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[Troika]

This is the first of two updates on the Project Prometheus/Amy'05 design that we will be releasing this week. The second part before BB4, is scheduled for Wednesday 13th September 2006 (US pacfic time).



The PowerPC CPU has been improved upon, we now have an IBM 750GL @ 800 MHz with 1 MByte of L2 cache, against the previous 512K of cache. The design of the motherboard will support 750GL CPUs upto 1 GHz core speed in the future. The 800 MHz part was chosen as the baseline as it represents the best price/performance mix.

To keep the system cool, both the CPU and our Northbridge the Tundra TSI107 need heatsinks, but the TSI-107 does not require a fan in normal use. The Troika team developed a thermostatically controlled fan system for the CPU and optional case fan. Amy has a dedicated fan controller IC, this will allow quiet operation, if allowable by system usage patterns.

SDRAM DIMM detection has been improved compared to previous OS4 capable systems. The TSI107 provides the necessary features to more accurately setup the SDRAM timing based upon the Serial Presence Detect (SPD) ROM parameters of the installed memory stick(s). This will ease the purchasing of suitable RAM for Amy'05.

In keeping with the speed increase, the graphics slot has been doubled in speed. The PCI slot for the graphics adaptor now runs at 66 MHz, yielding a maximum throughput of 264 MByte/sec. This provides comparable speed to the AGP 1X slot.

From previous experience, this bus speed has been sufficient to run 1280x1024 Open GL 2D/3D graphics @ 60 Hz with no issues using the ATI Radeon 9700 series and above graphics cards.

Only one PCI slot supports the 66 MHz speed and there is the appropriate bridge chip and logic to connect to the system 33 MHz PCI bus.

That is all for this update, the second and final update is on Wednesday.

[CLS2086]

Good luck :-)

[Damion]

In keeping with the speed increase, the graphics slot has been doubled in speed. The PCI slot for the graphics adaptor now runs at 66 MHz, yielding a maximum throughput of 264 MByte/sec. This provides comparable speed to the AGP 1X slot.

From previous experience, this bus speed has been sufficient to run 1280x1024 Open GL 2D/3D graphics @ 60 Hz with no issues using the ATI Radeon 9700 series and above graphics cards.

Am I missing something here? "Radeon 9700 and above" isn't available in PCI format...?

[adonay]

true never seen a 9700 in pci either ...

[humppa]

And what about drivers anyway? There are not even working Radeon 9100 3d-drivers so far... :roll:

[Stedy]

Hi,

Just a quick note on the ATI Radeon series. The Radeon 9700/9800 series devices are PCI/AGP compatible, there are some mode select pins IIRC that are set by the manufacturer to force the card to operate in either AGP or PCI mode, providing the card is degined for the right slot!

In my testing, mentioned in the post, I have used an industrial PCI graphics card that supported the 66 MHz PCI interface.

Ian

[alexatkin]

But arent industrial a LOT more expensive?

Also, is there a particular reason AGP cannot be used instead on OS4?

[Stedy]

The industrial cards I used were about 150 UKP at the time. Not bad for an industrial card.

The Tundra TSI 107 does not support AGP, hence no AGP graphics slot.

As pointed out on Amigaworld.net, my testing with the 9700 is out of date, the X1300 is available with a PCI interface.

Have fun,

Ian

[CodeSmith]

Heh, just looked at the tech specs for the X1300:

Content-adaptive de-flicker filtering for interlaced displays

The ultimate amiga gfx card: It comes with its own flicker-fixer!

[Plaz]

Heh, just looked at the tech specs for the X1300:

I've done some benchmark testing with a PCIx X1300, not impressed. My over clocked FX6200 did almost as well. I wouldn't be suprised to find out that the PCI version is faster that the PCIx version and it would certainly kick the butt of my PicassoIV.

Plaz

[humppa]

X1300 with PCI interface?

Cool, only a GeForce 7950 GX2 with an ISA-interface could top that.

[Agafaster]

good luck to you, and thanks for trying even under the usual bilge from some sectors of this 'community'. at least your having a go, and taking a risk!
will be interested to hear of your results, and the 2nd part.

[redfox]

@Troika

Thanks for posting the updates.

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redfox