Re: [q] Identify Old Daystar Upgrade

[Jeff Walther]

At 15:30 -0400 06/13/2005, Quadlist wrote:


Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 10:02:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: Nate <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>



On Thu, 9 Jun 2005, Jeff Walther wrote:


 Anybody recognize this:

?

 It looks like it plugs into a Quadra PDS slot, but it also appears to have a
 68040 chip on board.  So what would be the point?

 Jeff Walther


The Quadra 700 and 900 were only 25Mhz when introduced, and the
Quad040/Image040 were 68040 PDS upgrade cards that would take the machines
to 40Mhz and could also take a daughtercard with two of the AT&T DSPs that
were used in the 660AV and 840AV.  However, those DSPs were not recognized
by the OS the way there were on the 660 and 840, but they could be used
with Photoshop as filter accelerators with special plug-ins.

Later on companies like Sonnet and MicroMac developed CPU socket upgrades
that let you put a 50Mhz 68040 into a 25Mhz socket thanks to some
additional circuitry, however the bus timing issues caused some
side-effects like the floppy drive no longer working.  AFAIK the
Quad/Image040 never suffered from problems like that.


Ah, thank you for satisfying my curiosity, Nate.

I didn't understand why one would put a 68040 upgrade in a Quadra, 
but I guess it is difficult to see, now, how attractive such an 
incremental upgrade would have been back then.


These days there's essentially no difference in price between a 25 
MHz and 40 MHz 68040.  Back then it could make the difference between 
spending several thousand dollars on a new machine.  And 25 MHz to 40 
MHz is theoretically a 60% speed boost.


I'm also in the habit of thinking of the post-Q700/900 machines, most 
of which have a hack available to take them to 40 MHz without adding 
an upgrade.


Jeff Walther

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Re: [q] Identify Old Daystar Upgrade

[Nate]

On Thu, 9 Jun 2005, Jeff Walther wrote:

Anybody recognize this: 
?


It looks like it plugs into a Quadra PDS slot, but it also appears to have a 
68040 chip on board.  So what would be the point?


Jeff Walther


The Quadra 700 and 900 were only 25Mhz when introduced, and the 
Quad040/Image040 were 68040 PDS upgrade cards that would take the machines 
to 40Mhz and could also take a daughtercard with two of the AT&T DSPs that 
were used in the 660AV and 840AV.  However, those DSPs were not recognized 
by the OS the way there were on the 660 and 840, but they could be used 
with Photoshop as filter accelerators with special plug-ins.


Later on companies like Sonnet and MicroMac developed CPU socket upgrades 
that let you put a 50Mhz 68040 into a 25Mhz socket thanks to some 
additional circuitry, however the bus timing issues caused some 
side-effects like the floppy drive no longer working.  AFAIK the 
Quad/Image040 never suffered from problems like that.


- Nate

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Re: [q] Identify Old Daystar Upgrade

[Dr Gary D Badcock]

I have been following this and other discussions from afar; time to weigh in
with my FIRST POST! Better make it a good one.

I have one of these Daystar cards, and so have had reason to do a little digging
and can fill in the blanks.

It is a Daystar Quad 040 running at 40 MHz with a 128k SRAM cache, and works in
the Quadra 610, 650, 660av, 700, 800, 900 and 950 (the 610 and 660 required, so
far as I know, a Slotsaver adapter - which plugged right into the cpu socket
and so left the one pds expansion slot in the 610 and 660 free).

The card brings any of these machines up to the level of a Q840av (40 MHz). Yes,
there would have been a point in buying one of these c.1993.

But it's not (in itself) an AV card, and there are no DSPs.

Daystar, however, clearly had the av machines in its sights. Though there are no
DSPs (presumably what have been identified are just the cache chips), what
there is is a smallish QUIC (Quadra Universal Interface Connector) slot, to
which can be plugged a Daystar Charger QUIC daughter card, which does have twin
DSPs. It plugs onto the side of the card, very like the daughter card for, say,
the Radius Thunder IV card. I don't have a QUIC daughter card, so I can't speak
about it first hand, but Daystar advertised that the two cards together would
boost a non-av mac like the 700 to run around 30% faster than the 840av.

It runs beautifully under OS 7. Haven't tested it with OS 8. Does not work
happily with A/UX, though I have had it running under A/UX on my Q950. The
trick is to do the A/UX installation with the card installed, and not to put it
in later. But since it makes A/UX rather cranky, there's not much point,
really.

There is a reference (from whch some of this is taken) in _Upgrading and
Repairing Macs_, Que publishing, 1994, pp.604-5 if anyone's really keen.

Gary


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[q] Identify Old Daystar Upgrade

[Dr.O.M.Betz]

It's a pity the pics don't reveal so much. All I can say is that 
Daystar offered quite a range of upgrades/accelerators at the time 
and that the control panel you can still download from AppleFritter 
at http://www.applefritter.com/node/4686 covers the Turbo 040, Turbo 
040i, Image 040, Quad 040, Value 040, Value 040i and FastCache 
Quadra. DayStar Quad 040 Accelerator seems to have been the name of 
this CDEV/Control Panel. The designation "Quad 040" seems redundant 
if it wasn't meant for a speed upgrade for Quadras running at 25 or 
32 MHz. Maybe the article in question is just that, I don't know. The 
interesting suggestion by Chris that it could be sort of an AV 
upgrade is erroneous IMHO as presumed DSPs alone don't make the 
difference - where are the ports? Video in/out, RCA jacks for the 
sound? And the DSP on the  840 AV mainboard here (AT&T 3210) doesn't 
look very much like the chips on the board shown. I'm puzzled, 
anyway, as I believed the DSPs were by TI. But I'm sure someone more 
knowledgeable than me can clear this up.


Cheers, OM
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Re: [q] Identify Old Daystar Upgrade

[PsycoPunkn]

It appears to have 2 DSPs on it.  Maybe its an upgrade to Quadra 840AV 
standards for older Quadras?  

Chris

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Re: [q] Identify Old Daystar Upgrade

[PsycoPunkn]

In a message dated 6/9/05 11:01:07 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

<< 
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4604&item=5206968963&rd=1>
 >>

Its got me confused but I am Very curious what it is also.

Chris

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[q] Identify Old Daystar Upgrade

[Jeff Walther]

Anybody recognize this: 
?


It looks like it plugs into a Quadra PDS slot, but it also appears to 
have a 68040 chip on board.  So what would be the point?


Jeff Walther

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