DERRINGER '030


                            by Mick Doerfling



   Ed: For more info on accelerators, check out "About_Accelerators" on MD16
  and "Accelerators" in Feedback on MD22.


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   I have owned and used Amigas for several years without complaint, but
  recently I felt that they were slowing down. Instead of buying another
  computer I decided to upgrade my machine by adding an Accelerator card.
  There are, of course, many on the market and choosing one wasn't easy. An
  Article in the Amiga World of July titled "The Accelerator Equation" and of
  course Megadisc helped me decide on the right accelerator for my purpose
  (and wallet). I decided to get the Derringer 030 manufactured by CSA. I
  rang Tim at Megadisc on Sunday evening (20 Dec 92) with my order, paid the
  money in on Monday and received a parcel from Santa Tim on Tuesday.

SPECIFICATIONS

   The Derringer 030 utilises a full 68030 (MC68030RC25) Central Processing
  Unit (CPU) which has a Memory Management Unit (MMU) plus instruction and
  data caches. The board is fitted with 2Mb of 32-bit DRAM (SIMM). This
  allows remapping of the Kickstart ROM and most critical system codes and
  data onto the Accelerator. An optional Floating Point Unit (FPU) Math
  Co-Processor can be fitted and clock speeds of 25 or 50 MHz are supported.
  The original 68000 may be reinstalled to allow hardware or software re-boot
  into 68000 mode, which offers compatibility with most hardware and
  software available.

Packaging and Documentation

   The Accelerator arrived in a suitable container. Within is the circuit
  card (in an anti-static bag) and a six page Users Manual. Although brief,
  the manual is sufficient to guide even beginners or the less technically
  minded through the installation pr ocess.

Installation

   Hardware installation is straightforward.

 1. Disassemble your computer (detailed description in User Manual)

 2. Pull out the 68000. To minimise the risk of damage due to Static
    Discharge ensure you are at the same potential as the computer, ie. make
    sure you ground yourself (clip a wire to you and the case).

 3. Plug the 68000 into the Accelerator (if desired)

 4. Set jumpers as noted in the Manual

 5. Plug card into 68000 slot.

 6. Put it all back together.


   After completing these steps you need to install the supplied software.
  Using a hard-disc, it was a simple matter of putting the CSA drawer onto my
  System Partition. You then have to add the appropriate lines to your User
  Start-up sequence (Workbench 2.04). Don't forget to use full path names
  rather than the simple entries that are given in the Users Manual. For
  example:

   Use "sys:CSA/D3 >nil: Dram -res Drom -mv -ms " rather than
  "D3 dram -res drom -mv -ms".
  The next lines should be "sys:CSA/D3 >nil: -v" and "sys:CSA/D3 >nil: -?".


   What do these commands do?

  "sys:CSA/D3" tells the Amiga where the program is located and ">nil:" is a
  fail-safe. If D3 cannot be found, the start-up will continue without
  failing.

   D3 is supplied as part of the software. On boot up it checks which
  processor and co-processor are fitted. If the DRAM argument is given D3
  will see if any 32-bit DRAM is installed. The DROM argument will cause D3
  to remap the Kickstart ROM into the Derringer's fast DRAM.  The -mv option
  will cause D3 to relocate the processor's exception vector array into DRAM
  and -ms will cause the processor's supervisor stack to be relocated. The
  -res option will tell D3 to install a resident program into chip ram.
  This resident program will survive warm boot and be available to add the
  Derringer's DRAM to the system at a very early point in the boot-up
  process. Its purpose is to free up chip ram in systems with only chip ram,
  thus speeding them up.  The Derringer may be either hardware or software
  booted into 68000 mode.

Performance

   Loading the latest version of SysInfo (by Nic Wilson) gave me a speed
  increase of 7.21 compared to a standard 500, and 6.05 that of an Amiga with
  extra RAM.

How does it relate to running programs?

   Well I must admit that I've never been much of a game player but "Indy
  500" is impressive with the 030. The scrolling is smooth and fast. Where
  the Accelerator really comes into its own, is when you run serious
  software.

   I have an extensive spreadsheet covering several years of data and it now
  has been given a new lease of life. It used to take several minutes to
  update the screen, now a matter of seconds see the same actions completed.

   My wife studies medicine and generates huge amounts of word processor
  files - she found that searching or spell checking has improved by an
  incredible margin. It is now also a joy to generate Mandelbrots and watch
  them evolve. To put it simply, how many people would go back to a floppy
  based system after having used a hard drive? Well it's that type of
  improvement.

Problems

   The only problem I have noticed so far is that two games I have, "SimCity"
  and "Pirates", have some difficulties especially when saving the games
  files. Knowing this, a simple click on the supplied software switch,
  before loading the game, lets me start up my 2000 with the 68000.

Conclusion

   Installation was a breeze and didn't take more than 20 minutes. The
  increase in speed is marvellous and I haven't found a serious program that
  won't run.  So if it's speed at a reasonable price you're after then
  getting a Derringer '030 is one of the better purchases for your Amiga.


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