Overclocking 060 up to 90+MHz

[Kppot]

Alright, so my Apollo 1260 with Rev 6 CPU is working nicely with 90Mhz and 100. However, it gives me a black screen with 96 or 98MHz oscillators. I wonder why, some vid timings are incorrect? How do I fix that?

PS Sysinfo screenshot here (for 90MHz) is just because I love sysinfo!

[jbenam]

Reaching 90MHz (and being stable!) with an Apollo 1260 is already a great result in itself.

I seem to remember back when I was interested in pushing mine to 100MHz as well that some obtained it by removing the 3.3V power board and injecting directly both 3.3V and 5V on the card. You should be able to find something about that here on EAB.

If it still doesn't work, you might be limited by the CPLDs. Not all are equal

[trixster]

I have a 105mhz Falcon without voltage modification. I guess this is probably just luck.

One of my WarpEngine’s works fine at 96mhz without modification.

[Kppot]

Yeah, okay then, however I was asking if there is a reason for 90MHz and 100 - working for me while 96 and 98 no working, and how may I fix that
I suspect video timings are getting broken

[jbenam]

Welp, somehow I missed that entirely.

AFAIR the A1200 has chipset timings decoupled from the CPU, so I don't think that's the issue. Maybe it's just the Apollo's clock divider?

[Kin Hell]

Guys....

All CPU's are Manufactured to the Highest Spec.

Soak Testing will Bin CPU's by Functionality, MMU, FPU etc. Then they Bin them EC, LC etc. All types of CPU are then Soak tested for their Safe Stable speed.

Silicon Speeds will always vary from Batch to Batch due to small irregularities in the Fabrication process.

Not all CPU's are Equal.

[rabidgerry]

@kppot what kind of cooling have you got on your Apollo 1260?

[Kppot]

Originally Posted by rabidgerry

@kppot what kind of cooling have you got on your Apollo 1260?

Please read the first post more carefully. My 060 is working on 90 and/or 100 MHz okay.
But it does not tolerate 96 or 98
This i s the whole question
The rev 6 does not require cooling that badly, though I do have some passive and a fan inside the case, just to keep the whole case ventilated

[Kppot]

Originally Posted by jbenam

that's the issue. Maybe it's just the Apollo's clock divider?

Yeah that may be the case, I wonder if there are some more detailed info.

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by Kppot

Please read the first post more carefully. My 060 is working on 90 and/or 100 MHz okay.
But it does not tolerate 96 or 98
This i s the whole question
The rev 6 does not require cooling that badly, though I do have some passive and a fan inside the case, just to keep the whole case ventilated

I know your question.

I was asking you a question

I just wanted to know what you were using to cool it since you are running it at those speeds. Just in case I ever decide to do the same for an experiment myself. I saw a little device you can buy that lets you change speeds easily using one crystal but different jumpers. I was considering trying it, but wondered if I need extra cooling if overclocking to 90MHZ or 100MHZ.

[Kppot]

Originally Posted by rabidgerry

I was considering trying it, but wondered if I need extra cooling if overclocking to 90MHZ or 100MHZ.

Oh, my apologies then
No hard thinking about the rev 6 cooling, just some passive radiator and a fan, for me, it is upper case based fan, which is more effective other than CPU radiator fan
The rev 6 will work or won't, you will see it right away, unlike old Pentium, those were able to run Windows but hanged on later.

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by Kppot

Oh, my apologies then
No hard thinking about the rev 6 cooling, just some passive radiator and a fan, for me, it is upper case based fan, which is more effective other than CPU radiator fan
The rev 6 will work or won't, you will see it right away, unlike old Pentium, those were able to run Windows but hanged on later.

Mine is currently at 80MHZ and I'm getting this really stupid urge to see if I can get it to go to 90MHZ. The fan I have is on top but it has come off and is just sitting there on top loose but sort of wedged in position.

How is it when you run at 90mhz and 100mhz?

No need to apologise

[trixster]

When I ran the WE for a bit at 96mhz I had an 80mm fan on it but no heatsink - it was absolutely fine. I was more concerned with the extra 8mhz on the accelerator’s cplds, and that’s why I’ve returned back to 80mhz for normal running.

The 105mhz Atari one has a large heatsink and fan.

[Kppot]

Originally Posted by rabidgerry

I'm getting this really stupid urge to see if I can get it to go to 90MHZ.

I can literally feel the same!

Originally Posted by rabidgerry

How is it when you run at 90mhz and 100mhz?

Well, we may measure that by quite few titles
1. Quake is 15, sometimes 16 FPS with timedemo 1, which is rather good, @80 it was 12. The gameplay is still somewhat sluggish
2. Alien breed 3D II is playable and enjoyable at full window
3. Duke Nukem port still requires one or even two window size decrease to be playable
Otherwise, it is about 72 000 with Sysinfo!

[trixster]

Quake needs fast memory speed, that’s why it is not that fast on an Apollo even with high MHz 060. It would be very interesting to see it run on a high clocked Warp1260!

[rabidgerry]

Originally Posted by trixster

When I ran the WE for a bit at 96mhz I had an 80mm fan on it but no heatsink - it was absolutely fine. I was more concerned with the extra 8mhz on the accelerator’s cplds, and that’s why I’ve returned back to 80mhz for normal running.

The 105mhz Atari one has a large heatsink and fan.

Don't laugh but what is

WE

and

cplds

Now seriously don't be laughing

Originally Posted by Kppot

I can literally feel the same!


Well, we may measure that by quite few titles
1. Quake is 15, sometimes 16 FPS with timedemo 1, which is rather good, @80 it was 12. The gameplay is still somewhat sluggish
2. Alien breed 3D II is playable and enjoyable at full window
3. Duke Nukem port still requires one or even two window size decrease to be playable
Otherwise, it is about 72 000 with Sysinfo!

Duke Nukem is playable for me at 80MHZ, apart from the fact I've to use the keyboard which is off putting as I'm just not one of those keyboard using guys

I can also play Shadow Warrior and Powerslave. But I'm sure a speed boost would help them even more so.

I noticed you are from Russia, where Amiga's popular in Russia? Hope you don't mind me asking

[trixster]

Cplds are complex programmable logic devices - the glue logic that helps the accelerator run. I don’t actually know if the WarpEngine uses cplds but it’s kind of a catch-all term for different logic ICs, I think. The chips could be PALs or GALS (programmable array logic and generic array logic).

WE stands for WarpEngine - it’s an accelerator by Macrosystem from the 90s

[Kppot]

Originally Posted by rabidgerry

Don't laugh but what is and

I noticed you are from Russia, where Amiga's popular in Russia? Hope you don't mind me asking

You are welcome to ask everything you want to know, will try to cover that
Basically A500, it is still hanging around from Perestroika times. This is the most common model, everybody here were oldfags, and deny A600 or A1200
A1200 was quite popular in mid of 90ties, with local TV stations. Few dozens were sold to Dubna city (think of local Silicone Valley)
Then the digital TV come so quickly, they sold all A1200 for almost nothing, I got my A1200 for 80 USD back in 2005, and it was really pain to use - no memory, no CF card no anything, so I sell it.
A600 is still pretty rare, even though few scalpers pick them on eBay and later sell for crazy amount of money.
You may get A600 for like 300 quids and A1200 for 600 quids in Russia, most probably it will be uncapped one from eBay.
Also, there are small community with high-end hardware like here (A1200 Ultimate upgrade guide) https://habr.com/ru/post/92862/

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by trixster

Cplds are complex programmable logic devices - the glue logic that helps the accelerator run. I don’t actually know if the WarpEngine uses cplds but it’s kind of a catch-all term for different logic ICs, I think. The chips could be PALs or GALS (programmable array logic and generic array logic).

WE stands for WarpEngine - it’s an accelerator by Macrosystem from the 90s

The Warpengine has a pile of PALs and GALs and a 6000 gate Lattice PLD. And an 80MHz clock driver/buffer. But the point is not just that, we assume the NCR SCSI isn't going to die, since that's on its own clock, but any of the myriad 74F devices could die and it's probably not all that likely that a person would be able to diagnose which one (well maybe).

[trixster]

Indeed. Not worth overclocking by a few MHz in my opinion. This stuff is nearly as old and fragile as my knees