68kMLA Classic Interface

This is a version of the 68kMLA forums for viewing on your favorite old mac. Visitors on modern platforms may prefer the main site.

Click here to select a new forum.

Good OSes for your 68k Mac

Posted by: hauke on 2023-06-23 02:24:50

NetBSD.

...requires a MMU - Macintosh II + mc68851, 68030, 68040. Same goes for all VM based unixes - A/UX, Linux/mac68k, old OpenBSD releases.

There is Minix 1.5, but that runs on top of the Macintosh system. There are rumours of a CP/M 68k port, but I have never seen it.

Posted by: cheesestraws on 2023-06-23 02:25:53

...requires a MMU - Macintosh II + mc68851, 68030, 68040. Same goes for all VM based unixes - A/UX, Linux/mac68k, old OpenBSD releases.

Yeah, I misread the original post to be asking about the 680x0 family in general, not just the 000. My bad.

Posted by: Phipli on 2023-06-23 03:09:34

...requires a MMU - Macintosh II + mc68851, 68030, 68040. Same goes for all VM based unixes - A/UX, Linux/mac68k, old OpenBSD releases.

There is Minix 1.5, but that runs on top of the Macintosh system. There are rumours of a CP/M 68k port, but I have never seen it.

μClinux port needed 🙂

BMOWs stuff is interesting, if not 100% related :

Building uClinux for a 68000 Target | Big Mess o' Wires

www.bigmessowires.com

Posted by: Cory5412 on 2023-06-23 18:58:40

601 is better than the 603

Hmm. This is something I'd like to test.

In the late '90s (like late 1996/early 1997) most Mac magazines said that, for the most part, 603e/ev and 604e/ev variants performed basically the same, and you should pick based on what else in the system you did/didn't need, e.g. it doesn't make sense to build your Avid box in a 6500 and you might not need a 9600 if you're just gonna put it in front of a kid to play Oregon Trail.

I've got G3/300 and 604ev/300 numbers, just need to pick up a 6500/300.

Another set of numbers I think would be fun are:
7200/120, PowerComputing Power120, 6300/120, 5400/120

W/re the thing that was mentioned about the 6200 and its derivatives: (6200, 6300, 5200, 5300, 1400, 2300, 5300) - the cache thing and the particular way their architecture was set up (pre-installed PPC upgrade on a platform built out of both LC III and Quadra parts...) means that those systems usually perform worse than PCI-based machines, even at the same speeds, and even with the "same" CPU, e.g. I'll expect a 6300/120 to do significantly worse than a 5400/120, let alone a 7200/120 or 7600/120.

I do have macbench 4 benches from both a 1400/166 and a 7600/120 and.... the 7600 outperforms the 1400 by a fairly wide margin, but I'm missing "newer 603s" and it's tough to extrapolate based on what I have, purely down to that platform being so weird.

On the other hand: I'd really expect the 7200/120, 7600/120, and 5400/120 to all basically land within a couple percent of each other at most things, with 604 probably takin the lead in floating point, but by how much I don't know.

One of these days, I actually have a friend holding onto a 6500/300 for me, I don't know if I want to deal with getting a 6300-5300/120 and 5400/120, I have a 604@120 card for my 8500 and a Power120 (needs PSU repairs though) but my 7200 is a /90.

Posted by: AeSix on 2023-07-17 05:27:17

Also, does anybody know how to do a table?

this	is
a	table

(Edit: apparently, images don't work?) In the toolbar above, to the right. It looks, well, like a table... or a cabin window.

Click the table icon, select the appropriate amount of squares in row and columns, and voila.

I don't know if this was added in the last month or not - I'm new to 68kmla, but not to xenforo. If I'm not mistaken, it's an enable-able component in the xenforo configs. Same with allowing image insertion, emojis, etc.

Anyway, maybe you've learned since, but since no one answered the question here, figured I would.

Edit 2: Also holy crap at 8 year old thread being necromanced several times... I just now seen the original post date. Ooof. My bad!

Posted by: Phipli on 2023-07-17 05:42:21

Hmm. This is something I'd like to test.

Were there any 603* plug in processor modules (i.e. 7500 processor style).

I have a 100MHz 601, and a 120MHz 604*. I could probably overclock the 601 to 120MHz...

If there is a similar 603 card it would be possible to test all three in one computer.

Posted by: akator70 on 2023-07-17 18:18:50

Has anyone ever been able to shoehorn 6.0.8 onto a PowerBook 1xx other than the PB 100?

Posted by: CC_333 on 2023-07-17 23:02:37

Edit 2: Also holy crap at 8 year old thread being necromanced several times... I just now seen the original post date. Ooof. My bad!

The forum was using Invision back then (before 2014, it used some version of PHPbb I think).

Has anyone ever been able to shoehorn 6.0.8 onto a PowerBook 1xx other than the PB 100?

System 6 in any language (as far as I'm aware) can be modified to run on the PowerBook 14x and 170 via some driver resources transplanted from a special release of System 6 that was installed on 14x/170 machines sold in Japan, because development of a KanjiTalk-capable System 7 release got delayed.

Other than that, I'm not sure. I think it's unlikely that 6 will run on any other early System 7-era machine, since, if I'm not mistaken, there are no known System 6 releases that I know of which contain the necessary driver resources for said machines (it may be possible that some of the needed resources are available either in the System files of the earliest System 7 releases and/or any relevant enablers, and that said resources may be at least partially compatible with System 6, but I'm not sure).

c

Posted by: Quadraman on 2023-08-11 15:54:16

7.5.x is heavy on 68000 based Macs. 7.1 is better for those, assuming your machine is one of those that wasn't cut off from OS support before then.

Otherwise 7.6.1 or 8.1 are both good, if your machine is supported by them. I'm pretty sure most 680x0 machines that will run 7.6.1, will also run 8.1, but there could be exceptions.

Posted by: Realitystorm on 2023-08-11 16:14:39

System 6 in any language (as far as I'm aware) can be modified to run on the PowerBook 14x and 170 via some driver resources transplanted from a special release of System 6 that was installed on 14x/170 machines sold in Japan, because development of a KanjiTalk-capable System 7 release got delayed.

System 6.0.8M: a community created release based on a 6.0.7 release created for Japan, supports the powerbook 140, 145, 145B, 170 (perhaps more, let me know)

I have it on my site

Macintosh Downloads – Steve's Blog

Posted by: Unbounded_Villain on 2024-01-20 10:50:03

Were there any 603* plug in processor modules (i.e. 7500 processor style).

I have a 100MHz 601, and a 120MHz 604*. I could probably overclock the 601 to 120MHz...

If there is a similar 603 card it would be possible to test all three in one computer.

The buses on the 603 and 601/604 were different. The G3 was designed "bus agnostic" which is why so many upgrades were made.

Posted by: Phipli on 2024-01-20 10:56:54

The buses on the 603 and 601/604 were different. The G3 was designed "bus agnostic" which is why so many upgrades were made.

Not hugely different - some macs with a soldered CPU from that era were designed to accept both BGA chips - the 603e and 604e. Pinout is compatible although the 604 has a few additional control lines for... Some stuff I forget.

The 6500 style family of boards for example have all the traces needed to accept a 604e in place of their 603.

I have most of the parts to do some experimentation, but need to finish reading up on the differences to make sure I don't break anything.

Posted by: pizzigri on 2024-01-21 03:04:35

Phipli I was not aware of this, and actually is very, very interesting.

Posted by: Phipli on 2024-01-21 03:07:13

Phipli I was not aware of this, and actually is very, very interesting.

You can see what extra components might be needed to put a 604e in a 6500/5500/TAM in the schematic that was posted here :

Schematics for Power Mac 7600?

Sure!

68kmla.org

Some extracts here (I've not carefully gone through the whole thing) :

For setting the PROC_PWR voltage :

< 3