exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

A lot of Falcon's had slower ROM's meaning Atari had to use "wait states" in order to slow the ROM access speed down. You can however update the ROM with a "Fast ROM" as sold in my store and update the solder links on the falcon to use the faster ROM access speeds. This will give your machine a small speed boost!

The image above shows the solder locations on U46 pads to enable zero wait states.

Below is a benchmark of before and after the fast ROM is fitted.

(click for larger image) The jumper speed settings I have found as stated below.

Where 1 is soldered, and 0 is open. %= ROM speed test in GB5.

10010000 165%
10110000 196%
10100000 142%
10000000 196% (reserved)

While you can try this with your original ROM, I found after several hours of running the Falcon did not power up anymore. So I really do suggest updating your ROM for a "fast-rom" and also TOS404 is the best version of TOS to have on your falcon anyway, so well worth the upgrade if you have a less version.

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exxos wrote: 28 Aug 2017 11:28 While you can try this with your original ROM, I found after several hours of running the Falcon did not power up anymore. So I really do suggest updating your ROM for a "fast-rom" and also TOS404 is the best version of TOS to have on your falcon anyway, so well worth the upgrade if you have a less version.

The original ROM gave up permanently due to lowering the number of wait states? Did it run too hot?

dhedberg wrote: 16 Jan 2018 13:25 The original ROM gave up permanently due to lowering the number of wait states? Did it run too hot?

The original ROM isn't fast enough. When I tried it, the Falcon worked for about 6 or 7 hours then refused to boot after that.

Possible putting the slower waitstates back could work.. but I never investigated it, I just put a faster ROM in instead ;)

A better benchmark with GB6 to show the 0WS speed up...

This particular machine benchmaked all tests at 99% (hence RAM speed 99%) To lazy to get it all accurate, but gives the idea anyway...