#Prog. 68040/3000 accel.
5 messages in this thread
All
I've been looking at a Progressive 68040/3000 accelerator board for my A3000,
and would appreciate any information about it that anybody can give me. It's a
lot cheaper than other boards at $899, and I assume it's cheaper because it
runs at 25mhz instead of 28/33mhz, and uses the A3000's buss and ram instead of
it's own. Anyway my questions are, how well does it actually work, which of
the three 68040 does it have, and does it take advantage of the 68882 on the
A3000's mother board? Any information would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
Ed Cruse
I've heard some pretty scary things about Progressive as a company.
Something about them being gutted by fire, down to 2 employees, and
waiting for the insurance check. Whether or not their company is going to
be around after that is a good question.
I got a GVP 040-28MHz w/2MB 40ns RAM from Creative a few months ago for
$999. I had to send it back to GVP 3 times before I got one that didn't
randomly lock-up after an hour or two. Since I got this final replacement,
it has worked like a charm – and I leave it on all the time.
If you're willing to spend the time hassling with GVP to get one that
works, you'll at least be happy in the knowledge that the company will be
around in the next year to support your product.
Just my $.02,
Erik Flom
Ed:
I have one of the Progressive 040 boards in my machine, and I love it. So
far I've never missed the fact that it doesn't accept extra RAM, or the
fact that it runs at only 25mhz. Unless they've changed, the PP&S card
uses a real 68040, not a 68EC040 like so many other boards. You will find
that unlike some other boards that it works at full speed ALL the time,
not like some boards that have the EC part.
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
Regardless what rumors you may hear about PPS, distributors are still getting
product from them so they can't be having too many problems ("down to 2
employees"?!?).
Their 3000 040 board plugs into the CPU port and uses the 3000's 32-bit wide
memory system. Since you can really load up the 3000 with wide memory, there's
little point in buying an 040 board that has it's own memory system.
Ed,
I've noticed that in the last couple AmigaWorlds, I haven't seen
any ads by Progressive. And, the mail-order houses have recently
drastically reduced their prices on Progressive's stuff. I've been
drooling while the price has been dropping, but now I wonder…
AW July 93 – Computability Ad Zeus 28Mhz A2000…..$559
-Steve