Wicher 500i
Accelerator Card for Amiga 500
The Wicher 500i accelerator card has been designed for installation inside Amiga
500/500+ computers. It supports 68000/68010 CPUs (using PLCC68 package), up to 8 MB
of FastMem (using standard SIMM72 memory modules) and IDE 2.5" hard drives.
CPU clock speed can be set up to 50 MHz. (*)
Wicher 500i came into being as a universal solution for users looking for
highly-clocked MC68000/MC68010 classic Amiga CPUs. (Stable configurations running
at 50 MHz have been confirmed when paired with MC68HC000 series chip. Unfortunately,
not every unit is capable of performing at this clock speeds over longer periods
of time.)
The card allows you to expand the Amiga's RAM with standard 1/2/4/8 MB 50/60 ns
SIMM72 FPM/EDO memory modules. It also provides the necessary interface to
connect a 2.5" IDE hard drive.
Features
- AmigaA500/A500+ compatibility (in place of the original CPU)
- PLCC68-packaged MC68000, MC68HC000, MC68010 chip support
- recommended chip version: MC68HC000 (not included)
- recommended Kickstart version: Kickstart 3.1
- supported CPU clock speeds: 12, 14, 16, 25, 28, 42, 48, 50 MHz
- RAM expansion: industry standard SIMM72 (FPM/EDO) 1-8 MB, 50/60 ns memory modules (not included)
- Amiga A600-compatible IDE controller
- NVRAM
Benchmarks
- Amiga 500 (Custom Kickstart 3.1, MC68HC000FN16 CPU running @50MHz, scsi.device V46.0)
- MIPS: ~4.43
- Dhrystones: ~4245
- IDE transfer speeds: ~3.1 MB/s (using IDE-Max 97 ~5.8 MB/s)
- RAM transfer speeds: ~6.99 MB/s
The above results have been achieved with SysInfo 4.0, AIBB 6.5
Software
The provided software facilitates user-inititated configuration changes via
CLI command or additional WicherBootMenu module, allowing creation of custom
Kickstart versions (with Remus program). WicherBootMenu can be accessed by
holding down the left mouse button when turning on or rebooting your Amiga.
Wicher list of options:
VERSION - display version information
STATUS - display actual Wicher config
LOAD - load config from a file
SAVE - save config to a file
CLK - change CPU clock speed
FASTMEM - (on/off) enables/disables FAST RAM
CFGRAM - automatic configuration of memory controller
IDE - (on/off) enables/disables IDE controller
SPI - (on/off) enables/disables SPI controller
RAS13 - (on/off) enables/disables support for additional memory banks in the SIMM module (two-sided modules)
BIGRAM - (on/off) enables/disables support for SIMM module 16MB-128MB (experimental function)
Example: wicher clk=28 RAS13=on
(*) Please note:
Not every CPU unit remains stable when overclocked (i.e. clocked with higher speeds than the
one prescribed by its manufacturer).
Most SIMM72 memory modules should function correctly at 12-28 MHz clock speeds. However,
not every unit will operate without errors at 42-50 MHz clock speeds.
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