Re: Zip GS questions

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article Paul Schultz <pschultz@med.wayne.edu> writes...

>Yes, generally the rule is to fill the cache as much as you can. The
>less often the accelerator card has to go out to the system memory and
>fetch data the faster the performance. So, the best solution may be to
>get cheaper ZipGS and then buy 64KB of SRAM chips for the cache. 

    That brings up a question, should there be a noticable difference
between a ZipGS with 32K cache and one with 64K of cache? To be honest,
aftering having run my card in both memory cache configurations, I can't 
say I noticed any difference. I am running at nearly the top speed the
card can be pushed (comparing a 15/32 with a 15/64) so perhaps that 
could affect things. Are there any programs I could try where I might
_see_ the difference? (A specific demo or game perhaps?)

    On a related note, I've managed to get my 15/64 to finally run
stable (or so it seems so far). What I've done is take a Pentium
CPU heat sink with mini-fan (powered by the "Fan" connector on the
motherboard) and placed it over the Zip's ASIC. Surprisingly, it
fits amazingly well; the heat sink slides inbetween the PLCC and 
oscillator sockets, laying perfectly flat over the surface of the 
ASIC (no glue, tape, wire or rubber bands required ;-). It looks
rather impressive too actually, as if it were part of the ZipGS. 
I wonder if I'm the only Apple IIgs user with a Pentium CPU cooler
inside their machine. :-)

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca