Dear Quadraphiles: Sorry I'm coming late to this party, but this time of year is pretty busy for us clergy-types, so I've been behind on my e-mail.
The pickle alluded to my experience with QuadDoublers yesterday when he wrote: > If it has its own clock generator (where's Rob Johanssen when you need him?) > then it should work just fine. The Pickle and I had a look over a QuadDoubler-type gadget (see below) last summer. QuadDoublers DO NOT have their own clock chips. They do exactly what the name implies, double the clock speed (bus speed) of the main oscillator. They have a little chip on them which effects this. The only gadget I'm aware of with it's own clock generator is something made by Newer Tech in the early 90's for the Q950, which will run that machine at 50 mHz. It has its own Motorola clock generator chip which is programmable to 1.33, 1.5, and 2.0 times the oscillator frequency. It also has what appears to be its own on-board cache. The CPU has an integral cooling fan on its heatsink. I have tried that in my 950, and it did boot and report a speed of 50mHz. However, I could not get it to run stably under OS 7.6.1. It brought up all kinds of strange errors, bombs and hangs. Furthermore, the software that came with it did not appear to function. I have always meant to experiment with backing the OS down to 7.5 or 7.1, and putting scrupulously tested 60 ns RAM in it, but this 950 is heavily used and I just haven't gotten around to that project yet. I've tried QuadDoublers in several different machines, with mixed results. I have tried running one in my Q950, and it's not a matter of overheating: the thing won't even start up. You just can't get that thing to run at 66 mHz. It will work in a Q700. I even put it into a Q605 for grins, and it worked OK there, though you couldn't close the case back up. It was kind of neat playing Doom II for an hour or so on that 605 cooking along at 50 mHz. I was glad to read of Dan's success with his 'doubler. I share his mixed feelings, though. It seems to me that the performance bump you get from these things is not worth the trouble or expense of dealing with them. If you can get one cheap (under $30-40) and don't expect miracles, go ahead. But the fact is that you can get a PPC upgrade for most Quads for $60-80 on eBay and really get a performance boost. In my opinion, the QuadDoubler is not much more than a curiosity. Pax, Fr. Rob Johansen -- A computer without Windows is like a dog without bricks tied to its head. Fr. Rob Johansen St. Joseph, Michigan Check out my Blog at: http://www.ThrownBack.blogspot.com -- Quadlist is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Enter To Win A | -- Canon PowerShot Digital Cameras start at $299 | Free iBook! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Quadlist info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/quadlist.shtml> The FAQ: <http://macfaq.org/> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/quadlist%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
