Re: Software for uSPEED math card

["brad" <mrbrad@ll.net>]

i'll let you know when i get the card...but on the ebay auction it says it
is a "computer stations" card and he further lists the chip ref number and
the address which i think was a street called computer stations in texas?

that was the bid page on ebay (see begining post on this thread for link)

but on the other hand when i did my little auto feature on ebay and it saved
the ebay page to myebay 'bought' area the title came up as a saturn systems
card... so he musta used that for part of the auction descrip as well

i'll let you know when i get the card...be interesting to see if i ever get
the software for it....thanks for the .pdf file on the actual specs on the
9511 chip set etc..i'll stick a copy on disk in the bag w/ the card
...hopefully someday i'll find the software.

brad
former sysop www.lost-gonzo.com (still down)







"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote in message
20040309160420.25181.00000956@mb-m07.aol.com">news:20040309160420.25181.00000956@mb-m07.aol.com...
> brad wrote:
>
> >"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote in message
> >20040131135737.13722.00000755@mb-m27.aol.com">news:20040131135737.13722.00000755@mb-m27.aol.com...
> >> I recently acquired a uSPEED math card for the Apple II series,
> >> made by Applied Analytics, Inc.
> >>
> >> According to published reviews, it came with a version of Applesoft
> >> that was patched to use if for floating-point arithmetic and functions.
> >>
> >> Does anyone have this software, or know where it can be found?
> >
> >i recently got a saturn systems math co-processor card for the apple ii
with
> >the amd 9511 coded math chip
> >
> >did anyone ever find the programs needed from this post to get one of
these
> >beasts to work...i think a prev post said these cards used the same math
> >chip with the 9511 in the descrip ..again mine was AMD
> >
> >and yes i do have 2 sets of 8" drives and apple lobo controller if they
are
> >on 8" disks...not exactly sure what would be needed to xfer them to a
800k
> >disk or some such.. but...doable i guess
> >
> >anyway...let me know if someone tripped over a link or has the
stuff...maybe
> >there is something i got doc wise or otherwise you may need
> >
> >anyway thanks for your time..and see my other post on saturn systems
apple
> >ii math co-processing card for what i managed to snag
>
> Hi, Brad!
>
> First, a question:  is this card made by Saturn Systems or Computer
Station?
> The auction suggests the latter, and the photo leaves it pretty ambiguous.
;-)
>
> You are correct, this is one of a small set of Apple II math accelerators
> based on the AMD9511.  They were produced in various clock speeds,
> from 2MHz to 4MHz, and offered a big speedup in floating-point arithmetic
> and trig functions compared to a 1MHz 6502 running the routines in the
> Applesoft ROM.
>
> No one has come forward with the software designed to make the card
> work within Applesoft--yet.
>
> I have the chip datasheet (from Paul R. Santa-Maria), and it is
instructive.
> The actual AMD datasheet only contains electrical, timing, and mechanical
> data, and was apparently supplemented by a programming manual, which
> I have not found.  But the Intel 8321 datasheet describes a fully
compatible
> chip, complete with programming information.
>
> Using the Intel datasheet, I wrote some Applesoft routines to "exercise"
> the chip and test it.  It works pretty well, but it only supports 32-bit
FP
> numbers, with a signed 24-bit mantissa--a little short compared to the
> 32-bit (with separate sign) of Applesoft 40-bit FP numbers.
>
> I have the MicroSpeed ("uSpeed") card, which was designed to rely on
> using the 6502 RDY line to pause the processor (if necessary) until a
result
> was ready.  Since my primary machine contains a Zip Chip, which does not
> support the RDY line, it is a bit tricky to use the card at full speed on
my
> primary machine.
>
> Speed tests show that the chip accelerates a 1MHz Applesoft program
> up to 5x, or so, depending on the amount and type of floating-point
> computation.  My 8MHz Zip Chip speeds up just about every Applesoft
> program by about the same amount, so, ironically, the FP accelerator
> is not a big win for many programs (very trig-heavy programs might be
> an exception).
>
> In short, the idea of a math accelerator offered a very short-lived
advantage
> compared to the much more generally useful cached fast processor.
>
> -michael
>
> Check out amazing quality sound for 8-bit Apples on my
> Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/