Subject: MINI-REVIEW: Warp Engine 3040 68040 accelerator for Amiga 3000
From: [email-masked] (Peter Seebach)
Date: 23 Feb 1995 19:00:37 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	Warp Engine 3040 (Amiga 3000 version)

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	This is a 40 MHz 68040 accelerator/SCSI-II controller/RAM expansion
device for the A3000.  It is closely related to the A4000 version.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		MacroSystem Development
	Address:	24282 Lynwood, Suite 201
			Novi, Michigan 48374
			USA
 
	Telephone:	(810) 347-3332
	FAX:		(810) 347-6643
 
	Email:		[email-masked]
 
	Support BBS:	CryoCafe BBS
			(503) 257-4823
			Accessible on Telnet to address 199.2.115.2 port 42
 
	Mailing list:	There is also a mailing list available for
			WarpEngine support. To subscribe to the list,
			send mail to [email-masked]
			with "subscribe warped" in the BODY of the
			message.

LIST PRICE

	Somewhere around $1400-1500 US.

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		The Warp Engine is not expected to work with Static Column
		ZIP RAM chips.  This is not documented, but the manufacturer
		will admit it if pressed.

	SOFTWARE

		I believe this requires Kickstart 2.04 (or 3.1) ROMs.

COPY PROTECTION

	Dongle (hardware device attached to an Amiga port)  (Sort of. ;-) )

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 3000
	2/16 megabytes RAM (see below)
	2.04/NetBSD 1.0-current

INSTALLATION

	Hardware installation: see below for more details.  A small amount of
trivial software installation of the "drag the X directory" variety.

REVIEW

	I am assuming the reader has read the other reviews of this product;
I am primarily covering differences for the 3000 version.

	[MODERATOR'S NOTE:  reviews of the A3000T/A4000 version are found in
	the comp.sys.amiga.reviews archives in the hardware/accelerators
	directory, filenames WarpEngine4040 and WarpEngine4040_2.  - Dan]

	First off: The A3000 (non-tower) version has *two* SIMM slots.  Not
four.  The documentation specifically contradicts this.  The packaging
contradicts this.  This is bad.

	The Warp Engine is not compatible with Static Column ZIPs.  This is
not mentioned in the docs.  At least one person I talked to has it running
with them, but it wouldn't run that way for me.

	The SCSI-II controller is incompatible with the A3000's motherboard
controller.  This is also not documented.  If you use the 3000's controller,
you may or may not experience random crashes, and will very likely see
random disk failures on drives off the A3000's controller.  It is
incompatible with some disks (as noted before).

	I was able to work around the latter by getting a -08 revision SCSI
chip.  With this, I can use my CD-ROM again.

	The board is blindingly fast.  I was primarily working under NetBSD,
and I encountered one problem that went away with a later revision of
NetBSD.  All of the other bugs have been confirmed by MacroSystem.

	They do not support the use of the WarpEngine with the internal SCSI
controller; that's merely something I was able to get to work.

DOCUMENTATION

	The documentation simply fails to cover adequately the known
problems and limitations.  The A3000 docs are a separate page; the main
manual is for the 4000.

	The documentation describes features specific to a motherboard other
than the one I have; they cannot be followed precisely.

	Many things that should have been in the docs were left out; see
above.

LIKES

	It's fast, and it's quite nice to be able to have SCSI-II, memory,
and a fast accelerator, all without using a Zorro slot.

DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

	I was upset by the poor documentation, and the blatant inaccuracies
in it.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	It's faster than a 4000 or an '040 NeXT.  This is about all I can
compare to.

BUGS

	The ones I found:
	1.  Static Column ZIPs may not work.  This is not documented.
	2.  Not compatible with native SCSI driver.
	3.  May not work with some SCSI devices; reason unknown.

VENDOR SUPPORT

	The technical support hours are minimal; business hours only, two
days a week.  There is no 800-number, so this required me to make a long
distance call from work.

	The first support representative I talked to was unable to give me
any useful information.  The response to my complaint that the documentation
and packaging are inaccurate (in reference to the 2 vs. 4 SIMM issue) was "If
you don't like it, you can always take it back."  This strongly tempted me
to.  The representative had never heard of Unix, and was unable to grasp my
statement that NetBSD was not running under AmigaDOS, and did not need
68040.library.

	The second representative I talked to (two days later, after I had
figured out one or two things) was able to inform me of the details of the
RAM issue (that Static Column is a problem) and told me more about the
problems with internal SCSI.  After this, I was able to work things out on
my own, at some length.  Some of their representatives are better than
others.

	I did not get any responses to any of my email to their given email
addresses; I suspect the sole person maintaining them is awfully busy.

WARRANTY

	[see previous articles]

CONCLUSIONS

	The product is, for what it is, an excellent product.  It is not
exactly what the packaging claims.  It is by no means plug and play.  It is
extremely fast and responsive.  I have found the system I run to be at least
6-10 times as fast as it used to be.  (This is a combination of processor
speed, memory speed, and disk speed, I suspect.)  The technical support and
documentation are poor.  Make sure you know competent repair techs before
undertaking to work with this, especially if your A3000 was not one of the
most recent batches.

	I rate it 4 stars out of 5 overall.

	I would love to see these people provide better support for what
looks like it could be an excellent product.  I'd love to see more honesty
in the advertisements, packaging, and documentation.

	If every issue that they told me they already knew about had been in
the manual, it would have taken me two days, not two weeks, to get my system
running.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	This review is placed in the public domain.  Go wild.

- Peter Seebach
  [email-masked]

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