Amiga and Atari followers used to lord over their Apple-eating brethren the truth that Cupertino by no means moved to essentially the most superior 68k processors — so for some time, due to 68060 accelerator playing cards, the quickest factor working Macintosh software program was an Amiga (or Atari). In spite of everything these years, the Macintosh group is lastly getting the final chortle, as [zigzagjoe] demonstrates an precise Macintosh booting with a 68060 CPU for the primary time in a thread on 68KMLA. Video or it didn’t occur? Test it out beneath.
The Mac in query is a Quadra 650, which is an effective selection because it was about the very last thing Apple bought earlier than switching to PowerPC, and ran the 68040 processor. [Reinauer] had already produced a 68040-to-68060 socket adapter (the 2 chips not being pinout appropriate), so the {hardware} a part of the battle was already set. Software program, nonetheless? That was a distinct story, and the place [zigzagjoe] put within the effort.
We’re spoiled by a long time of backwards compatibility within the x86 instruction set; Motorola wasn’t as variety again within the day, and the 68060 isn’t absolutely appropriate with the sooner 68040’s instruction set. They did present a translation that [zigzagjoe] was in a position to construct into his customized ROM, although, which is how he’s in a position to get the Mac in addition and set up System 7.1, the most recent model that may boot.
Alas, the total 66 MHz clock pace [zigzagjoe] proved unstable. To make department prediction work, he needed to clock all the way down to 50 MHz. Contemplating the ‘040 clocked at 25 MHz within the Quadra 650, that’s nonetheless a substantial enchancment in clock pace.
At 66 MHz and giving up department prediction, DOOM runs at 16.4 FPS. It slowed down (14.3 FPS) at 50 MHz, and department prediction. We anticipated branching to have a larger influence, however apparently not. Whereas DOOM is probably not the very best benchmark on this {hardware}, it does reply a very powerful query you’ll be able to ask of any little bit of package: sure, it does run DOOM!
Whereas Apple has lengthy since deserted the 68k in favour of PPC, x86, and eventually their very own implementation of ARM, there are at all times enterprising upgraders.
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