11.2.1 Nemesis Accelerator

Nemesis Accelerator für F030

Die englische Firma Titan Design Ltd hat einen neuen Beschleuniger auf den Markt gebracht mit dem es möglich ist die Performance der Atari Falcon F030 Computer auf Trab zu bringen.

Dieser Beschleuniger ist offensichtlich entworfen worden um dem APEX-Multimedia Serie der gleichen Firma in den erweiterten Grafikmodis, TrueColor, der Falcons erheblich Beine zu machen.

Nemesis beschleunigt den Falcon Bus auf 24/48 Mhz und ermöglicht es so z.B einen Falcon unter 640x480 in TrueColor ohne den berühmten Interlace-Modus recht Fix zu betreiben.
Bei einem eingebauten Expose' Digitizer sollen hier laut Hersteller bei einer Bildgröße von 256x160 gut 25 Bilder pro Sekunde möglich sein. Die CPU wird mit Nemesis auf 24Mhz getaktet und sollte so die Performance ohne grössere Kompromisse erhöhen können.

Abbildung 1 - Nemesis Beschleuniger Board, direkt neben dem Lüfter

Gleichzeitig ermöglich das Board den Falcon internen DSP mit einem Takt von 48Mhz zu versorgen. Man braucht kaum noch zu Erwähnen das sich das gerade in APEX, welches den DSP in einigen Programmfunktionen ausnutzt, sehr stark bemerkbar machen wird.
Ebenso kann eine vorhandene FPU beschleunigt werden.

  Technische Daten der Nemesis-Karte - Takt in Mhz

Device      Normaler Falcon      Nemesis Falcon

 BUS        16                   20 / 24
 CPU        16                   20 / 24
 FPU        16                   20 / 24 oder 40 / 48
 DSP        32                   40 / 48

Laut Hersteller sollte die Nemesis-Karte im dritten Quartal 1996 zu erhalten sein.
Zum Einbau in den Falcon müssen einige Verbindungsleitungen durch löten Hergestellt werden. Es sollte eine Einbauanleitung in englischer Sprache dazu geben. Die Anleitung sollte Bilder enthalten.

Bereits registrierte APEX-Benutzer können die Karte zu einem günstigeren Preis beziehen.

AFTERBURNER/NEMESIS

Gembench results

============================================
AFTERBURNER040 @ 16.5/33/66MHz
Standard Falcon
============================================
Falcon 030 TOS 4.04
AES v3.40
GEMDOS v0.48
MiNT not present
Blitter not present
NVDI 2.51 present
Video Mode: 640*480*2
FPU cookie value=$80000 (68040 internal)
Run and Malloc from FastRAM
Ref: F030 + FPU, 640*480*2
============================================
GEM Dialog Box:             0.770    454%
VDI Text:                   0.200   1700%
VDI Text Effects:           0.410   1826%
VDI Small Text:             0.250   1500%
VDI Graphics:               1.045    835%
GEM Window:                 0.535    261%
Integer Division:           0.910    340%
Float Math:                 0.095    357%
RAM Access:                 0.215   1023%
ROM Access:                 0.220    954%
Blitting:                   0.875    128%
VDI Scroll:                 1.140    231%
Justified Text:             0.920    354%
VDI Enquire:                0.110   1436%
New Dialogs:                0.905    491%
============================================
Graphics:                            837%
CPU:                                 668%
Average:                             792%

============================================
AFTERBURNER040 @ 20/40/80MHz
Nemesis fitted and running with 20MHz bus
============================================
Falcon 030 TOS 4.04
AES v3.40
GEMDOS v0.48
MiNT not present
Blitter not present
NVDI 2.51 present
Video Mode: 640*480*2
FPU cookie value=$80000 (68040 internal)
Run and Malloc from FastRAM
Ref: F030 + FPU, 640*480*2
============================================
GEM Dialog Box:             0.690    507%
VDI Text:                   0.175   1942%
VDI Text Effects:           0.365   2052%
VDI Small Text:             0.225   1666%
VDI Graphics:               0.920    948%
GEM Window:                 0.485    288%
Integer Division:           0.750    413%
Float Math:                 0.080    425%
RAM Access:                 0.180   1222%
ROM Access:                 0.180   1166%
Blitting:                   0.770    145%
VDI Scroll:                 1.030    256%
Justified Text:             0.835    390%
VDI Enquire:                0.095   1663%
New Dialogs:                0.800    556%
============================================
Graphics:                            946%
CPU:                                 806%
Average:                             909%

===============================================================

NEMESIS - VIDEO PERFORMANCE

Falcon with Nemesis at 24/48MHz (24MHz System speed/48MHz DSP & FPU)
- all are non-interlaced resolutions, 16-bit (65,536 colours per screen)
on a standard 14" VGA non-multisync!

Expect far higher resolution modes with a half-decent multi-sync :-)

                 Bus    CPU    Video   Hz
640x480          24     24     24      60
720x528          24     24     24      50

Nemesis also accelerates the FPU and DSP to 48MHz.

============================================

NEMESIS + AFTERBURNER040 - VIDEO PERFORMANCE

Falcon with Afterburner040 and Nemesis - all are non-interlaced
resolutions, 16-bit (65,536 colours per screen) on a standard 14" VGA.

                 Bus    CPU    Pipe   Video   Hz
720x528          12.5   25     50     25      50
640x480          12.5   25     50     25      60
512x400          20     40     80     20      50

Note: Although the Afterburner CPU is being half-clocked in the highest
resolutions, the actual performance is still much higher than a
standard Falcon, and is completely switchable between the various
specifications.

Der eigentliche Einbau

Beim Einbau der Nemesis-Karte sind verschiedene Lötarbeiten auszuführen.
Das es mehr wie drei Leitungen sind können Sie leicht den Bildern entnehmen. Die Nemesis-Karte wurde bereits erfolgreich mit dem Afterburner und auch der Mighty Sonic getestet. Beachten Sie bitte unbedingt das zum Einbau dieser Karte eine gewisse Erfahrung im Umgang mit dem Atari Falcon F030 und dessen Hardware eine dringende Voraussetztung ist. Auch müssen hier leider einige Leiterbahnen auf der Falconplatine präzise und genau für diesen Umbau durchtrennt werden. Wichtig ist das Sie hier auch die angegbenen Punkte auf der Platine korrekt auffinden können. Es darf nicht tief geschnitten werden unter der Oberfläche befinden sich in jedem Falcon weitere wichtige Leiterbahnen die nicht zerstört werden dürfen. Sofern Sie jeden Schritt der englischen Einbauanleitung Punkt für Punkt befolgen kann eigentlich nichts falsch werden

Nutzen Sie den Einbauservice wenn Sie sich den Einbau selber nicht zutrauen!

Abbildung 2 - Nemesis Beschleuniger Board im Falcon F030

Die Nemesis Karte ersetzt einige wichtige Taktsignale des Falcon durch eigene Taktsignale die auf der Karte erzeugt werden. Das kann in mehreren Stufen passieren. Wichtig ist auf jeden Fall immer das Sie ein passendes Verhältniss zwischen Bus und CPU-Takt verwenden. Einigen Sie sich hier besser stets auf gerade Zahlen. Der Falcon kann jederzeit wieder in den Originalzustand geschaltet werden.

Bisher ist mir leider kein offizieller Einbauservice in Deutschland bekannt.

Nemesis Falcon System Accelerator Tips & Tricks

Nemesis is designed and developed by Peter Green
with Black Scorpion Software Ltd

Tips und Tricks zum Einbau des Falcon Nemesis-Beschleuniger

Grounding and Power: Nemesis will react badly if not supplied wwith a clean power source
This shoulld be taken froum the smoothing capacitor (V147) near the internal PSU, but some other locatios are possible
Nemesis allways need a clear ground
Add a thik wire from the negative pole (BLACK WIRE) of the 4700uF
to one or more GND locations on the PCB
These include:
Pin 14 of U20 - the location used as ground for the 150pF capacitor
Add a ground wire between the negative pole of C147 and the
ground rail of the PCB
Screen Interferences: Shorten all long wires at your System
Keep wires from the buffer to DSP, DMA so far as you can from VIDEL
Try to keep RED, BROWN, YELLOW and ORANGE wires far from Memory, CPU
Heating Problem: The accelerate Falcon is a overheating machine
Do not remove the fan, replace the fan to the top of the internal PSU
Make sure your machine have a nice air circulation, remove shilding

The CPU is runs along 50% faster so it must be expected to run warmer.
However we've had Nemesis accelerated machines running for nearly a year now without a problem. Providing the fan has been repositioned, as recommended in our instructions, it should be fine.

Further modification:

It is only comforting for me to put a heatsink on Falcon's CPU.
I always reposition the fan to the top of the metal shield above the power
supply for all Nemesis installation. Yet there is still a slight problem, the
slots on the Falcon case are too narrow for warm air to escape efficiently.
So adding a heatsink is an good extra protection.

It is possible to fit a heatsink with termo glue on the top of the CPU
SCSI Trouble: A easy way to found SCSI/DMA Problems is to use a disk checker like
TREE_CHK.PRG, it is a part of KOBOLD, or Diamond Edge
Compare copied date after a copy job from disk to disk

Use a lower Nemesis Speed
Fit a 82pF capacitor between U20 Pin 14 and Pin 110 of U36
Fit the 150pF capacitor between U20 Pin 14 and U36 Pin 110
Replace capacitors with and 1K resistor
Desolder the white wire from the buffer, insulate it, remake the broken
track to Pin 110 of U36
No Video Output: Check your machine for solder scraps or fragments befor switch on!
Check pins of all surface mounted chips
You have set the jumper on the internal expansions port?
White screen without logo: Falcon become clock from buffer, some other
modification is wrong:
Black scree: Turn the machine off. No clock signal is passing the buffer
Your system can't run. Check all wires as described in the manual!!
IDE Trouble: Check your machine for solder scraps or fragments befor switch on!
Recheck the DMA-Buffer wireing. (White wire from Buffer to U36)
Follow the instructions of the read_me file from nemesis disk
Deactive your Blitter while using NVDI
Check the smal capacitor on the nemesis buffer board
If you can't found any mistake, switch nemesis to the lower speed
an check again your IDE-Device. Make sure before you have a backup
before you wrot data to your IDE-Device!
IDE trouble only can fixed with the DMA-Part of Nemesis
A easy way to found IDE/DMA Problems is to use a disk checker like
TREE_CHK.PRG, it is a part of KOBOLD, or Diamond Edge
Video Trouble: If you have some flickering or 50% reduced picture re-check all wires
Re-check the track from VIDEL Pin 73 to the original 25Mhz Oscillator
This track must be defintive cut!
Memory unstable: All is correct, your Falcon work unstable
Check out your memory board. Some older Atari boards dosen't like the
nemesis high speed. To eleminate that problem is to switch down into a lower
speed or chance the memory board. Some other third party boards works also well
Try the WB PS2 Ramkarte, the Gizmo Ram or the Board from Titan Design
It's not possible to use Simms slower as 60nS on ALL Boards

Abbildung 3 - unfitted Nemesis Board

Abbildung 4 - unfitted Nemesis Buffer Board

Here you will found the complete Nemesis wiring as i done by me self.
No fucking Bugs, that was i found in the manual from 1997! :-)

Buffer, white cable: Connect the white wire to Pin 110 of U36, DMA-Chip
Make sure that the old track is devitive cut as describe in the manual
Buffer, blue cable: Connect the BLUE wire to the upper Pin of R217
Buffer, purple cable: Connect the PURPLE wire to the upper solder pad of R216
Buffer, orange cable: Connect the ORANGE wire to the upper solder pad of R221
Buffer, green cable: Connect the GREEN wire to the lower solder pad of R222
Buffer, black cable: Connect the BLACK wire to the negative pole of the 4700uF capacitor (C147)
Buffer, red cable: Connect the RED wire to the positive pole the 4700uF capacitor (C147)
Nemesis, purple cable: Connect one of the PURPLE wire to Pin 3 & 4 of U52, IKBD Chip
Connect the second PURPLE wire to Pin 3 & 4 of U24, MIDI Chip
Cut and lift Pin 3 & 4 as describe in the nemesis manual
Do it very carfully.
Nemesis, brown cable: Connect the BROWN wire to the lower Pad of R234
Nemesis, yellow cable: Connect the YELLOW wire to Pin 74 of the DSP Chip
Cut track 74 as describe in the manual before you build the new connection
Nemesis, grey cable: Connect the GREY wire to the right Pin of the removed coil L102
Nemesis, green cable: Connect the GREEN wire to the solder pad of U41 (VIDEL U34)
Cut track 73 before as describe in the manual.
Nemesis, blue cable: Connect the BLUE wire to the cutten track (Pin 73) of the VIDEL (U34)

Some other modifikations

A new modification with a nemsised Falcon in a Tower Case.

If you are use the RGB/VGA Switch with a Tower Falcon you need to drill a hole for the RGB/VGA Switch, thats not possible by all cases. It's a simple thing to solder a two Pin connector with one Pin to the outer GND rail, the second Pin is the right point for the PINK wire and the 10K resistor from the right Pin of L107.

Watch out that the second Pin do not touch any other part in your Falcon!

Picture - a simple plug in RGB/VGA Switch

With that connector you can use the original 'Turbo' or any other switch from the Tower Front Panel. It's simple to plug in like a normal PC Board.

Speed Indicators

Authorised NEMESIS Upgrade Services

There are two companies in the UK offering authorised Nemesis upgrades.
No offical upgrade service in germany avaiable.

FDC Electronics
Penrhyd, Llanrhuddlad
Anglesey LL65 5BG
Tel: 044 01407 730132

MJL Insights
12 Portal Road, Halton
Aylesbury, Bucks HP22 5PR
Tel: 044 01296 622400

Please arrange a suitable date for the Nemesis installation with them prior to despatching your Falcon. This will ensure that delays are kept to a minimum.

Abbildung 4 - Nemesis Beschleuniger Board im Falcon F030