Blow Up FX

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Introduction

With the Blow Up FX Accelorator board, you can switch from 32/36/40Mhz speed on Falcon Motherboard and also speeds up DSP to 50Mhz. It also includes Blow Up resolution enhancer. Installtion does require soldering. This board mounts on Falcon interface.

Gallery

  • Board Top

    Board Top

  • Board Bottom

    Board Bottom

  • Manual and installation wires

    Manual and installation wires

Information

Finally BlowUP-The Falcon Company has finished it's ultimate extension-card for the ATARI Falcon030: 

FFFFF X    X
F      X  X
FFF     XX
F      X  X
F     X    X  the Falcon Xtender

And these are the Features:

FastRAM-Expansion (max. 32MB)

  • 4 SIMMxSlots onboard (fits into original case)
  • 4 additional slots on optional daugther-card
  • 1MB and 4MB SIMMs, two-by-two
  • The original 4MB of the Falcon stay active.
  • With only 2*4MB and 2*1MB inserted, your Falcon then has 14MB!
  • Memory over 14MB is organized virtually.
  • With speeder: data throughput up to 20MB/s (standard 8MB/s).
  • No soldering for RAM-function neede!
  • Expansion-port daisychained! Tested with NOVA & FalconSpeed!

Hi-Speeder: CPU, DSP & Systemclock:

  • Systemclock 32, 36 or 40MHz
  • CPU/FPU-Clock 16,18,20,32,36 or 40MHz
  • DSP 50 instead of 32 MHz
  • Switchable by software.
  • Soldiering needed.

Resolution-Expansion BlowUP Hard I

The original with the Video-Mode-Generator with improved bustiming higher resolutions/refreshrates in 256 colors/TrueColor.

Installation:

If only the RAM-option is to be used, no soldering is needed for installation.

The card is simply plugged into the expansion-slot, which is daisychained, so that other expansions might be used in rebuilt (tower-)Falcons. Only a small piece of the shielding has to be removed in normal Falcons. For the speeder-option soldiering is needed as with other speeders available, so that rebuilding from those other Speeders is easy. Soldiering should only be made by routiened people.

Fast-RAM:

The Fast-RAM follows the Falcon RAM (4MB), the original 4MB-RAM-PCB in Falcon will still be used! There are 4 SIMM-sockets on the FX-card giving you two 16bit memory-banks. With an optional daugther-card two further Banks are available (fits only in rebuilt Falcon e.g. tower). The memory-banks may be filled with 1MB or 4MB SIMMs. This is an easy way to get 14MB with only 2 x 4MB and 2 x 1MB SIMMs. Our FastRAM can be used for all functions , including DMA-access, except video. As there are no video-accesses on the FX-RAM it is up to 50% faster in color modes. The FX-RAM normally has no problems with installed Speeders. If the Speeder on the FX-card is used, a special Page-mode will be used for RAM-access in the 32/36/40MHz-modes. This allows RAM-access with no waitstates and increases the memory throughput from normally 8MB/s to max. 20MB/s. If you don't need the speeder FX is a simple "plug'n'play" memory-card.

If more than 10MB is inserted into FX the upper part is switched by the MMU an the FX-logic. The management of the extended memory is done fully invisible for all applications with the PMMU of the 68030 CPU. The speed-loos with this is minimal compared to virtual RAM on a harddisk. This optional configuration allows a maximum use of 32MB. So that 8MB are standard FastRAM (no video-access) and 24MB are EMS-RAM. For standard applications there is no difference.

CPU-Speeder:

The Speeder included on the FX-card increases the system-clock from 32 MHz to 36 or 40MHz. The CPU then can run with 16MHz (normal), 18MHz, 20MHz, 32Mhz, 36MHz or 40MHz. With the special FX-logic now nearly all Falcon can use the 40MHz clock. The clock may be switched on booting or later with a CPX-module. We have also solved the problems some programms had with the DSP if the CPU ran at 40MHz and the DSP at 50MHz. Soldiering is needed for installation.

DSP-Speeder:

Increases the DPS speed from 32MHz to 50MHz! Superb for MPEG-Decoder. Solved problems with CPU at 40MHz. Soldiering is needed for installation.

BlowUP Hard1:

The well known and time-tested resolutionexpansion also found a place on the FX-card. With the confortable Software and super resolutions (e.g. 800*608 at 84Hz ni, 1024*768 at 104Hz i). Soldiering is needed for installation.

Tecnical data: size ~160mm*65mm, simply plugged into the expansion-slot (put trough) power taken from expansion-slot 4 SIMM-sockets onboard for 1M*9/1M*8/ 4M*9/4M*8 SIMMs (min 70ns), with changed FIRMWARE 16M*9 can also be used 4 additional SIMM sockets on daughter-board with 2*4MB and 2*1MB SIMMs power consumption of ~200mA. Controllerchip reprogrammable by software (Hardware-update by Software possible)

And even better!! the price: 349,-DM

Order information:

FX is now available from all ATARI dealers, our distributors in the UK, France, Sweden and the U.S.A. If you have problems to get it, order directly from us:

Either by normal mail - including a cheque or by normal mail or FAX - paied by CREDIT CARD (VISA or DINERS donxt forget to include card-number and Exp. date) -

Please state the way of delivery you prefer:

UPS expedited or air-mail (with insurance - w/o insurance)

e.g. U.S.A. 90DM 45DM 30DM e.g. London 40DM 30DM 20DM

BlowUP - A.E.S.GbR Eslarner Str. 34 81549 Muenchen Germany Fax: 0841-86480 e-mail: ac...@informatik.tu-muenchen.de


Magazine References

  • ST Format, issue 85, p20-21
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