Blizzard 1260

Blizzard 1260

50 MHz 68060 Accelerator board for AMIGA 1200

With the overwhelming performance of the XC68060, the newest and fastest processsor in the 68k family, the BLIZZARD 1260 Turbo Board provides the AMIGA 1200 with a performance level hitherto unknown in this form and at such low costs. With integer speed exceeding 80 MIPS and the high performance of the integrated floating point unit (FPU), the AMIGA 1200 can be expanded into a powerful workstation which is more than adequately equipped for today's demanding applications such as 3D calculations and ray-tracing, image processing, animation or video processing. Additional expansion options for memory and the DMA port for the BLIZZARD SCSI-Kit IV allow flexible upgrading depending upon necessity and requirements. Depending upon application, its performance is between 10 and almost 40 times that of an AMIGA 1200 already equipped with Fast RAM; even the most time-consuming applications are processed in an extremely short period of time. With this performance rating and the the customary high quality of a typical phase 5 product, you also will be able to enhance your AMIGA 1200 to state-of-the-art performance levels.

Technical Data BLIZZARD 1260 Turbo Board:

High End Accelerator Board for the AMIGA 1200, with 50 MHz 68060 Processor with FPU/MMU for maximum performance in integer and floating point applications
A 72-pin SIMM socket allows easy memory upgrades by use of standard 32 bit SIMMS up to 64 Mbyte (up to 192 MByte with the BLIZZARD SCSI-Kit IV)
Autoconfiguring memory and optional MAPROM function for copying the operating system into the fast memory
A very fast memory design allows high memory performance resulting in excellent overall system performance and significantly accelerated graphics
An DMA expansion connector allows upgrading of the BLIZZARD 1260 with expansion modules such as the BLIZZARD SCSI-Kit IV
Asynchronous design for full genlock compatibility, 68060 may be disabled with a simple keystroke on boot up to enable A1200 to revert to 68020 mode allowing full game compatibility
Battery backed, self-recharging clock with calendar
Fits easily into the Trapdoor Expansion slot in the base of your AMIGA 1200
Does not invalidate On-Site Warranty
Highest quality of manufacturing incorporating latest SMD technology
Made in Germany with a 12 months parts and labour Warranty

What they don't say about it

All the above is amazing but they don't say you some things:

The 68060 is cooler than a 68030+68882 50Mhz (Blizzard 1230IV)!
The simm socket accept ONLY ONE SIDED SIMMS, because the edge of the simm itself floats at about 1mm from the 68060 surface for about 1cm in length.
Note: Some users reported me that they managed to use DOUBLE SIDED SIMMS (32Mb, 64Mb) with the help of some elastic bands, to keep them in place.
The MAPROM function doesn't use the MMU, that remains free for other operations.
To insert the accelerator in the internal slot you must use brutal force!
You can find software updates of the 68060.library and the CyberTools at ftp.phase5.de/pub/phase5/
The expansion is COMPATIBLE with PCMCIA cards, I personally used a 2MB memory card. Even with 192Mb of RAM on board, do you want to know WHY?
The ram has only the FAST flag, and has NO name. So all your RAD: disks will go in CHIP RAM until you apply a patch.
Included with the board there is the System Software
You can use EDO RAM, but you WON'T gain any speed increase.
ADDENUM:Now that many EDO ram simms are being produced, some incompatibilities came out. So, if you buy an EDO simm, be sure to be able to swap it with one of another brand from your dealer.

SECOND ADDENUM by Martin "Casper" Caspersson:
I'd just like to tell you about a kind of SIMM-module that does not work properly in the B1260. These are so called HyperPage Mode SIMMs.
They only turn up as half their specified size. This info is actually on Phase 5's page, but it's buried so deep it's really hard to find. I think it would be nice if you put it up on your page so that people don't run into the same problems as I did.
I've tried to find a single-sided 32Mb SIMM for weeks now. The first two modules I "found" was actually 16Mb, I don't know what the shops tried to pull, like I wasn't going to notice? Then I finally found one (I thought). It looked real good, very thin, only about 3 milimeters had only 4 chips on one side. This turned up as 16Mb. I returned it to the mailorder company, and they sent another one. It turned up 16Mb again, and I thought "Oh, no not again!". This time the Amiga started crashing almost imediatly. But this time I tried it out in my father's PC with a another borowed 32Mb SIMM , to make sure, and it turned up 32MB. The mailordercompany didn't want to give me my money back since I already had returned a perfectly good SIMM once. So, thinking that my card was broken or something I tried the SIMM in a friends 1260 which has a SCSI-kit installed, and it came up as 16Mb both on the 1260 itself and on the SCSI-kit. So after searching through Phase 5's pages, I finally found the answer. The SIMM was HyperPage, not EDO or normal and the mailorder company let me return it now that I could prove that they sent me something I hadn't ordered. I now have manage to find a new place that sells single-sided 32MB SIMMs so I hope this one will work.

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