BLIZZARD 603e and 603e+
PPC Accelerator for the A1200
Phase 5 digital products have announced the upcoming BLIZZARD 603e
Power Board, a PowerPC-based accelerator for Amiga 1200 and A1200-based Tower Systems.
With this innovative and powerful new accelerator a new dimension of performance is
brought to the Amiga 1200, with performance increases of multiple times beyond the
performance of the fastest 68k based accelerators available today, for a sensationally low
price that is perfectly targeted at the A1200 upgrade market.
Primarily being designed as an upgrade board for existing Amiga systems, the BLIZZARD 603e
Power Board incorporates phase 5's innovative dual-processor technology, where a fast
PowerPC RISC processor is combined with a 68k processor. In the case of the BLIZZARD 603e
Power Board, a choice of 68LC040-25, 68040-25 or 68060-50 CPU. The CPUs dynamically share
the memory and system busses, which is necessary for a true multiprocessor behaviour.
While the original AmigaOS 3.x continues to run on the 68K CPU (as well as all existing
applications) providing 100% compatibility - the PowerPC 603e CPU is supported by a
comprehensive PPC Library developed by phase 5, which provides all functionality to
integrate the PowerPC into the Amiga multitasking environment. Software developers can
easily optimise their programs step by step by porting single tasks to PowerPC code, which
then can run parallel with 68k tasks. Many important Amiga software vendors are preparing
ported or optimised versions of their software packages already, so it is expected that a
large quantity of software products supporting the PowerPC will be available soon.
The BLIZZARD 603e Power Board will be available with the fast PowerPC603e processor at
clock speeds of 160MHz, 200MHz and 240 MHz. A socket is provided for the 68K companion
processor in a PGA housing. Also provided is a fast memory expansion option which uses
standard PS/2 type SIMMs. The memory is dynamically shared by the two CPUs on the BLIZZARD
603e Power Board. No SCSI-II interface is available on the entry level 603e Power Board
(though a Fast SCSI-II control is standard on the 603+ range).
With it's fast 603e processor the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board provides blistering
performance that can compete with most of the fastest PC systems available today. With
this performance the BLIZZARD 603e Power Board is ready for the most demanding
applications such as 3D rendering and high-speed 3D gameplaying, image manipulation,
animation, video applications, and many other demanding applications that depend on fast
CPU performance.
The BLIZZARD 603e Power Board will be delivered with a comprehensive software package,
which includes the PPC library as well as tools for creative users, among them a Public
Domain GNU C compiler for PowerPC (including sourcecode) and many demo programs and
utilities with sourcecode. In addition to this software free developer support is
available via the phase 5 FTP site. Last but not least, a PowerPC-optimized version of
CyberGraphX V3 with RISC-optimised CyberGL/3D and MPEG functions and libraries is included
(with a special GGX driver to support the AGA chipset) - of course with comprehensive
documentation.
Technical Information List: