Path: menudo.uh.edu!usenet From: mglew@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au (Michael Glew) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: Motorola MC68010 microprocessor Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Date: 13 Oct 1993 13:14:49 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 170 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <29gv09$k8d@menudo.uh.edu> Reply-To: mglew@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au (Michael Glew) NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu Keywords: hardware, CPU, 68010, accelerator, commercial PRODUCT NAME Motorola MC68010 microprocessor BRIEF DESCRIPTION The MC68010 is the third member of the "68000" family of microprocessors from Motorola. Replacing your Amiga's 68000 with a 68010 -- an inexpensive, drop-in replacement that does not require a board -- speeds up the computer by approximately 15%. The MC68010 is fully object compatible with the earlier members of the family and has added the features of virtual memory support and enhanced instruction execution timing. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: VSI Electronics (Australia) PTY LTD Telephone: Melbourne (03) 543 6445 Brisbane (07) 52 5022 Adelaide (08) 267 4848 Perth (09) 328 8499 Sydney office (02) 439 4655 Sydney sales (02) 439 8622 [MODERATOR'S NOTE: The MC68010 is made by Motorola, obviously. VSI is the Australian distributor for Motorola. - Dan] LIST PRICE $300 (Australian) for 10 units. VSI only supplies these chips in lots of 10, so you are better off buying privately like I did. I picked up one for $25 which included the programming reference card and advance information booklet. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE An Amiga with a 68000 CPU. SOFTWARE AmigaDOS 1.3 or later is recommended. COPY PROTECTION None. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 500 1MB Chip RAM, 8MB Fast RAM Kickstart/Workbench 1.3 REVIEW A while back, I heard about the 68010 CPU and how it was more or less fully compatible with the stock 68000 in my Amiga 500, and that its mul/div capabilities were sped up. This sounded like a cheap alternative to an accelerator board, so I decided to buy one. I shopped around and discovered that either the price was in excess of A$100, or else the chips were available only in bulk. So I decided to try buying one privately. This was a good move as there were quite a few people out there wanting to sell. I ended up buying one from a guy in Melbourne. Now, all I had to do to install it was to take the screws out of the back of the Amiga's case, remove the RF shielding, remove the 68000, fit the 68010, replace the shielding, and replace the screws. [MODERATOR'S NOTE: If you are not comfortable opening up your Amiga, then you should have the work done by an authorized Amiga service center. Opening your Amiga yourself may void your warranty, and careless work may even damage the machine. - Dan] As hoped, when booted up, the Amiga functioned normally. In benchmarks, the speed increase was moderate at around +15%. Another feature that I discovered was a cache-loop mode. Very small assembler loops run much faster. Specifically, this is called the DBcc looping primitive instruction. For example: lea SOURCE,a0 lea DEST,a1 move.w #LENGTH,d0 LOOP move.w (a0)+,(a1)+ ; this section will run super-fast dbeq d0,LOOP ; because no instructions are fetched There is a down side though. If you're running under AmigaDOS 1.2 or lower, then some programs will not work. This is because the programs were written without taking into account the new stack pointer. Basically this is the same for all later CPU's also (68020, 68030, 68040, etc.). So if a program won't work with the 68010, then it won't work with a 68020+ either. Try the 1.2 version of the Amiga's Calculator.... 8) DOCUMENTATION The documentation is available in booklet form, separate from the CPU itself, but I don't know what it costs. The documentation is technical, so if you don't know much about electronics or assembler then you'll be lost. But the information is very complete for a technical person. LIKES AND DISLIKES Overall, I'm pretty impressed. Gives a little extra power to your raytracing, although 68000's were never meant for raytracing anyway. Oh, and yes, raytracing is still very slow - but just think, a raytrace that takes a full day on a 68000 will be quicker by 3.13 hours with the 68010. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS Adding a 68010 is different from adding a standard accelerator board. The 68010 uses the same clock as the 68000, so there is no faster clock-speed to contend with. With faster clocks, you have to get faster RAM usually. Since this uses the standard clock, no change in RAM speed is needed. BUGS As mentioned above, some Amiga software will not work with the 68010 and higher processors if you are running AmigaDOS 1.2 or lower. There is a PD patch available called deciGEL, which works as far as I could tell. VENDOR SUPPORT VSI doesn't really want to cater to small purchasers. For a company to tell an individual who wants a chip that he'll have to buy 10 is a bit hard to swallow. WARRANTY None. CONCLUSIONS The 68010 is a good speedup for the budget-minded user; however, if you want real speed, buy an accelerator board. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1993 Michael Glew. All rights reserved. --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews