Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!caip!nike!ucbcad!ucbvax!jade!eris!mwm From: mwm@eris.berkeley.edu Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga Subject: MC68010 upgrade - how to, and what you get. Message-ID: <947@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: Tue, 8-Jul-86 03:24:01 EDT Article-I.D.: jade.947 Posted: Tue Jul 8 03:24:01 1986 Date-Received: Wed, 9-Jul-86 01:45:29 EDT References: <902@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> <555@3comvax.UUCP> <2128@ihlpg.UUCP> <305@hp-sdd.UUCP> Sender: usenet@jade.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: mwm@eris.UUCP () Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica Lines: 121 In article <305@hp-sdd.UUCP> adp@hp-sdd.UUCP (Tony Parkhurst) writes: >Would someone please post the info to do the MC68010 upgrade. Sure. The upgrade is little more than swapping processors. Exact instructions can be found on Fish Disk #18. I've included the "How to Obtain Disks" section of the Fish disk list at the end. The MC68010 has the following differences when compared with the MC68000: 1) Better microcode, so some instructions run faster. 2) An internal pipeline, and smarts to recognize that loops that end in DBcc .-4 will fit into it, and run them out of the pipeline. 3) Better support for virtual memory/machine things, including 4) move ,SR is now a privileged instruction. Since I don't write much assembler, and haven't waded around inside the DOS, I have no idea how much (if any) performance enhancement I'll get from #2. Hopefully the Lattice "memcopy" routine uses one of these. #1 buys a little extra performance. #3 is just nice, especially if you want to play around with doing your own OS. #4 means you need some code loaded to catch the trap it causes and simulate the MOVE. All the needed code is on the Fish disk. I've run three benchmarks on both machines: a simple Mandelbrot generation, and the dhrystone benchmarks (both with and without registers). The timings are: }i MC68000 MC68010 % performance increase Mandelbrot (time) 4:27 4:17 3.75 Dhrystone (no regs) 446 454 1.79 Dhrystone (regs) 450 467 3.78 cost (dollars) 1295 1332 2.86 The Mandelbrot is from Fish Disk #5, and is a g on the default set. I timed the generation with a stopwatch. The Dhrystone was provided by Matt Dillon, and is supposedly measures the performance of the machine on an "average" set of integer instructions. The number is the number of "drystones/second" the machine can do. It is measured in wall-clock seconds. The boot disk ran my default CLI startup-sequence, and then had the clock program turned off. This is one set of timings. The last digit of the %'s is probably garbage, but provided for completeness. I'd be interested in seeing other sets of timings, most especially with the MANX C compiler. Conclusions: Now that I've made the change, I'm happy about it. I got more increase in performance than in cost, and have had no problems at all. However, it's not enough to be obvious when using the system. If i'd known in advance, I'd NOT have done it; the ulcers involved in me opening the box aren't worth the minor performance gain. In other words, I wouldn't recomend this upgrade AT ALL, unless 1) You're comfortable twiddling hardware, and want to be different, or 2) you really want to play with OS's. Possibly those wanting Amiga 2000 compatability may be interested in it. Of course, you'll have to make this decision yourself; I've tried to provide all the relevant data. Final note: I bought my 68010 from a small parts house, and got the LAST one they had. It's not clear when or if they'll get another, so PLEASE don't send me mail asking where to get them or where I got mine - it won't do you any good, and I won't answer it since you've been warned. Try calling the places that advertize in the back of Byte.