The STFM 'blitter chip' upgrade

[carmel_andrews]

I seem to remember way back when the st was still with us, Atari planned to do some sort of 'Blitter chip' upgrade on STfm's with tos in ROM (it's the blank IC fitting towards the bottom middle of the STFM motherboard)

 

And as if to verify it's existence, Atari were going to extend the STFM range by 2 new models the 2040 and 40 or 4180 (basically a 2 or 4 meg version of the stfm) however Atari were going to put the blitter chip in these machines (i remember Atari showing them off at one of the old PCW shows) and also offering the blitter chip as upgrade for existing stfm's (and stf's)

 

For some strange reason, best known to atari, these machines never made it onto the market...does that mean that atari shelved the 'blitter chip' upgrade for stf/fm's and saved it for mega st's, the tt and ste etc

 

Curious to find out what happened

[dinosaur]

I seem to remember way back when the st was still with us, Atari planned to do some sort of 'Blitter chip' upgrade on STfm's with tos in ROM (it's the blank IC fitting towards the bottom middle of the STFM motherboard)

 

And as if to verify it's existence, Atari were going to extend the STFM range by 2 new models the 2040 and 40 or 4180 (basically a 2 or 4 meg version of the stfm) however Atari were going to put the blitter chip in these machines (i remember Atari showing them off at one of the old PCW shows) and also offering the blitter chip as upgrade for existing stfm's (and stf's)

 

For some strange reason, best known to atari, these machines never made it onto the market...does that mean that atari shelved the 'blitter chip' upgrade for stf/fm's and saved it for mega st's, the tt and ste etc

 

Curious to find out what happened

 

I saw a benchmark test (in Current Notes) that compared Turbo ST and Quick ST to the

 

blitter and both beat the blitter by a large margin.

 

Why do a hardware mod,when you can do it with software?

[Rybags]

A blitter chip isn't really useful for desktop situations. Games and applications requiring scrolling and moving objects is more it's thing.

 

But thanks to the STs rediculous method of implementing it's bit-planes, any graphical operation was made slower and more unnecessarily complex.

[jens]

For application use it's better to use a decent replacement vdi such as Nvdi.

[ggn]

A blitter chip isn't really useful for desktop situations. Games and applications requiring scrolling and moving objects is more it's thing.

 

But thanks to the STs rediculous method of implementing it's bit-planes, any graphical operation was made slower and more unnecessarily complex.

 

 

Hmm, ask any newschool amiga and st coders about c2p and they'll tell you that actually the st's bitplane mode is better than the amiga's.

 

Also, mentioning "movep" to the ami coders has a tendency to turn their skin colour to green

[Greenious]

Later revisions of the STFM motherboard actually had room for a blitter. Earlier revisions did not.

 

You had to solder the socket, and some solderpads if memory serves me right, but they could be upgraded.

 

This was a long time ago though, I did upgrade mine, but I can not remember how much the upgrade cost, or if it was publicly available. (My upgrade was a gift from a friend working at atari scandinavia at the time)

 

As far as I can remember, Mega ST always shipped with blitter, but I can't help this nagging feeling that the early ones was without it.

 

TOS 1.02 was the first supporting blitter, and I suspect they planned the blitter to be part of all STs, but was unable for one reason or another to get the blitter done in time.

[Gunstar]

I have one of the later model STF's (no modulator) that has a spot for the blitter, and I intend to upgrade it eventually. Best Electronics and I think B&C also, have the socket and blitter's for sale to do the job, the only thing would be figuring out what pads need to be soldered/desoldered. But that shouldn't be too hard; I asked on about every ST site I know (a while ago) how to upgrade from a 2 chip TOS to a 6 chip, since my ST has the 6 sockets, and everybody told me it was impossible, which I couldn't understand, otherwise why would Atari install 6 sockets for TOS chips? So I forged ahead on my own and discovered the proper pads that needed to be desoldered/soldered and then upgraded from TOS 1.02, 2 chip, to 1.04, 6 chip. I intend to do the same with the Blitter chip.

I'll soon have the equivelant of an STe, with my tweety board stereo upgrade (yes I'm aware it doesn't work like the STe's newer stereo sound chip, but it works better and with much more software taking advantage of it; e.g., all standard ST software AND all STe software that's also compatible with standard ST's!), TOS 1.04 and the Blitter. I also have a JRI 4096 color board (uses a second MMU), but I still need to find instructions on installing it properly. I put the upgrades on hold when I got a Mega STE, but will soon finish them. I just wish there was an easy way to install the 15-pin controller ports...

Edited December 26, 2006 by Gunstar

[Gunstar]

I seem to remember way back when the st was still with us, Atari planned to do some sort of 'Blitter chip' upgrade on STfm's with tos in ROM (it's the blank IC fitting towards the bottom middle of the STFM motherboard)

 

And as if to verify it's existence, Atari were going to extend the STFM range by 2 new models the 2040 and 40 or 4180 (basically a 2 or 4 meg version of the stfm) however Atari were going to put the blitter chip in these machines (i remember Atari showing them off at one of the old PCW shows) and also offering the blitter chip as upgrade for existing stfm's (and stf's)

 

For some strange reason, best known to atari, these machines never made it onto the market...does that mean that atari shelved the 'blitter chip' upgrade for stf/fm's and saved it for mega st's, the tt and ste etc

 

Curious to find out what happened

 

I saw a benchmark test (in Current Notes) that compared Turbo ST and Quick ST to the

 

blitter and both beat the blitter by a large margin.

 

Why do a hardware mod,when you can do it with software?

 

Why not do BOTH for even faster operation? I have a Mega STE with the blitter, 16mhz option, and I STILL use Turbo ST to make it even faster!

Edited December 26, 2006 by Gunstar

[Greenious]

I looked in my schematics. Once you've soldered the blitter chip socket, and installed the blitter, there are 2 jumpers that need attention.

 

W3 & W4, and if memory serves me right, they are very close to the blitter socket. They are soldered pads, and is to be OPEN with blitter installed.

 

Blitter actually do nothing for desktop use that NVDI, turbost, can't do better on their own. they all ignore the blitter if present.

 

It's useable in games/demos though.

[dinosaur]

I looked in my schematics. Once you've soldered the blitter chip socket, and installed the blitter, there are 2 jumpers that need attention.

 

W3 & W4, and if memory serves me right, they are very close to the blitter socket. They are soldered pads, and is to be OPEN with blitter installed.

 

Blitter actually do nothing for desktop use that NVDI, turbost, can't do better on their own. they all ignore the blitter if present.

 

It's useable in games/demos though.

 

I have used Quick ST for a long time.I like it and it gives me a screen saver.

 

(Good for old farts who wander off to bed and leave the computer on!)

[ijor]

Blitter actually do nothing for desktop use that NVDI, turbost, can't do better on their own. they all ignore the blitter if present.

 

That's interesting. There is no VDI software accelerator that also uses Blitter if present?

 

I can understand there is no much to gain if at all for simple desktop drawing. But for some type of pattern multi-color filling and blitting (such as in some graphic apps, or some games that use VDI/LINE-A), Blitter should be much faster.

[Greenious]

That's interesting. There is no VDI software accelerator that also uses Blitter if present?

 

I can understand there is no much to gain if at all for simple desktop drawing. But for some type of pattern multi-color filling and blitting (such as in some graphic apps, or some games that use VDI/LINE-A), Blitter should be much faster.

 

Err, actually, I don't know for sure about turbo st / quick st, but NVDI never uses the blitter. (A fact used by the flash software for CT60/63, that has to have nvdi installed so that the blitter does not interfere with flashing of the cplds)

 

I think it is a matter of efficient use, aswell as the operation involved. Since the blitter and CPU never works concurrently, (one is shut down while the other works), and it takes a few clockcycles to do that switch, it has to be a larger block of data to make up for lost clockcycles. Also, the operation needs to be more than a simple move, since movem is a very efficient instruction.

 

If you don't have a vdi accelerator, the desktop do use the blitter, and you do get speed improvements. But that is because of inefficient code, not because of the blitter being very fast.

[Gunstar]

Blitter actually do nothing for desktop use that NVDI, turbost, can't do better on their own. they all ignore the blitter if present.

 

That's interesting. There is no VDI software accelerator that also uses Blitter if present?

 

I can understand there is no much to gain if at all for simple desktop drawing. But for some type of pattern multi-color filling and blitting (such as in some graphic apps, or some games that use VDI/LINE-A), Blitter should be much faster.

Many alternative desktops like Neodesk 3 use the blitter to speed things up. You can turn the blitter on or off for use with neodesk and or other programs, or for incompatiblity issues, from the drop-down options menu within Neodesk 3. But that's why I use the Blitter (in my Mega STE, and why I want it on my STF) and TurboST, mouse acclerator, running in 16mhz mode. It all helps speed things up whether they are all working at the same time with the desktop or program or not. I can notice a distinct difference, from the neodesk top, for instance, individually and when all are used at once in speed increases/refreshes and windows popping up faster and programs executing quicker, etc. And as said above, many games and demos will use it (Blitter) if it's recognized. It is all a matter of what you really want/need, whether you want all of the above or are happy with just a software accelerator to make the desktop and programs "snappier." Or if you want hardware that is only used with certain programs, and cost more and needs installation.

Edited December 28, 2006 by Gunstar

[tjlazer]

What is Quick ST and where can I find it?

[Gunstar]

What is Quick ST and where can I find it?

I can tell you that Quick ST and Turbo ST were done by the same person/people(I don't know which came first), and that, I believe (I could be wrong here) that Code Head (or one of the other Atari developers at the time) bought them out and turned it into Warp 9 or something similiar and that they are basically screen/window/desktop type software acclerators that make eveything on your desktop and accessories and other applications a lot "speedier." It was a company that made alternative desktops and OS's. You should be able to find them for download somewhere on the net, and the local Atari dealers like B&C or Best E. may have the software in stock. They come in two forms, you usually get both with the software, and that is a program you can load yourself from the desktop or set it as an autoload at boot-up, or they have an accessory version. I use Turbo ST and it has both the regular executable and the accessory, and also has versions for color and high-res b&w. A mouse accelerator program is a must have too, I have Atari's own version 3.0, and 2.0, the first on my Mega and the other on my STF. They make the mouse as responsive and fast as modern PC/Mac mice.

Edited December 28, 2006 by Gunstar

[dinosaur]

What is Quick ST and where can I find it?

I can tell you that Quick ST and Turbo ST were done by the same person/people(I don't know which came first), and that, I believe (I could be wrong here) that Code Head (or one of the other Atari developers at the time) bought them out and turned it into Warp 9 or something similiar and that they are basically screen/window/desktop type software acclerators that make eveything on your desktop and accessories and other applications a lot "speedier." It was a company that made alternative desktops and OS's. You should be able to find them for download somewhere on the net, and the local Atari dealers like B&C or Best E. may have the software in stock. They come in two forms, you usually get both with the software, and that is a program you can load yourself from the desktop or set it as an autoload at boot-up, or they have an accessory version. I use Turbo ST and it has both the regular executable and the accessory, and also has versions for color and high-res b&w. A mouse accelerator program is a must have too, I have Atari's own version 3.0, and 2.0, the first on my Mega and the other on my STF. They make the mouse as responsive and fast as modern PC/Mac mice.

 

I don't know where you got the impression that Quick ST (Branch Always Software) and

Turbo ST (Code Head) were written by the same person,but I am dam*ed sure

that Derek Mihocka and Charles F. Johnson,and John Eidsvoog

would argue that point with you quite strongly!

 

I met Derek Mihocka at an AtariFest and he would argue with anybody!

 

 

The authors are listed.

 

Sorry,I don't use Turbo ST and could not find a screenshot of it.

Edited December 29, 2006 by dinosaur

[Gunstar]

What is Quick ST and where can I find it?

I can tell you that Quick ST and Turbo ST were done by the same person/people(I don't know which came first), and that, I believe (I could be wrong here) that Code Head (or one of the other Atari developers at the time) bought them out and turned it into Warp 9 or something similiar and that they are basically screen/window/desktop type software acclerators that make eveything on your desktop and accessories and other applications a lot "speedier." It was a company that made alternative desktops and OS's. You should be able to find them for download somewhere on the net, and the local Atari dealers like B&C or Best E. may have the software in stock. They come in two forms, you usually get both with the software, and that is a program you can load yourself from the desktop or set it as an autoload at boot-up, or they have an accessory version. I use Turbo ST and it has both the regular executable and the accessory, and also has versions for color and high-res b&w. A mouse accelerator program is a must have too, I have Atari's own version 3.0, and 2.0, the first on my Mega and the other on my STF. They make the mouse as responsive and fast as modern PC/Mac mice.

 

I don't know where you got the impression that Quick ST (Branch Always Software) and

Turbo ST (Code Head) were written by the same person,but I am dam*ed sure

that Derek Mihocka and Charles F. Johnson,and John Eidsvoog

would argue that point with you quite strongly!

 

I met Derek Mihocka at an AtariFest and he would argue with anybody!

 

 

The authors are listed.

 

Sorry,I don't use Turbo ST and could not find a screenshot of it.

 

I may have confused it with something else. I thought I read one was the successor to the other, but it may have been a differently named software accelerator. Warp 9 I heard was a replacement for one or the other. I didn't get an "impression" from anywhere, it's just a name mix-up apparently. All I remember is that one of those accelerators, Quick or Turbo, went through a couple of name changes with drastic updates and ended up as Warp 9, or Warp (?) something. IIRC, Warp 9 (or whatever it's called) was the result of one of the above after being bought out by an entirely different developer/publisher

from CodeHead or Branch Always. I'd never seen Quick ST screenshots though, and I do like the control menu you get with it, which TurboST doesn't have, just different versions for mono/color and app/acc. But the real test would be which actually speeds things up more. I'll do without the control/setup menu if Turbo is faster. Have you tried both versions? How about the Warp 9?

Edited December 29, 2006 by Gunstar

[Gunstar]

What is Quick ST and where can I find it?

I can tell you that Quick ST and Turbo ST were done by the same person/people(I don't know which came first), and that, I believe (I could be wrong here) that Code Head (or one of the other Atari developers at the time) bought them out and turned it into Warp 9 or something similiar and that they are basically screen/window/desktop type software acclerators that make eveything on your desktop and accessories and other applications a lot "speedier." It was a company that made alternative desktops and OS's. You should be able to find them for download somewhere on the net, and the local Atari dealers like B&C or Best E. may have the software in stock. They come in two forms, you usually get both with the software, and that is a program you can load yourself from the desktop or set it as an autoload at boot-up, or they have an accessory version. I use Turbo ST and it has both the regular executable and the accessory, and also has versions for color and high-res b&w. A mouse accelerator program is a must have too, I have Atari's own version 3.0, and 2.0, the first on my Mega and the other on my STF. They make the mouse as responsive and fast as modern PC/Mac mice.

 

I don't know where you got the impression that Quick ST (Branch Always Software) and

Turbo ST (Code Head) were written by the same person,but I am dam*ed sure

that Derek Mihocka and Charles F. Johnson,and John Eidsvoog

would argue that point with you quite strongly!

 

I met Derek Mihocka at an AtariFest and he would argue with anybody!

 

 

The authors are listed.

 

Sorry,I don't use Turbo ST and could not find a screenshot of it.

 

I may have confused it with something else. I thought I read one was the successor to the other, but it may have been a differently named software accelerator. Warp 9 I heard was a replacement for one or the other. I didn't get an "impression" from anywhere, it's just a name mix-up apparently. All I remember is that one of those accelerators, Quick or Turbo, went through a couple of name changes with drastic updates and ended up as Warp 9, or Warp (?) something. IIRC, Warp 9 (or whatever it's called) was the result of one of the above after being bought out by an entirely different developer/publisher

from CodeHead or Branch Always. I'd never seen Quick ST screenshots though, and I do like the control menu you get with it, which TurboST doesn't have, just different versions for mono/color and app/acc. But the real test would be which actually speeds things up more. I'll do without the control/setup menu if Turbo is faster. Have you tried both versions? How about the Warp 9?

 

O.K., I went back and looked at where I got my information from, it was in a CodeHead Technologies ad in AtariUser(U.S.) magazine, page 23, top half, May 1992 edition. The add clearly states that Warp 9 was FORMERLY Quick ST, and since Turbo ST was made by CodeHead, I assumed that Turbo and Quick were related like Quick and Warp 9 are related. Obviously what happened was that CodeHead bought Quick ST from Branch Always software and renamed it Warp 9, and dropping their own Turbo ST. Sorry for my misunderstanding that Quick ST and Turbo ST were related/done by the same developers, but I think you'll agree that based on the above facts from the ad, that my assumption was an easy mistake to make.

Edited December 30, 2006 by Gunstar

[dinosaur]

You know what happens when you ASS U ME !

 

Seriously,I tried a bootleg copy Turbo ST,but like Quick ST better.

 

My Quick ST is a registered copy that I bought long ago (AtariFest ?).

 

I never tried Warp 9,because at the time,I was raising a family and money was tight.

(Plus the fact that I already had Quick ST)

 

This been an interesting jaunt down memory lane!

Edited December 30, 2006 by dinosaur