                  4000/040 running at 35 MHz (!).
                       (by Luigi Pasciuto)

      (Update for 4000_33M.lha available on Aminet hard/misc)

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                   !!!!!!  COMING SOON  !!!!!!

I'M WORKING ON A  NEW BOARD FOR  A3640. THIS  BOARD WILL CONTAIN THE
FAST  RAM SIMM  USED ON  A4000 MOTHER  BOARD, THE  ORIGINAL CPU, THE
OSCILATOR  WITH A  HIGHER  FREQUENCY. IT WILL BE LOCATED BETWEEN THE
ORIGINAL CPU SOCKET AND THE  CPU (LIKE A SANDWICH !).
IT WILL COST APPROX. $ 400 (US), THAT'S A SHORT LIST OF FEATURES:
- UP TO 120 % IN SPEED
- USE OF 1, 4, 8, 16 MB STANDARD 72 PINS SIMMS
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This is a 'beta' version of the doc. Please send me    any questions
you have to complete it so that everyone can use it.
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IMPORTANT: this is a modification on A3640. HW manipulation skill is
           required so MAKE CARE ! TAKE CARE to electric static dis-
           charge, you have to be grounded before proceed !!!
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I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER, THIS IS A HW MANI- 
PULATION, TAKE CARE !!!!!!
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This is a tip for everyone want to  accellerate his  A4000/040 spen-
ding not much money.

Cause of my raytracing jobs, i need more MIPS by CPU. The less expen-
sive accellerator for A4000 cost $ 1000 at least (with nocpu on board).
For example: Warp Engine  28 MHz costs $ 1000 with no CPU, using this
tip you will spend $ 60 and will obtain same performances like  Warp
Engine, the difference 1000 - 60 = $940 are in your pocket!
Is it suited for you ???

So I've tried to modify my A3640 CPU board to improve performances.
The way is to replace the existing original oscillator  on  CPU board
(50 MHz) with another at higher value.
The value of the right  frequency for  your system depends on various
factors: CPU  frequency  tolerance, CPU  board  quality, ecc. ecc. My
experiences  reports  good  results  using 60 MHz, 65 MHz, 66.67 MHz,
70 MHz. Some  people (thank  you Joe !) have  tried  66 MHz  too with
good results but I think this is an isolated one, more users reported
me 66 MHz didn't work fine. What can I say ? The only way to  know if
it's possible to speed up your A4000/040 is to try, try  and try with
different oscilators (let you start with 60 MHz).

I CAN'T ASSURE YOU THAT THIS TIP WORKS FINE ON EVERY A3640 BOARD !!!

The substituition of the oscillator on the CPU board don't cause any
damage if you respect my advices.

First of all, turn  off your A4000, open the case and remove the CPU
board A3640. Using a well grounded solder, remove the original oscil-
lator and keep it. Take  note of oscillator orientation on CPU board
before remove it. Now, solder a 14 DIL socket on oscillator place on
the board, then insert  the new oscillator in the  socket respecting
the right orientation (have you noted it before ?).
Stick a CPU cooling fan  on the 68040  heat sink so that it push the
air jet on  the CPU. Connect the  cooling fan  to 12 V  power supply
available on  spare hard disk  connector. Now "cross the finger" and
power on the A4000, is it booting up ??? Yes ??? WHOWWWWWW !!!!!!!!
That's all !! Now you have a real 27 MIPS A4000 !!!!

I'm using this tip since 1994 and it works fine without any trouble.
Everyday I use my A4000 for 5/6 hours continuos with no trouble.

The use of higher clock cause an increase of power consuption of CPU
so it must dissipate more heat. Using the CPU cooling fan, as descri-
bed before, you prevent CPU damage. However it's possible, specially
in hot region and hot season, that CPU cooling is not enough. In this
case you'll note a decrease in speed of system performance, the Ami-
ga will slow down to stop. Dont' worry, this is  a protection system
developed by Motorola to prevent CPU damage. In this  case power off
the A4000 and wait for CPU cooling, the system will restart again.

I didn't test this tip on other configurations, but  i think that it
must work fine the same.

The AIBB 6.5 program report an  average increase  of performances of
35 % with a maximum of 41 %. Unfortunately  this tip  cause a  raise
of  CPU/memory  latency  index: from 8.1 to  9.1, but you can  patch
this using copymemquick program, available on Aminet.

68040 at  35 MHz  permits  an improvement in hard disk transfer rate
too, in this case you i must verify, using  DiskSpeed 4.2, if  there
are errors with the higher speed, in this case you  must  modify the
MAXTRANSFER  parameter in  HDToolBox  program  to 0000ffff. My  hard
disk (Western Digital  340 Mb, slave) transfer  rate  is raised from
1.3 Mb/s to 1.6 Mb/s using the MAXTRANSFER value mentioned above.

In the pictures joined to this doc you can find an aid to modify your
A3640 board and benchmarks obtained with AIBB 6.5.

This is FREEWARE, I accept everythink as reward for it (thanks too !)
If you have any trouble, contact me at the following addresses:
Please mail me your Internet address, I'll include it in my mailing
list so you'll receive update and news direct from me.

        Internet: pasciuto@settimo.italtel.it

        Home:     PASCIUTO LUIGI
                  VIA VERGA 10
                  20015  PARABIAGO (MI)
                  ITALY

Good MIPS at all !

P.S. FOR EVERYONE CAN'T FIND THE PARTS NECESSARY FOR HACKING, I
     CAN HELP YOU PROVIDING A COMPLETE KIT WHICH INCLUDE:
     1 60 MHz OSCILATOR, 1 70 MHz OSCILATOR, 1 CPU FAN, 1 SOCKET
     THE COST OF THE KIT IS $ 60. FOR THE PAYMENT METHOD CONTACT
     ME BEFORE. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE VALUE OF THE FREQUENCY OSCI-
     LATORS CONTAINED IN THE KIT MAY VARIE DUE TO STORE AVAILABI-
     LITY.

     I have all the parts necessary to tip your A4000, CPU replace-
     ment, Motorola documetation for developing HW/SW. Do you need
     oscillator, fan, socket ...... ??? Call me !!!!


-Luigi.
