Blizzard 1220 card

I just bought a Blizzard 1220 4 mb card on eBay for 61 euros, I was just after a memory expansion but I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this card and what kind of speed increase can I expect. Will it run WHDLoad ok and will NewIcons be ok for this card?

[NovaCoder]

Hiya,

Yep 4mb should be ok for *most* WHDLOAD AGA games and even some AGA demos (of course OCS/ECS is covered).

Speed increase in WB will not be that much but you should be running 3.1 with your setup anyway. If you're asking about games etc, then I don't think you'll get any more performance.

[spock-79]

The card doubles the speed of A1200.

And is at least a little bit faster than a Mtec1230 @ 28MHz SysSpeed B1220

[coze]

I have a 1220 too ! It's a great little board, great value for your money, but finding its RAM board is difficult. And the only time I needed the RAM is while surfing the net and since it knocks out the PCMCIA port, getting the RAM defeats it's purpose for me

Cheers guys, sounds like a nice little board then, should do nicely for me then. Just want it for writing OctaMED tunes and Brilliance work Yeah I was thinking of finding the extra 4 mb card but I want to still use the PCMCIA slot, haven`t had the amiga surfing the net yet though ... have to give that a try when the card arrives and get the S-Video card sorted.

Coze, just out of curiosity how are you running your A1200 here in Japan? Do you use a VGA adapter or just a normal TV?

[coze]

I don't have a TV I use a XRGB (somekind of japanese scandoubler) on my monitor.

but nowadays I don't use the 1200 much.

I see, how is the picture quality of it? Thinking of a cheap way to replace the Indivision now I think I had seen someone before talking about this ScanDoubler from DealExtreme, I wonder if the picture quality would be ok from this and the AmigaManiac S-Video adapter . . . oo(0_0)oo. . .

[coze]

the picture quality is good, though I don't think it supports the AGA modes like the indivision, so that's why I wanted to get the indivision. XRGB itself is not cheap though (usually 10.000-15.000 yen'ish at yahoo auctions)

if you want to go the S-Video adapter route, you need a PAL capable TV. Did you get that S-Video adapter working ?

Ahh I see, fraid I haven`t gotten it to work yet, just get a black picture for some reason, though I need to try it maybe on another TV. My TV supports PAL so through the Composite it is full screen and colour. Ouch that is a bit pricey for the ScanDoubler for me, about the same price as an Indivision

[fc.studio]

I've one and I consider it a small jewel.
With it you have an A1200 with 6 MB (2 MB CHIP + 4 MB FAST from the accelerator) and I believe this memory is enough for 90% of users without PCMCIA conflict.
Differently from other simple memory board (performing already an A1200 2x faster), this one has a 68EC020 CPU clocked at 28 MHz (again 2x faster than stock A1200 cpu) and this means your A1200 will be faster about 4x than the standard one.

Its speed performance is similar and often not lower than accelerators with 68030 cpu.
Read here about it and similar card:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=33243

and my #4 post here for more info about accelerator:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=31687

Thanks for the info, it seems like a really nifty card, I used to have the Viper 030/28 and that sped up my Amiga nicely, if the Blizzard 1220 is about the same, then I am happy chap. Amazing that the 020 can compete on almost the same level as an 030.

[zipper]

Originally Posted by ami_junkie

Thanks for the info, it seems like a really nifty card, I used to have the Viper 030/28 and that sped up my Amiga nicely, if the Blizzard 1220 is about the same, then I am happy chap. Amazing that the 020 can compete on almost the same level as an 030.

They are (when similar clocks) about the same except 030 data cache, which doesnt do too much difference.

[Zetr0]

I learnerd the following from a very wise brazillian storm-trooper

the (odd) numbers in the motorola chips are small revisions, bug fixes and DIE size changes of previous chips -

68000
Original CPU with 68000 transitors onboard

• 68010
  fixed some bugs, thus making some games/software unreliable that used them bugs,
  added a couple of fast instruction loops

68020
Whoot 32bit in and out =D

• 68030
  added some more cache, revised the die and fixed some bugs, integerated the MMU

68040
Integrated FPU and revised the cach.

• 68050
  Designed but never to see silicon

68060
Super Scaler incorperated and Branching instuctions

• 68070
  Designed but never to see silicon

between the 040 and 060 releases there was a hugh DIE change, this reduces the power required to push the gates open, but also more cach and other features can be put on the silicon.

the original 040's using the old cach suffer terribly from over-heating failure (especially those old 25mhz units) the latter 40mhz compatible units are made with the same micron size as the 060 and hence run VERY cool, also its wise to not that this particular 040 is 5volts as opposed to the 060's 3.3volts.

however according to the schematic from free scale the 060 can have upto 4.6 volts when clocked to 100mhz

okay... geeking out now.... sorry about that....

[Toni Wilen]

Probably not very on topic either but also MMU kept changing.

68851: very complex, instruction continuation after exception (stores enough data in exception stack frames that makes continuation possible after access errors)

68030: 68851 but removed some less needed 68851 instructions.

68040: new less complex architecture, new simple instruction set, totally incompatible with 68030/68851. Partial restart, can't continue execution after access error. Restarts instruction that causes access error except if last write caused access error (it really is more complex than that)

68060: 68040 architecture but full restart.