TF1260 New Firmware Alpha Released!

[chucky]

but the main thing here is that even if you can run at 100MHz. WHY run at it all the time? start it at 50.. and when you need to push it. you change the clock to a higher speed.. by doing this. cooling is a way lesser of an issue and is exactly what I do.. I see no reason to push the card at 100 if I am doing diagrom coding. or othert fiddeling with stuff. but if I want to check a demo maybe. I push it to 100 when this is done. and back to 50..

in short: why run at max speed all the time? you do not drive a car at max speed. you adapt the speed after what you do..

[terriblefire]

Are too many compromises being made to reach 100Mhz and beyond? For example can you still have increased Chipram and overclock friendly EHIDE with the cooldown trick of dropping to 14MHz? That seemed to top out at 75-80Mhz, but that is still very very fast compared to 50Mhz 030, which most of us will be using as the comparison.

Honestly the chipram speed and EHIDE speeds are not connected at all. The main issue will be SDRAM speeds are absolutely on the limit of the specs at 100Mhz... You guys would expect me to set the card up to max the SDRAM speed at 100Mhz. It might be some SDRAM chips are being pushed a little beyond specs here because I go by the micron specs. Note the clock speed is irrelevant. Its the ns timings i am pushing to the limit.

I'm also running the CPLDs in "Fast" mode for the first time in this firmware.

The 14Mhz switching has a big performance issue in that the FPU cannot do stuff at full speed while the machine is accessing the amiga bus. There are demos etc that rely on this.

[Higgy]

@chucky Completely agree. And that is why the always start at 50Mhz is a good idea. I only overclock for watching demos, typically 30-60mins max continuous.
Just wanted to make sure that the max achievable is not affecting the general running or mid overclock operation. I probably misunderstood Steven's post on challenges with achieving 100Mhz (although I do understand it's been a real challenge and it's amazing that such a cheap card with minimal components is doing what it is doing).

I was thinking without the cooldown trick that even at 50Mhz and mid overclock, things might be getting too hot for cased 1200 users.

I've just watched ~9 Dekadence demos back to back at 94Mhz and I am pleased to feel that with my setup - cased 1200, small heatsinks on CPLDs and low speed fan blowing over card right to left everything seems cool. Quite surprised how cool considering the changes and being at 94Mhz, however my room is probably currently only 16 Deg C so ambient is low.
TF1260 IDE also working great when overclocking.
Troublesome demo Hotstyletakedown working great along with other heavy hitters such as Beamriders and wecomeinpeace.

[alenppc]

Thanks thats useful info. RAMCPLD is working very hard so i think its reasonable to expect to need 6ns to get to 100Mhz without cooling.

I might be able to get this more stable but it might also mean a 10-15% reduction in fastram bandwidth... discuss.

My 2 cents: don’t. Most people will be running this at 50, not to mention there are lots of users with a rev1 cpu which can’t do much more than 50 anyway, so why penalize them? If your rare Rev6 won’t do 100 MHz, it will do 94 and that should be more than enough. There is hardly any difference between the two anyway.

[voscoboss]

100MHz is a nice magic number to reach, but if it comes at a penalty elsewhere, I would happily settle for 94MHz.

[terriblefire]

100MHz is a nice magic number to reach, but if it comes at a penalty elsewhere, I would happily settle for 94MHz.

94mhz has been the goal for this firmware upgrade.. 100mhz if you are lucky

[Duncan]

Thanks thats useful info. RAMCPLD is working very hard so i think its reasonable to expect to need 6ns to get to 100Mhz without cooling.

I might be able to get this more stable but it might also mean a 10-15% reduction in fastram bandwidth... discuss.

i don't know much about this kinda stuff, but i would think most people would want a card as fast as possible, even if they have to cool it.

i haven't got the new firmware, but i have a silent Noctua 50mm fan blowing over the card in general, it doesn't move that much air, but as its close to the CPLD's then surely it should make a difference? The very first thing i did was put heatsinks on the RAM and the CPLDs, even before i had plugged the card in for the first time.

This wee card is a pure dillion, and a hot rod in the making, it would be a shame to know it wasn't burlin' along as fast as it could, just for the sake of some active cooling.


meh .. what do i know :)

[Duncan]

That said .... i have been perfectly happy with 75mhz on my Rev6

whatever you do, i am just happy it's .... happening! That sounded much better in my head.

:D

[arkadiusz.makarenko]

but the main thing here is that even if you can run at 100MHz. WHY run at it all the time? start it at 50.. and when you need to push it. you change the clock to a higher speed.. by doing this. cooling is a way lesser of an issue and is exactly what I do.. I see no reason to push the card at 100 if I am doing diagrom coding. or othert fiddeling with stuff. but if I want to check a demo maybe. I push it to 100 when this is done. and back to 50..

in short: why run at max speed all the time? you do not drive a car at max speed. you adapt the speed after what you do..

Joy of playing Turrican 2 on 100Mhz 060 CPU is priceless!

[Duncan]

My 2 cents: don’t. Most people will be running this at 50, not to mention there are lots of users with a rev1 cpu which can’t do much more than 50 anyway, so why penalize them? If your rare Rev6 won’t do 100 MHz, it will do 94 and that should be more than enough. There is hardly any difference between the two anyway.

i get your point, and it's got merit to it, but you could turn the argument on its head. Why penalise people with a Rev6? (incidentally, penalise is a strong word, and i don't think anyone is being penalised anyway) You say most people are running this @ 50mhz. I don't, and i would have a guess, that other people with a Rev6, don't run it at 50mhz either. I use WB Classic, with Scalos, so i just created a "right click" menu, where i can change the speed on the fly. And i do. Frequently. It all depends what i am running.

If it makes it easier, i would be pure made up with 94mhz, i mean, i am made up with 75mhz, so anything else is a bonus.

either way is good. :)