Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!uwmcsd1!ig!jade!ucbvax!hplabs!well!ewhac
From: ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Hurricane 68020 & O/S speedup
Message-ID: <4989@well.UUCP>
Date: 13 Jan 88 19:24:38 GMT
References: <271@dalcsug.UUCP>
Reply-To: ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab)
Organization: Amiga Biotechnology Labs and Nuclear Testing Grounds, Nevada
Lines: 51
Keywords: 68020 AmigaDOS ROM

In article <271@dalcsug.UUCP> peter@dalcsug.UUCP (R. Andrew MacRae) writes:
>  Is anyone familiar with Finally Techonologies' "Hurricane" 68020/68881 board
>as mentioned in the Jan. 88 issue of AmigaWorld?  Specifically, is it 
>available, and how does it compare with the CSA 68020/68881 board? (A1000)

	I've got one (which, if you read a previous posting of mine, is the
aforementioned slightly-nefariously-acquired 68020/68881 board).  It works
wonderfully.  I don't know how it compares with CSA's unit performance-wise,
but I suspect that they are roughly equivalent.

	The Hurricane board also has the added advantage of plugging
directly inside your A1000 (replacing the 68000), as opposed to CSA's which
is a seperate card for their Turbo Highrise.

>One important question is how many wait states on their 2 Meg board?  Could
>it be static RAM?
>
	Judging from prices for Finally's 32-bit RAM as compared to CSA's
prices, I suspect that either Finally's RAM is dynamic RAM (possibly with
wait states), or that CSA is gouging.  I think it a bit of both.  I have no
facts, though (I keep meaning to call them).

>For a machine like the Amiga, which interacts with almost all hardware and 
>software (IE: multitasking overhead) through system routines, the speed gained
>by moving KS/ROM routines to 32 bit/fast memory vs 16 bit could be very large.
>  Just how feasable is this?  I know you lose 192K or maybe 256K, but it might
>be worth it, at least as an option.
>  I guess you would copy the memory directly, and then change the ROMtags.

	I just sent a letter to Dale asking why ExecBase isn't moved into
Autoconfig RAM after boot up.  He said most of the system is operational by
the time Exec gets around to Autoconfiging stuff, and thus ExecBase is too
difficult to move by that time.  (Actually, I wouldn't mind spending a week
of my time banging on Exec to get it to move ExecBase out of CHIP RAM; I'm
not doing anything else at the moment.)

	The point of this is that, if ExecBase is hard to move, the whole of
KickStart is probably next to impossible.  Nevertheless, I agree it would be
a real win to have KickStart in 32-bit RAM, if it was available.

>After all, the whole OS uses relative addressing, right?

	Somehow, I don't think so....

	Am I being overly pessimistic?

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Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape	ihnp4!ptsfa -\
 \_ -_		Recumbent Bikes:	      dual ---> !{well,unicom}!ewhac
O----^o	      The Only Way To Fly.	      hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack")
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