Conference hydra::amiga_v1

5241.0. "VXL-30 Problems ??" by ARRODS::GOLDSTEIN (Steve G DTN: 847-5416/5455) Fri Nov 29 1991 09:03

    This is a note I received from Eric :--
    
    Has anybody got the Microbotic's VXL-30 card and have they any
    problems..???
    
    I send him the replies
     
    Thanks
    Steve G
    
    
    
    
    
From:	WESSEX::"[email protected]" 29-NOV-1991 13:10:46.12
To:	goldstein <<@wessex.uucp:[email protected]>>
CC:	
Subj:	Thanks but not now.

Because at the Commodore show 2 weeks ago in london, I bought an
microbiotics VXL-030 at 40mhz. But it has no 32bit ram yet, so that's my
next buy. Althou 16bit memory is usefull as an ram disk, I need more 32bit
memory on the moment. This also means I'm not going to sell my amiga anymore.
An 68030 at 40 mhz without FPU nor 32bit ram for only 350 pounds is good !!!!
On certain application you don't see a real different, because these application use the custom chips, but when the 68030 is used for real, then ..
it goes FAST. My amiga now goes at 11.4 mips instead of 0.82 mips, and using
LHARC for the decompression is neat. ;-)
Althou I have a problem, when I have my Instruction cache ON and the data 
cache ON, writing to my Harddisk via the Trumpcard is a problem, the
disk freezes and I have to switch off the computer. there seems to be a 
handshaking problem. 
	Could you extract from NOTES AMIGA everything concerning the
	VXL-030 and mail it to me ? is that possible ? 

				Thanks a lot & regards from Brunel.

					Erik Bussink


        		     |o  Society o|  Erik bussink
      ///		     |o----------o|  Email : [email protected]
     ///		     |o  Brunel  o|  Brunel University (West London) UK
    ///			     |o   Film   o|  Computer Science, G500 year 1
\\\/// /\		     |o  Society o|
 \XX/ /--\miga 2000	     |o----------o|
    vxl-030 40mhz	     |o  Brunel  o|
   HD 104meg,Ram 16bit 5meg  |o   Film   o|       Don't ask, I didn't

1.3 did not correctly support the data cache of the 030 and later chips. *IF*
the driver was written correctly (read sneaky for 1.3) it could work fine. I 
believe the HardFrame was OK with data cache on, but I always ran 1.3 with it 
off. 

2.0 and after understand caches and will flush caches before write operations.
A definite feature since the data cache makes a big difference in performance,
especially with "slow" memory.

So, what is described is not really a problem with the VXL board, but a 
limitation with the 1.3 version of the Amiga OS and how it handles caches.

	-SES

    
    Thanks Steve,
    	I'll pass on the reply
    
    	Steve G