 improves the speed of my a1200 and how many mhz has it.It will improve the speed of the games?,thank you!

http://http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=997

[Zetr0]

@frikilokooo

Hello there, interesting card, I like the feature to limmit the card to 4mb even if you have more installed. (handy for those pcmcia activities )

okay, down to the questions,

• The 68881 maths co-processor or FPU will only improve Floating point operations, the only things that really use this are 3D games like doom or ray-tracing packages like imagine or lightwave (or POV) come to mind.
  
  If memory serves there were some mp3 or sound decompression software that also used an fpu, but i cannot be sure..
  
• the maxium rated speed for a 68881 is 33mhz, you could run these at 40 - 50mhz but you will need active cooling (heatsink and fan) these co-processors will also run at a slower 14-28mhz
  
• A memory card will double the speed of your a1200 as it will have fast-ram to play with. not to mention also caching improves performance of a lot of processes.
  
• This card will improve games that rely on concurrent calculations things like Frontier / Wing Commander / some parts of Wings / Hunter / Virus... infact it will improve these very noticably! certain types of games it wont improve like platform games, although with the extra-memory, some games also have extra features, like added sound or improved graphics.

an 8MB card (with or without fpu / co-processor) is a good entry level games machine, it allows most games to pre-load under WHDLoad wich is indeed Awesome!

[frikilokooo]

The reason to buy the card is to play WHDLoad games in my A1200 and after the good things that ZetrO has explained I'm more happy

[fc.studio]

I suggest to you to read my #4 post in this thread:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=31687

[frikilokooo]

finally I have bought the E1208 card,the fpu is 68881 12mhz.

I have a problem because I don't know in which position to connect fpu
It's a perfect square and it has 4 possible connections.I have checked fpu has an "*" in a corner but the female connection does not have indications...
can somebody help me?

[keropi]

you realise that the fpu is useless in whdload games
it will only produce heat...

[Zetr0]

With the CPU Connector to the right and you facing down on the board (with the sim slot side up)

the position of the MC68881 FPU is pin 1 to top left corner.


heres a picy attached

[frikilokooo]

Do you mean this way?

[Zetr0]

ermm.... no thats the wrong way sir... you see that in the corner there is 'Y' well that referes to pin one.... it would seem i confused you with the schematic ( the pin array is viewed from the bottom --- so upside down) as is it is in the picture above.... from that picture turn it round 180o and please postie again

[Zetr0]

here you go

[frikilokooo]

I understood it completely on the contrary,I think that you have too much patience with me,I hope at least that you have laughted

Don't worry now it is very clear.Thank you!

[Zetr0]

@frikilokooo

more than welcome, and believe me, we all have to start some where in this wonderfull Amiga Hardware!

to discover the oreintation, i looked at the circuit tracks on the board, most commonly are voltage (vcc) and gound lines are bigger! (because of the current they will heat up if too small as they act more like a filiment as opposed to a route or path)

besides i got to add another datasheet to my scheamtics collection ... welcome to my hard disk Mr MC68881 datasheet!

[frikilokooo]

Installed correctly,fastram and fpu detected but I had to connect the card several times until my a1200 has located it.It's necessary to press very hard so that it penetrates.

[Zetr0]

Originally Posted by frikilokooo

.....It's necessary to press very hard so that it penetrates.

Ahhh such is life in general

glad to hear you got it all up and running! Well done !