68010 replacement?

[Sanxion]

Hi all

Is there any benefit in swapping a 68000 for a 68010? Also, is a direct swap even possible?

[Daedalus]

They're pin-compatible, so a direct swap is possible. There are some minor benefits; whether it's worth it is really up to you:

- It adds some special cache that provides a very slight speed increase of a couple of %, depending on the code running.
- It allows the VBR to be moved, meaning the quit key functionality in most WHDLoad games now works.

There may be some very old software that isn't compatible, but wouldn't be compatible with a 68020 either. But in general, you'd be hard pushed to tell the difference in every day use.

[alexh]

I knew some people who did it "back in the day" but they didn't keep it for long. Floppy Disk games crashed more often than not.

WHDload might make it more usable these days.

I wouldn't bother.

Fitting FastRAM helps more.

[meynaf]

68010 based Amigas are quite rare and just for this it might be worth keeping.

[grond]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

- It adds some special cache that provides a very slight speed increase of a couple of %, depending on the code running.

To make this (correct) statement a little more precise: the 010 does not need to reload instructions in a 6 byte loop consisting of a short instruction (2 bytes) and a dbcc-instruction (4 bytes). This was meant to speed up some supersmall for-loops and has hardly any noticable effect in real-world programs. The downside of the 010 is that the "move from SR" instruction became a supervisor instruction causing some 68000 programs to guru. However, since the instruction always remained a supervisor instruction from then on, compatibility of any post-68000 68k processor wasn't any better and programmers learned that they shouldn't use the instruction without being in supervisor mode. I think the problem is rather small and was more prevalent in the late 80s than today.

[Robbie]

I bought one a while back and installed it, just for fun.
There is a slight benefit apparently, but not one you'll ever notice. Still fun though.

[MigaTech]

If you want to upgrade CPU in an Amiga 2000, go for a 68030 or higher CPU card, they come with fast ram and sometimes FPU. You would definitely notice a difference then!