STE V1.5 32MHz BOOSTER - STATUS

[PhilC]

I have a shed load of kapton tape, hopefully that'll help

[rubber_jonnie]

As usual some of my planned activities fell by the wayside due to running into other Atari related issues.

However, the install of the new 40Mhz booster was not one of them!!

Here you can see the board installed and running, tied down to 8Mhz for the first run:

installed.jpg (360.78 KiB) Viewed 1112 times

Once running, I removed the link to ground that tied it to 8Mhz, then what was I to do, but benchmark it, so here is a direct comparison using GEMBench, of my 32Mhz MK1 booster vs my MK1.5 at 40Mhz.

Here's 32Mhz first:

32Mhz.jpg (358.33 KiB) Viewed 1112 times

And here's 40Mhz:

40Mhz.jpg (357.32 KiB) Viewed 1112 times

As you can see, there is quite a noticeable difference, so I have to say well done to exxos for doing such a good job

The only problem I ran into was gettinin it into the slot, as I bent a single pin on the fist attempt. It was a bit odd because all of the other pins went in no problem, apart from one at the top end of the left hand row.

Luckily it was a minor task to remove the booster and straighten the pin, and everything went in smooothly on the 2nd attempt.

Oviously more testing is required, like the almost obligatory Elite 2 test, and a GB6 burn in test, but I'm confident it will run well.

The final piece of the puzzle will be to fit a switch so I can flip between 8Mhz and 40Mhz.

I'll report more as I get round to doing it.

[exxos]

If you run the new booster do all tests, then load the STE20632 file, then you should see the speed difference between 32MHz and 40MHz.

[rubber_jonnie]

If you run the new booster do all tests, then load the STE20632 file, then you should see the speed difference between 32MHz and 40MHz.

Will do so as soon as I can.

[exxos]

Seems HD10.01 doesn't like booting in 40MHz mode for some odd reason

[PhilC]

Ok, so one 3.3v oscillator replaced with a 5v one and back in business, thanks Chris.

To celebrate, here are a couple of benchmarks.

Below is the 40mhz vs 8mhz STE

20180803_222939_resized.jpg (443.56 KiB) Viewed 1044 times

And below this is 40mhz vs 32mhz

20180803_222608_resized.jpg (445.31 KiB) Viewed 1044 times

[exxos]

And below this is 40mhz vs 32mhz

hmmm, something not right with that... 32MHz has 309% ROM access, 368% 40MHz - 309% = 59% (yours whos 19% increase).

Similar with first test, 181% 32MHz, 203% 40MHz - 181% = 22% (your shows 12% increase)...

[PhilC]

Could it be the different GB that I was using? If you look at the percentages for the 40mhz, they are the same more or less to RJ's but the average is very different.

Of course it's not impossible I loaded the wrong comparison? what was the file name?

[exxos]

Could it be the different GB that I was using? If you look at the percentages for the 40mhz, they are the same more or less to RJ's but the average is very different.

Of course it's not impossible I loaded the wrong comparison? what was the file name?

STE20632... but maybe file isn't correct anymore

Will have to see what Jonnie comes back with.. he has bother boosters working currently..

[PhilC]

Fair enough, will wait with interest