Subject: REVIEW: GVP-M G-FORCE 040/060 (aka TEKMAGIC 040/060)
From: [email-masked] (St�phane Guillard)
Date: 23 Sep 1998 12:46:58 -0400
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	GVP-M G-FORCE 040/060 (aka TEKMAGIC 040/060)

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	Accelerator card for A2000's. Can use either 68040 or 68060. Holds
SCSI-2 controller and room for 4 industry-standard 72 pin SIMMS or 4 GVP
SIMMS (up to 128 MBytes of 32 bit RAM).

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	Name:		Great Valley Products re-built by M-Tec (thus GVP-M)
	Address:	...

	Telephone:	...
	FAX:		...

	E-mail:		...
	World Wide Web:	http://www.gvp-m.com

LIST PRICE

	The current list price according to GVP-M Web Site in June 1998 is
US$449 for the board without processor.

	I paid $749 for the board and a 50 MHz 68060 from Dimension Computers.

DEMO VERSION

	n/a

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		Processor options: you can choose any 68040 or 68060 (PGA).
The oscillator can be changed (rectangle metal case). All the necessary
switches come for switching from 68060 (3.3V) to 68040 (5V).
		
		FAST RAM on the board itself is not necessary, but HIGHLY
recommended otherwise it will crawl. I put 64 MByte as 4 normal 16 MByte
SIMM (not EDO. Don't know if EDO works).

	SOFTWARE
	
		Any AmigaDOS version able to use 68060.library from setpatch
(thus from 2.04 up ; 3.1 is fine). Attention : 68060.library IS NOT
included in the 3.1 OS disks, so follow the suggested installation
procedure (i.e. booting from the provided diskette) otherwise your Amiga
won't boot.

		The installation diskette contains the necessary software,
mainly : 68060.library (to be put in LIBS:), KSRemap (kickstart patcher
/ remapper to be put in utilities), tek060 (cache/burst controller to be
put in C:). There is an installation script provided.

COPY PROTECTION

	n/a

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 2000B, motherboard rev. 4.3 & 6.2 + ECS Agnus 2 Meg,
	Picasso IV+Concierto graphics board (also tested with Picasso II)
	Commodore Ethernet A2065 board
	GVP HCD-II+ SCSI + RAM board (equipped with 4 Mbyte)
	Pioneer 32x SCSI internal CD-ROM reader driven by the HCD-II+

	Attached to board tested:
	4 16 MByte standard (not EDO) SIMMS (thus 64 MByte)
	1 IBM DCAS 34330 4.3 GByte SCSI2 harddrive

	AmigaDOS 3.1 + NewIcons V4 + MCP
	Linux 2.0.33 (Watchtower2)

INSTALLATION

	Just drop the board in the processor slot of the A2000.

	Software installation is easy, follow the suggested procedure
otherwise your Amiga may not boot (because it will lack 68060.library).

REVIEW

	The G-FORCE is not the only 68060 accelerator for the A2000, I
know at least these other ones : Phase5's Blizzard 2060 (production
discontinued, no longer available), Phase5's future 2604 PPC/68060 (not
available), Apollo's 2060 (very expensive and hard to find), DKB WildFire
(hard to find ; expensive).

	When you consider upgrading your A2000 and want something fast,
you don't have that many choice if you want something available. This is
why I chose GVP's G-FORCE. The price of the board is not that high, but
take care when buying the 68060, it is a rare thus expensive chip ! The
chip is available at 50 & 60 MHz, should be available at 66 MHz and may
be available at 75 MHz according to Motorola. At 50 MHz, it is 2 to 3
times faster than a 28 MHz 68040 which itself is somewhere between 2 and
4 times faster than an A3000/25 (68030). This means that if you come
from 68000 or 68020 or 68030, you won't recognize your Amiga (this is
not specific to the G-Force, rather to the 68060).

	GVP-M is the ancient GVP firm, rebuilt by german M-TEC (both GVP
and M-TEC have a good reputation on the Amiga market, in terms of
technics, quality and support). GVP-M sells again the main products
of its late 80's product line, plus a few other among which this
G-FORCE 060. It is not clear to me if the board is an original design
from GVP or from another entity called TEKMAGIC ; it comes with a
documentation labelled TEKMAGIC.

	I bought mine from Dimensions Computers
(USA, http://nrex.net/dimensions), using their shopping-cart SSL web
system, which caused no problem. I received it 2 weeks after order,
which is good when you consider it came from USA to France.

	It comes in a carton box with a floppy disk and a rather complete
21 pages manual. I installed it into my 4.3 (ECS agnus upgraded)
Amiga 2000B (also tried in a 6.2 MB w/ Agnus 2 Meg, no problem).
I had a mechanical problem described above in "dislikes".
I tried to boot without installing anything, and of course the machine
hung, due to the lack of the 68060.library in LIBS:. I read the manual,
understood I had to install software from the instal disk, did it and
rebooted fine. I had not installed any fastram neither HD directly
connected to the board ; at this time the board rather crawled.
Then I installed 4 32 MByte 72 pin SIMMs, and the IBM drive, and it
really screamed (see below results). Conclusion : you HAVE to install
fastram onto the board, otherwise you waste you money. Regarding HD,
my IBM DCAS34330 gives around 2 MByte/s when attached to the GVP HCD-II+
and 9 MByte/s when attached to the G-FORCE (with synchronous mode on)...

	Note : I run the G-FORCE with all caches and bursts enabled
without problems.

	The G-FORCE is a four-layer board with various chips on it,
mainly 68040/60, SCSI controller, ASIC for RAM control, ASIC for bus
control and two EPROMS holding SCSI firmware. The PCB is of very good
quality, and there is not any wired patch on either side. Components
are surface mounted, and there are jumpers for setting every important
parameter.

	My 68060 did not come with any heat sink to dissipate heat. It
runs medium hot at 50 MHz (around 60 °C). I put a fan to run it without
crashes when overclocked at 60 MHz.

	The provided ksremap utility is able to remap kickstart into
fastram, which of course gives a boost. I am not sure, but it seems that
the board uses a special hardware facility on the board to remap the
kickstart, thus not using the MMU (as cpu does not report the MMU is
on). This feature is common th some GVP accelerators.

	32-bit RAM is managed by :
		. four SIMM sockets which accommodate any industry-standard
72 pin SIMMs up to 32 MByte / SIMM, access time 60 ns up.
OR (sockets are redundant, so you can not fill both)
		. four specific GVP-M SIMM sockets

This RAM does autoconfigure.

	The G-FORCE is capable of reverting back to the
standard 68000 mode via a software tool which reboots into 68000 mode
(then of course you can no longer access neither 32 bit RAM nor G-Force
SCSI-controlled drives).

	My Amiga has gone through 68000, then 68010, then A2620 (14 MHz
68020), then A2630 (25 MHz 68030) and now 50 MHz 68060. The performance
increase, provided you put on the board a few MBytes of SIMMs and a fast
hard disk, is amazing.

At 50 Mhz, Sysinfo 3.01 says :
===================
 Performance, you vs. :
 ----------------------
  A500 / A600              57
  B2000 with ZII fastRAM   48
  B2000 with GVP A3001      6
  A2500/A2620              16
  A3000/25                  7
  B2000/PP&S Mercury'040/25 2

At 60 MHz, add 15% to these numbers.

 Drive speed :
 -------------
  9 Mbyte/s (I put Sync transfer on).

	I trust these results, because I compared the user feedback with
my two other A2000s (one A2500/2620 and one A2500/2630), and they are
consistent.

DOCUMENTATION

	The G-FORCE comes with a printed 21 pages manual, complete but
which structure understanding needs 2 or 3 readouts.

	The paper and print quality is not as high as older GVP docs, but
the contents are sufficient.

LIKES

	The board turns your A2000B into an usable computer by today's
standards, if you give it 32 bit FAST RAM, a fast HD (I use an IBM DCAS
34330 4.3 GByte with synchronous transfer, which is a good choice if 9
MByte/s is ok for you) and a good graphics board (I use a Picasso IV
with Picasso 96 1.39).

	The board works (and really flies) with the following software I
tested : WordWorth 7.0, TurboCalc 5, DPaint V, sculpt 4D (020 version),
Manx Aztec C 5.0a compiler, Tornado 3D (demo version), ArtEffect SE,
IBrowse, SongPlayer and a few other.

	I also tested the board under Linux (watchtower2 from ftp.uni-
erlangen.de), it really flies IF you disable all 16 bit Zorro II RAM in
the memfile.

DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

I found a couple of issues :
	1 - the RAM is not configured as one single bank in my
configuration : 64 MByte in 4 16 MByte SIMMs give 2 32 MByte blocks in
the freelist.

	2 - reboot by software never works : you have to CTRL-A-A once
after soft reboot in order to really reboot. This is due to the RESET
pulse sent by the G-FORCE, which is too short for the rest of the Amiga
to really reset.

	3 - In my machine, the board cannot be fit if I don't remove the
metal backplate which is held the external SCSI connector, itself
soldered on the board. Maybe GVP changed its connector source between
design and implementation ? The board is around 2mm too long with the
backplate.

	4 - Material quality of the documentation (poor paper photocopy).
GVP had set better standards in the past. Contents is allright, although
structure understanding needs 2 or 3 readouts.

	5 - A few software will crash my machine. Examples : AIBB, Manx
Aztec C 5.0a's grep utility, and a few old utilities and games (I did
not try many games since I don't play that much, but F18 will crash, as
will do Vyper). This may be due to those software not being 32 bit clean
(they store data in the upper byte of addresses) or not being 68060
instruction set compatible. But the vast majority of the software I
tested (and use) worked. The large majority of productivity programs
work very well, even in `copyback' mode.  

	6 - My Pioneer CD-ROM drive behaves strange when attached to the
G-FORCE SCSI controller (this is the reason why I kept the GVP HCD-II+
board in my A2000). Maybe this is due to the software driver I use
(AmiCDFS), and I should try AsimCDFS (but it is not free).

	7 - I have heard that another owner has had problems in SCSI setup
and reliability. Although SCSI setup and reliability is common in the
Amiga playground, I had by far more problems with my previous SCSI
controllers than with the G-FORCE's one : I connected the IBM drive,
hdtoolbox'ed it (don't forget sync on) and voila !

	8 - No driver for SCSI chip in Linux (up to 2.0.33pl1) ! I am trying to
get one set up.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	I know no other 68060 accelerator really available for the A2000
by mid-1998. Anyways, all the existing 50 MHz 68060 designs for the
A2000 should share the same performance.

BUGS

	No bugs up to now...

VENDOR SUPPORT

	Vendor (Dimensions Computers) support is excellent.  Everything
got through eMail, answered overnight.

WARRANTY

	The board is warranted by it's reseller, this is to say Dimensions
Computers in my case.

CONCLUSIONS

	I think you invest money into your Amiga as you would do in any
hobby you are in love with, you should not have to economically justify
it... Thus, I consider that the US$749 (G-Force + 68060) + US$180 (64
MByte of 60 ns RAM) + US$400 (IBM DCAS4330) + $US$420 (Picasso IV),
which would give you the standard multimedia PC today, are worth
investing into the A2000 if you want a different computer. When I
consider the results, I never ask myself if I was crazy doing that. This
Amiga lasts since 1984...

	Considering the sole G-FORCE 68060, it solves the 8 MByte limit of
Zorro II, the speed limit of any other processor available for the
A2000, the SCSI speed limit of any SCSI adapter for ZorroII, and running
around 60x the speed of a 68000 Amiga has to be seen before saying Amiga
performance is 14 years (yes 14 : 1984 to 1998) outdated.

	I also play with A3000's and A4000's, only the 68060-equipped ones
match the performance of my 2000, and the performance increase of
putting the Picasso IV into a Zorro III slot is not that evident.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	This review has been written by Stephane Guillard
([email-masked]), during July 1998. If is freely
distributable.

-- 
Stéphane GUILLARD  - [email-masked]
A2000B3.1Ecs2M/GVP-M68060-60+64M+4.3G+32x/PicassoIV-Concierto/A2065
T : (+33) (0) 4 72 13 37 10 - F : (+33) (0) 4 72 35 99 22

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