Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!mcsun!unido!tub!tmpmbx!netmbx!hase
From: hase@netmbx.UUCP (Hartmut Semken)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Gadgets by Small - Possible new '030 add-on board!
Message-ID: <3795@netmbx.UUCP>
Date: 19 Nov 89 17:45:26 GMT
References: <23970@cup.portal.com> <2278@hudson.acc.virginia.edu> <46dba878.14a1f@force.UUCP> <1989Nov16.180311.23182@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Reply-To: hase@netmbx.UUCP (Hartmut Semken)
Organization: netmbx Public Access Unix, Berlin, West Germany
Lines: 49

In article <3322@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> ins_bac@jhunix.UUCP (Ajay Choudhri) writes:
>In article <1989Nov16.180311.23182@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> nemeth@gpu.utcs.UUCP (Gabe Nemeth) writes:
>[PAK68 68000-proc replacement with 020/881 availeble now]
>Available now...well could you post more info for us non-europeans.
>I'd be interested in seeing some specifics on this..
>compatibility, speed increase, etc

So, here t goes:

The PAK68 is an c't project. c't is a german computer magazine.

Instuctions to build it were published some time ago, together with full
circurit description.

compatibility: none. TOS doesn't run; a TOS version hacked to run is not
very compatible (why, why did Atari use line-F for anything but floating
point?)

speed increase: well, the 020 runs at 8 MHz. The circurit was not
designed specifically for the ST...
circurits like Turbo-16, CMI speed or the like were designed for the St,
so they can fall back to 8 MHz wherever necessary and run at higher
clocks when the async BUS is used.
The PAK68 has support for high speed SRAM on a daugterboard.
But nobody made this availeble to TOS; the custom chips (DMA and SHIFTER)
cannot acess it (their adress registers are inside the MCU, so they can
only acess the MCU-supported DRAM). And most programs do not like to run
in anything but the standard RAM...

overall the speed increase is compareble to any 16-MHz 68000 accelerator
for the ST.

With ther german RTOS (nothing to do with TOS!), the PAK helps a lot
more, cause RTOS can use the cache, the 020 specific instructions and
the 881.

I exspect the Gadgets board to help a lot with Spectre and do almost
nothing for TOS. The ST is a closed machine; a compatible, faster
redesign is pretty exspensive.
TOS not only does not support processors other than 68000, it fights
them :-(

hase

-- 
Hartmut Semken, Lupsteiner Weg 67, 1000 Berlin 37 hase@netmbx.UUCP
Dennis had stepped up into the top seat whet its founder had died of a
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Ferrari and a bottle of tequila. (Douglas Adams; the long dark teatime...)