Upgrading Blizz 1240 - which 060 to choose?

[tnt23]

Hi all,

I've got a dead Blizzard 1240T/ERC collecting dust for quite some time. I think I'll give it another chance, replacing (allegedly) dead 040 on it with 060 of some kind.

The question is, which 060 to get? I don't need any serious overclocking, so I think any 50MHz 060 will do. There are a few of them on eBay, both XC and MC. Which will be better choice? I'd prefer a more stable and cooler one, what would you guys recommend?

[rkauer]

Send it to Dimlow (cheap fix and excellent bloke) or take the expensive and superb service of Amiga Repair France.

If your option is the cheapest possible, buy an old revision 060 (XC type) from IC-China (38 USD + shipping).

For cool running, only the latest revision will do: mask E41J (rather expensive).

[Dimlow]

Blow me, Im getting a few recomenadtions here, but anyway, i have never touched a Blizzard except for the 030 i have here. I have just finished another dead Apollo 1240 though!

[rkauer]

Originally Posted by Dimlow

Blow me,<snip>

No way!

Back on-topic:

The Blizzard are rather easy to upgrade, since the voltage regulator are always present on the board. It's a mere matter of moving a pair of SMD resistors (and replace the 040 for a 060, obviously) and boot the board without any RAM on it.

Oh, and put the correct 060 libs on drawer.

[DJBase]

Originally Posted by tnt23

The question is, which 060 to get? I don't need any serious overclocking, so I think any 50MHz 060 will do. There are a few of them on eBay, both XC and MC. Which will be better choice? I'd prefer a more stable and cooler one, what would you guys recommend?

Get the latest and greatest Revision with the Mask 71E41J (thats Revision 6). It will be the coolest version and can run up to 100 MHz. Don't get the old XC versions.

[coze]

higher clocked 060's on ebay are usually EC or LC. be careful, get a full 060 no matter what the clock.

by the way, how is the SD floppy emulator going ?

[papa_november]

Can any Amiga 060 accelerators even run reliably at 100 MHz? I thought only the CT60 was designed for stuff like that. The most I've heard of was 75-90 on a good day.

Are the earlier 060s really that bad heat-wise?

[tnt23]

Thanks all! So I'll be looking for an MC with that famous 71E41J mask

Sending the board to PG can hardly be an option, as I will miss all the fun! (I can always send it if/after I fail to upgrade it myself)

cose, the emulator is still working, although the code hasn't been revised since April. Writing to the emulated floppy works, too. Modified floppy image can be saved as 2 megabytes .MFM file, which later can be converted to ADF on the PC, or loaded back as is.

[DJBase]

Originally Posted by papa_november

Can any Amiga 060 accelerators even run reliably at 100 MHz? I thought only the CT60 was designed for stuff like that. The most I've heard of was 75-90 on a good day.

No, 80 MHz is the fastest which you can get on an Apollo card.

Originally Posted by papa_november

Are the earlier 060s really that bad heat-wise?

Not as bad as the 040 but hotter than the latest mask.

[Dimlow]

Originally Posted by DJBase

No, 80 MHz is the fastest which you can get on an Apollo card.

I believe the 80 Mhz Barrier can be broken the limitation of the apollo is the memory interface on the board as it runs the memory faster than other Accelerators either at full clock speed or half clock speed. With the 80 Mhz 060 the memory is running at half clock, so that's 40Mhz but with the 040 you can run it a full clock speed, so with the 40Mhz 040 you can run the memory at 40Mhz too, but i believe most boards are set up to run it at 20Mhz, anyway i have run a 040 @ 50 Mhz also running the memory at 50Mhz so my memory can take it. ie 100 Mhz 060 with half speed memory. There is one component on the board that not rated at above 80Mhz the 74f74 i have changed that to a 74ac74 (125Mhz). Also the mach chips can vary in quality and may not run with a 100 Mhz 060. All i need now is a set of oscillators to start my testing. Anyway this is off topic here.

I have looked into blizzard upgrading, its not hard to do, go slow and you should manage it.

[tnt23]

Originally Posted by rkauer

The Blizzard are rather easy to upgrade, since the voltage regulator are always present on the board. It's a mere matter of moving a pair of SMD resistors (and replace the 040 for a 060, obviously) and boot the board without any RAM on it.

Oh, and put the correct 060 libs on drawer.

My board is missing the voltage regulator. There's an empty space for it, allowing for either through-hole or SMT. On the back, the card is marked as "Blizzard 1260 (c) phase 5 digital products '94, '95 REV II Carda/Kordel/Kna:bel EWK-X30".
I guess I can spot missing components and jumpers to relocate by inspecting the images of true 1260 card.

I can borrow 50MHz 68EC060 from a friend for testing - will it boot without those 060 libs?

[Dimlow]

Yea, it will boot

[DJBase]

Originally Posted by Dimlow

I believe the 80 Mhz Barrier can be broken the limitation of the apollo is the memory interface on the board as it runs the memory faster than other Accelerators either at full clock speed or half clock speed. With the 80 Mhz 060 the memory is running at half clock, so that's 40Mhz but with the 040 you can run it a full clock speed, so with the 40Mhz 040 you can run the memory at 40Mhz too, but i believe most boards are set up to run it at 20Mhz, anyway i have run a 040 @ 50 Mhz also running the memory at 50Mhz so my memory can take it. ie 100 Mhz 060 with half speed memory. There is one component on the board that not rated at above 80Mhz the 74f74 i have changed that to a 74ac74 (125Mhz). Also the mach chips can vary in quality and may not run with a 100 Mhz 060. All i need now is a set of oscillators to start my testing. Anyway this is off topic here.

But would be a nice proof-of-concept if the card can be hacked to run faster than 80 MHz.

[Dimlow]

Next time i order some components i will order a some 100 Mhz and some 90 Mhz oscillators and we will see.

[alexh]

I believe that it's either been proved that setting the wait-states to 1+ kills performance too much or doesn't aid in speed compatibility.

Blizzard boards also have the ability to program in and save default wait states (with the cpu060 command) too.

With 50ns FPM DRAM the burst rate is theoretically much lower than 80MHz so I am surprised it works as well as it does! You need to go to SDRAM to enjoy the maximum speed rates and that would involve a new accelerator.

[Dimlow]

Alex, with the apollo 060 at 80 Mhz, the ram runs at 40Mhz

[alexh]

I dunno enough about 060 bus cycles to know if that's good or bad.

[tnt23]

Well, I bought myself a 30W soldering iron combined with vacuum solder extractor, and have removed 040 from my board. Comparing the board with the image of original 1260 (http://www.amiga-hardware.com/downlo...260_fr_big.jpg) revealed two more places where they differ.

First, there's a 220 Ohm resistor under MACH chip that is to the right from the CPU that is soldered in the left position on my board. On the 1260 board, it is set to the right position.
Here it is (sorry ZetrO, this is only a teaser):


Does it have to be repositioned? The translated French site doesn't mention it, at least I haven't found anything on it.

Next, on 1240 board there is a diode and a 330 Ohm resistor in series obviously relating to clock backup battery:


On the 1260 board, the resistor has been replaced with the same diode, and the position of the latter is clear.

Can somebody comment on this also?

[alexh]

I thought that the biggest difference was the voltage regulator? 3.3v instead of 5v? The other would be to do with the crystal?

[Damion]

Originally Posted by Dimlow

I believe the 80 Mhz Barrier can be broken the limitation of the apollo is the memory interface on the board as it runs the memory faster than other Accelerators either at full clock speed or half clock speed. With the 80 Mhz 060 the memory is running at half clock, so that's 40Mhz but with the 040 you can run it a full clock speed, so with the 40Mhz 040 you can run the memory at 40Mhz too, but i believe most boards are set up to run it at 20Mhz, anyway i have run a 040 @ 50 Mhz also running the memory at 50Mhz so my memory can take it. ie 100 Mhz 060 with half speed memory. There is one component on the board that not rated at above 80Mhz the 74f74 i have changed that to a 74ac74 (125Mhz). Also the mach chips can vary in quality and may not run with a 100 Mhz 060. All i need now is a set of oscillators to start my testing. Anyway this is off topic here.

Some pretty interesting info. I've attempted 100MHz on mine, it will boot but only without RAM. I've tried a zillion SIMMs, but I can't get the RAM operating at 50MHz, even with the CPU and RAM at 1/1. Perhaps it would be worth replacing the chip you mention, and giving it a go... I suppose the CPU might need more juice as well. (It should be possible though, I know at least the Apollo 4060 can hit a CPU clock of 100MHz.)