After the introduction of 68060 boards, the Amiga world was integrating ppc cpu's to our machines. But the implementation isn't easy.
[ Introduction ]
After the introduction of 68060 boards, the Amiga world was integrating ppc cpu’s to our machines. But the implementation was’t done as good and easy to use as possible. As a result we got boards with two different cpu’s: 68k and ppc. For example, with the Acorn hardware it was the same scheme: Arm + x86 on one board.
So, all the 68k software does work as before, and new software was developed to use the PPC. For this purpose the ppc.library was loaded into the flash memory of the board, but this library was REALLY crap.
Anyway, nowadays we can use WOS (warp os), which not so stable as 68k kernels, but surely it’s the best choice for ppc on classical Amigas.
„Blizzard PPC (c) phase5 digital product, 1997“ – label of company which produced ppc boards for the classic a1200. Some different versions of boards were sold:
bppc603e with 040 and with 060
bppc603e+ with 040 and with 060 (+ means scsi interface)
By the way, for A4000 models the board was called ‚CyberStorm‘. This accelerator offered the most powerful ppc cpu – 604. Well, cpu clock for a1200 boards (603e) can be in range from 160 to 180 for ppc (by default I mean) and from 25(040) to 50(060)mhz (by default, too).
[ Let’s have some fun ! ]
Some time ago I had a Blizzard 060, and I just killed it by doing my experiments with my soldering gun. So, I was thinking that the CPU was dead, too. But only the power of the blizzard board was damaged, the cpu itself was still alive. Also, I had a blizzard ppc 603e from phase5, but with the slow 040 cpu on board.
By default the 040 was only powered with the speed of 25 mhz. Of course I speeded it up to 33 mhz by oscillator resoldering. For 040, oscillator on 50mhz gives us 25mhz (because for 040 multiplier ‚divide/2‘ must be set, 66mhz oscil – 33mhz). In any case 040 is not a 060 and the best choice is to have a fast ppc and a fast 68k cpu’s on one board :)
Next, by resoldering a bit the smd resistors I made a speedup of the ppc clock, from 160mhz to 266mhz. But AmigaOs still worked slowly, 68k apps worked slowly, etc, etc. So, I thought about resoldering my 060 cpu from my old dead board and put it to bppc. But bppc doesn’t tender any socket. Bppc for 040 has 5.0v for the cpu and devide/2 resistors are set!
So. First you need a SOCKET for your cpu. Phase5/dce didn’t create sockets for 1200 boards, maybe due to money problems. Maybe because of other reasons but anyway, we don’t have sockets for the cpu and must install it on one. Yes, it’s possible to solder cpu directly on board, but who gives us a warranty that it will work properly?
Well, I took the socket from an old i486 pc motherboard. This socket was a bit big, and therefore had two free lines of pins, but who cares of course. Another case is to take the socket from the old Amiga board from A3000/A4000 (take a look at azine.jpg, in the bonus directory, this is a pic from azine #4 about this kind of work).
Afterwards, we must resolder the old 040 cpu from board. It’s mostly difficult and hard work. Under the cpu there are located some little resistors and it can become a problem by resoldering the cpu because you may damage the resistors underwards. So please be patient and work slowly, very slowly :)
Next step is, soldering socket to board, or the 060 cpu directly.
Next, to change voltage coil from 5v to 3.3v positon (look at voltage.jpg in the /bonus/bppc040_to_060/how-to/ directory)
Next, change devide resistor place (look at multiplier.jpg in the how-to dir)
That’s all. Hardware work is finished. In the end, you must boot your Amiga with no startup-sequence from hd or from a floppy disk and REWRITE FLASH with the NEW 060 flash !!
So, for saving your soul you need an emergency disk with flash update (check our links links section at the end) and be sure that hdd will work :) I rewrote my flash from hdd without any problems.
As I said, at the end of the article you can find urls and the download link for the archive FlashUpdates-300399.lha (We didn’t put it into the bonus dir as in fact it alone has a size of 1mb). Don’t worry, it is the LATEST update available. You need to run the file blizppc060update of course. And REMEMBER, if you stop/break/poweroff Amiga while updating, be sure, that you just killed your board.
So, take care :)
So, let’s repeat the steps again:
hardware work:
- remove the 040, put the 060 on a socket or directly.
- change divide resistor to new position.
- change black coil to new position (from 5v to 3.3v)
software work:
- Switch on Amiga and update the flash.
[ the end ]
So, that is it. I already work with my new bppc x 266 / 060 x 66 mhz board, and AT LEAST, I can work with my Amiga. Of course 060 x 300 mhz would be much better, because of divx problems with the classic board, but .. who cares :)
In end of the article I also give you some links obout discussion about migrating from 040 to 060 on bppc boards. Good luck! And be aware that in case you destroy your board by following our instructions – it will your problem!!! You cannot hold us responsible for any damage you caused on your own! Anyway, you’re naturally invited to send to me some questions about that matter via email etc., etc.
See you!
Links:
http://www.amiga.org/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=2281
http://www.amiga.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=23066&post_id=298479&
order=0&viewmode=flat&pid=298344&forum=8#forumpost298479
http://www.amiga.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=26895&forum=8#
forumpost333353
http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=15732&forum=2
Flash update:
here: http://vgr.tc3net.com/dce/pub/ppc/FlashUpdates-300399.lha
or here: http://phase5.a1k.org/files/FlashUpdates-300399.lha
or just here: http://www.google.com/search?q=FlashUpdates-300399.lha
And once again – Good luck :)
Written by kas1e – e-mail: kas1e@yandex.ru
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