#: 19219 S12/OS9/68000 (OSK) 29-Oct-93 20:57:09 Sb: #19211-Screen program for OSK Fm: Bob van der Poel 76510,2203 To: robert brose 72067,3021 Robert, funny about screen not working for you. I just set up a couple of screens and got basic running in both. Loaded some programs and did a dir and all worked just fine. #: 19221 S12/OS9/68000 (OSK) 30-Oct-93 14:03:11 Sb: #MM1-68340 Fm: John R. Wainwright 72517,676 To: all I got one of the MM/1 68340 accelerator boards at the Atlanta 'Fest. Zack Sessions has already posted an excellent technical description and review of the upgrade, but I thought I would add a couple notes on my own experience with the faster system - and a couple more "gotcha"s. I did not have the "slow" PAL chips on my I/O board, but just when I thought I was safe, I discovered some on the 8-meg memory board. Replacing them was not as hard as I thought it would be, but not a job for someone without experience in repairing electronics. Like a famous coach said about passing is a football game -- "Three things can happen - two of them are BAD". It is, of course, FASTER. Thats why we bought it. The TeX and PostScript (and Ghostscript) programs I have been playing with lately take a lot of time. Building a new font for TeX ran about 15 minutes before, now its about 7. I don't have a "dhrystone" program (or even a whetstone), but I can easily see the increase in speed. I did run the little basic "benchmark" program that Frank Hogg posted some time ago, and the 68340 came in right about where you would expect it. Results of Frank's basic benchmark (the program) SHELL "date -j" FOR j=1 to 12 FOR i=1 to 1000 a=SQRT(i) b=INT(a) IF a=b THEN a=b ENDIF NEXT i NEXT j SHELL :date -j" (Frank's posted results) Year Model Speed CPU FPU Seconds '92 KiX\30 33 Mhz 68030 Yes 2 '92 KiX\30 25 Mhz 68030 Yes 3 '92 KiX\30 16 Mhz 68030 Yes 5 '87 QT20x 12 Mhz 68020 Yes 12 '92 KiX\30 33 Mhz 68030 No 14 '92 KiX\30 25 Mhz 68030 No 19 '92 KiX\30 16 Mhz 68030 No 29 '90 TC70* 15 Mhz 68070 No 105 '85 QT+ 10 Mhz 68000 No 105 '84 QT 8 Mhz 68008 No 219 * On board memory only. (my MM/1) mm1 68340 16.59 68340 N/A 35 It boots from the hard drive. Twice it has stumbled a little on a cold start when it looked for the drive before it was up to speed, but it got it on the second try. Both of my hard drives, a 40 meg conner and a 40 meg quantum work fine as "/dd". Zack said he got a new "shell" -- I didn't. I have the same shell I had before. Also, "dEd" runs fine - but that is probably because of the different shell. I asked Kevin Pease about that new "shell" - he said he didn't know where that came from. Apparently Zack got an accidental "gift" from somewhere. Windows have a little quirk - changing colors on one window does it to all of them. Kevin Pease has a fix, provided by a well known OS9 Guru - he said he would upload it very soon. I have heard of problems with MM/1's talking to printers, especially with long cables, but I was getting away with it up to now. I had ribbon cables from the MM/1 and a big ugly "386" running to switch boxes, and parallel cables from the boxes to the Epson and the Deskjet so I could switch either printer to either computer. --- No more. With the faster CPU, the MM/1 wants a short cable directly to the printer. (I can live with it). The reason I haven't said a lot in the forum about my new toy is that it had this little problem -- every once in a while, especially after a cold start, it would trash the hard drive. It seems there was this little timing problem that required some attention from Kevin Pease. The good news here is the response I got on the problem. I bought the upgrade at the "Blackhawk" booth in Atlanta, which was manned by Bill Whitman (another IMS rep). When I decided something was wrong, I called Bill (put a message on his machine), and left CIS email for Kevin Pease. BOTH of them called me at home within a day. Both had suggestions and I tried them all - but finally had to send the insides of my machine to Kevin. He tracked down the problem, made a new PAL to correct it, called to let me know he had it fixed, sent it back, and called me again today, just to make sure I had it running OK. As Delphi and CIS OS9 forum regulars know, response from IMS has, in the past, been.. well... less than outstanding. Paul Ward has not appeared on CIS or Delphi for many moons. ((I think Frank Hogg ran him off. Frank was mean to him. Look ashamed, Frank.))(GRIN) David Graham (Blackhawk) (NIMITZ) has obviously been trying to correct the situation. Although he was not at the Atlanta 'fest himself, David left his booth in good hands. I am very pleased with the 68340 and the quick technical support. Like Zack, I feel my money was well spent. Get one. Check with David Graham (NIMITZ) for current price and delivery time. John R. Wainwright <> <> *********** InfoXpress ************ There is 1 Reply. #: 19222 S12/OS9/68000 (OSK) 30-Oct-93 15:16:39 Sb: #19221-MM1-68340 Fm: Zack Sessions 71532,1555 To: John R. Wainwright 72517,676 > machine to Kevin. He tracked down the problem, made a new > PAL to correct it, called to let me know he had it fixed, > sent it back, and called me again today, just to make sure I > had it running OK. Hmm, was that U18 on the IO board by any chance? Reason I ask was that I received just today, a replacement PAL for U18, from Bill Wittman. He states in his letter that "on some systems, not many" require the new PAL to help solve "hard drive problems". Even though I am not having hard drive problems (unless you consider not being able to boot from the hard drive as a "problem"), "Pease highly recommends that you put it in". And I concur, support from Kevin Pease and Carl Kreider has been excellent. ------------------------------------ Zack C Sessions ColorSystems "I am Homer of Borg, prepare to be assimi ... OOOOHHH, DOUGHNUTS!" Press !>