<!I1--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<!I7                            Blizzard 1240 T/ERC
<!I1--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<!I1BRIEF DESCRIPTION

        The  Blizzard  1240  T/ERC  Accelerator  Memory  Board is a 68040 40 MHz
accelerator  that features autoconfig RAM expansion that accepts till 128MB SIMM
32  or  36  bit,  70ns or faster, an optional SCSI-2 DMA module that has another
SIMM  socket connector and supports throughput till 10MB/sec.  The module is the
same as the Blizzard 1240-IV or 1260.

        The  68040  is  complete,  that  is  it  has  MMU and FPU built in fully
working.  I don't know the real meaning of the Eco Recycled term (the ERC in the
name of the board), but I could read the original Motorola specs on the 040 chip
as  the  heat sink covers only the bottom part of them:  the chip is declared as
XC68040RC40Mzh so it is NOT a overclocked one.

<!I1COMPANY INFORMATION

        Name:           Phase 5 Digital Products
        Address         In der Au 27
                        D-61440 Oberursel
                        Germany

        Phone:          (06171) 583787


<!I1ITALIAN DISTRIBUTORS

        There  are  quite  many  distributors  in  Italy  of  Amiga and Blizzard
products.   I  have purchased mine at NewVideo, Limbiate (Milano), though due to
their  lack  of professionality I would not recommend.  If they were available I
would  have  bought  it  from  DBLine  srl.   -  V.LE  RIMEMBRANZE  26/C - 21024
Biandronno  (VA)  -  Tel:   0332/76800  -  Fax  0332/767244 - 768066 - Vox onFAX
0332/767360 - bbs


<!I1LIST PRICE

        The price ranges from about 630,000 LIT (US $410, 630 DM) to 660,000 LIT
        (US $425, 660 DM).

        SCSI-2 Module: about 250,000 LIT (US $160, 250 DM)

        All prices include 19% IVA 

<!I1SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

<!I1        HARDWARE

                An Amiga 1200 mounted in a tower house or wherever,
                but not in the standard A1200 case.

<!I1        SOFTWARE

                68040.library to patch the 68882 FPU functions not
                present in the 68040.


<!I1COPY PROTECTION

        None. (Does that mean you are allowed to clone it? 8) )


<!I1MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

Amiga 1200 model from Commodore, revision 1B, 2MB Chip RAM,
16MB 70(?) ns 72-pin, 32-bit SIMM, single sided.
Kickstart in RAM, V39.106. Workbench 39.29.
2 floppy drives.
Western Digital Caviar 1.6GB 3.5" EIDE HD
External A1000 Keyboard
NEC Multisync II 14" monitor
Tried a GoldStar 8x IDE CD-ROM for some time.

        The  computer has been mounted into an old big PC desktop.  The original
stock  Amiga power supply just powers the motherboard and the accelerator board,
while  all  the  rest  (HD,  floppy drives, keyboard, CPU fan and the monitor as
well) is powered by the desktop 200W power supply.

<!I1INSTALLATION

        Provided  you  have a towered house A1200 the installation is very easy.
As  the  68040  becomes very hot a heat sink and a fan are provided as standard.
All  you  need is to plug the power connector of the fan into a 4 pins connector
that  is  equal  to  those  used to power the HDs.  There are quite lots of them
spare coming from a PC power supply so there should not be problems.

        Before closing everything you have just to choose if you want to disable
the  MAPROM  feature  that automatically maps the Kickstart ROM into RAM just by
setting the unique jumper existing on the board.

        The memory SIMM must be inclined so a double faced SIMM is not usable.

        The good thing that differentiates this board from similar ones like the
Apollo  one,  for  example, is the fact that all the surface mounted components,
the SIMM socket and the CPU as well are all positioned on the bottom side of the
board,  that  is  they  are upside down looking at the ground.  This means that,
with some caution and small efforts it can be installed into a normal A1200 case
without worrying about the heat produced.

        For mounting the board in a standard A1200 case see later.

        The manual, for the following surprise, will explain the installation of
the board in the normal A1200 case.  However it explains very well all the steps
to  do  before  you  can power up your Amiga.  The addendum sheet, that you must
read  before  the user manual, states that the fan MUST be connected and checked
for proper function and that operation without cooling is not possible.

<!I1OVERVIEW

        The  board  comes into the phase5 classic black box.  As this is the 3rd
phase5 board I have purchased I can say that the package is similar to the other
ones,  that  is  of  very  high quality.  The big white stick on the box clearly
states that you need a towered house A1200 to use this board.

        Opening  the  box  reveals  a  surprise,  and  what a surprise.  The box
contain  the  user  manual,  a  registration  card,  an  addendum  sheet and the
anti-static envelop that contains.....  a Blizzard 1260 card!  The board in fact
is  the  same  as  the 1260 with just the CPU and the CPU power adapter changed.
phase  5  states  in  the  addendum sheet that they are going to provide a 68060
upgrade kit which will transform the board in a full 1260 card.

        All the documentation provided is both in English and German, which is a
very  good  thing.   However  the  manual  is the same as the 1260 board and the
differences are listed just in the addendum sheet.  This is not a problem as the
only  thing  that changes is the fact that there's no software to install before
using  the board.  You just need the 68040.library that should be present on the
WB  disks.   I say should because I didn't find it and I had to copy it from one
of the many PD CD-ROMs I have.

<!I1REVIEW

        So let's see how good this board is.

        Once  installed everything correctly (remember to connect the CPU fan if
you don't want a hole in your tower case) I just powered everything on.

        I  have  to admit that, before this board, I have been using my A1200 in
the  basic configuration (only 2MB of chip ram) for many months.  It was amazing
seeing  a  basic  boot  happening in 3 secs.  But what is most impressive is the
update of the windows!  Now all the gfx functions are performed in an incredible
speed, and even a 64 color WB on a AGA machine is fast.  Using graphics programs
like  DPaint in 256 colors is now really possible without falling asleep waiting
for the image to appear.

        The  board  comes  with  a battery backed clock so it is now possible to
have  a permanent clock on the WB screen and use all those programs that need to
know the real date.

        The MMU finally allows programmers (like me) to use debugging tools like
enforcer  or  for  those who really want to to install any UNIX operating system
(like Linux or NetBSD).

        The  powerful  68040  FPU  running  at 40MHz allows the use of intensive
calculation  programs  (fractals,  rendering  and raytracing, general math based
programs)  in  a  productive  way  without  having  to  wait  a  night  of  full
calculations  to see the results of the simplest scene.  The only problem is the
fact  that  the  68040 FPU lacks some of the most used 68881/2 FPU instructions.
The  040  (and the 060 too) have in fact the basic FPU instructions to build the
other  more  complex  (and  more  used)  ones,  but these basic instructions are
executed much faster than in the 68882.  The real problem is that the major part
of  the  software  available,  when compiled to use the FPU, is compiled for the
68882  and  so an external library is needed (the 68040.library) to trap all the
FPU  exception produced by the unavailable instructions and to transform them in
the  right basic instructions that the 68040 can process.  This thing results in
a  big  slow down of all the FPU calculations, and sometimes the integer version
of  the  same  program  can  be  slightly faster.  This, of course, affects only
programs  compiled  for  the  68882 FPU, while programs compiled for the 040 can
take advantage of all the horse power provided by the optimized FPU.

        For  old  programs or games that do not want to run with the 040 there's
the  option  to  disable the board by pressing the "2" key on the keyboard while
booting,  or,  even though not documented in the user manual, pressing the right
mouse  button.   This  gives  you  a  real  plain A1200 as the board is disabled
completely,  that  is CPU, RAM and the optional SCSI controller are all disabled
to assure complete compatibility with the outdated programs.

<!I1BENCHMARKS

        AIBB  6.5  -  020+ optimized code - CP FPU code.  All other systems were
set  to  their  maximum (020+ code whenever possible, while FPU is always set to
standard  CP  whenever  possible  as  the  major  part  of the programs use this
optimization).   MAPROM  function  enabled  (ROM in FAST RAM).  Comparison base:
stock A1200 no fast.

                        1240/40     A3000/25    A4000/25

EmuTest                 15.87       2.72        8.66
WritePixel              4.23        1.19        5.16
Sieve                   6.51        2.14        2.70
Dhrystone               14.89       2.75        9.34
Sort                    12.53       2.65        7.31
EllipseTest             2.18        0.98        2.28
Matrix                  9.08        2.76        4.40
IMath                   7.84        2.11        4.86
MemTest                 3.92        2.38        1.27
TGTest                  1.84        0.91        1.79
LineTest                1.08        0.62        1.09
InstTest                12.57       3.12        5.73
Savage                  126.57      98.68       78.74
FMath                   200.13      13.87       124.16
FMatrix                 19.46       3.08        8.29
BeachBall               86.77       19.53       60.83
Flops                   312.85      33.53       193.75
TransTest               103.53      47.80       50.19
FTrace                  100.40      57.79       58.96
CplxTest                24.76       3.66        14.43

SysInfo 3.24 says:      MIPS 30.12
                        MFLOPS 7.71
                        Dhrystones 28855
                        
        The  HD speed has also increased, seeing SysInfo results, from 1.3MB/sec
to almost 2MB/sec.

As  you  can  see  the gfx tests are not that impressive, though I have used the
same  mode  and  depth  of  the  other standard modules provided with AIBB.  The
problem  is  surely  due  to  the slowness of the Chip Ram and the fact that the
board has to synchronize to the motherboard clock before accessing the chip ram.
Nevertheless,  the Apollo 1240/40 board is a faster in the gfx tests and in many
other  tests,  though the module I have seen shows it has burst mode to fast ram
enabled  through  the installation of two SIMMs.  CPU/Memory latency index is so
lowered  from  6.1  of the Blizzard to 5.1.  I don't know if it possible to have
burst  mode  with the Blizzard and the SCSI module which comes with another SIMM
socket.

A  great  boost  in  graphics  performances  can  be  obtained by installing the
FastWaitBlit patch by Dave Jones.  Here the gfx tests with the patch running:

WritePixel                    6.88
EllipseTest                   2.46
TGTest                        1.95
LineTest                      1.08
BeachBall                     100.12

<!I1LIKES & DISLIKES

        Likes:   Lots.   I like the speed provided by such a fast processor, the
fact that all gfx operations have been accelerated to a decent usable level, the
icon  updating  that  is  almost immediate.  The SCSI connector for the optional
SCSI  controller.   The  technology  used  (no visible last second revisions and
modifications).   The fact that the chips are mounted upside down looking toward
the  ground.   The PCMCIA is not disabled (though I could not test it as I don't
have  any PCMCIA device).  The complete memory autoconfiguration, though this is
now  a  standard  thing  even on PC compatibles.  The battery backed clock (that
should have been mounted as standard on the A1200 like in the old A500plus).

        Unlike  the diffuse thought that the 040 becomes very hot and can almost
be used for warming your bedroom, the fan is able to keep it cool (not warm, but
really  cool).   Without the fan, however, I have to agree that the chip becomes
very  very  hot (I have once used it without the fan for some minutes and when I
have  touched the top part of the board, just over the CPU position, it was hot,
while the heat sink was just warm).

Very  good  is  the lack of any jumper for configuring the board, but the MAPROM
one.   I  liked  the fact that there's an hardware MAPROM (no pain with software
configurations,  ROM  files and slow boot) and that the accelerator board can be
completely  disabled  by  pressing  the "2" key or the right mouse button on the
keyboard during the boot.

        The fact that it is full 060 upgradable.

        The  SCSI  module's  relative  low  cost  (considered  it  supports  DMA
transfers till 10MB/sec and comes with a second SIMM socket).

        The fact that the chip is not overclocked but works at its native speed.

        It's  price  that  is  almost equal to that of a 030/50MHz board+FPU but
giving more than twice the speed of that.

        Unlike the Apollo A1240/40 card that has chip mounted on the top part of
the  board  looking  toward  the inside of the A1200, the Blizzard can be safely
mounted  into  the original A1200 case provided the computer is kept raised from
the  desk  and  the trapdoor is always left opened to provide the fan with fresh
air.   However, the 040 uses lots of power, so the standard 25W power supply may
not be enough to power the board, the ram, the AGA chipset, an HD and the floppy
(and the fan).  A more powerful power supply may be required.
  
        Dislikes:  Not many, really.  The less important is surely the fact that
the  fan  power  connector is not a pass-through type connector and need its own
4-pin  connector.   Not  a  real  problem considering the fact that in big cases
where there's a powerful power supply those connectors are abundant.

        The  board  length is also a negative thing as it fits into the trapdoor
with  lots  of  pain,  while  there  are not many cases able to keep a 43cm long
motherboard.   I  had  to  cut  a  piece  of  my already big desktop to make the
motherboard+accelerator   board   fit   (while   the  motherboard  alone  fitted
perfectly).

        The  single SIMM socket is also a big limitation, but it seems it is now
the  standard  on  all A1200 accelerators cards.  However, a second socket comes
together with the good SCSI module.

- Mauro Fontana
mfontana@ing.unico.it

END
===