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SuperMac PDQ, Spectrum 8, 24, Thunder ROMs
Posted by: MacOSMonkey on 2024-08-03 14:32:21
The DSP boards were mostly application-specific acceleration. For example, photoshop made use of them - I think that was the primary use...but that was a lot of users. There were other apps also, but the support had to be designed into the app.
Posted by: eharmon on 2024-08-03 23:18:08
How about a Radius Thunder IV, anyone know how that differs from a SuperMac Thunder II? Performance?

Is there any source for GWorld modules today? Apparently Finder could use it for something.


Ah, that's what I came to this thread looking for. I had seen a few people state or imply the DSPs were also used for QuickDraw acceleration but that doesn't make much sense.
I've never seen a head-to-head of the II versus IV. I suspect they're not too different. There's various benchmarks but not with the same base hardware.

For GWorld, I didn't think the OS could take advantage, but I could be wrong. AFAIK it's basically akin to texture memory or an off-screen buffer, data can be stored on GWorld for significantly faster rendering to VRAM. Which can make things like layers in Photoshop much faster. I could see how a composited GUI would benefit, but pre-OS X never had that.

You can scour eBay, or look at Tindie: https://www.tindie.com/products/siliconinsider/purpleram-gworld-2mb-1mb-x-2-64-pin-simm-kit/
Posted by: thisisamigaspeaking on 2024-08-04 05:40:40
For GWorld, I didn't think the OS could take advantage, but I could be wrong. AFAIK it's basically akin to texture memory or an off-screen buffer, data can be stored on GWorld for significantly faster rendering to VRAM. Which can make things like layers in Photoshop much faster. I could see how a composited GUI would benefit, but pre-OS X never had that.
Had to hunt for where I saw this,
Q: Which applications take advantage of GWorld RAM on a Thunder/24 or Thunder/8 graphics card?

A: The Aldus Fetch application represents one of the best examples of an application which takes advantage of GWorld RAM installed on a graphics card. Other applications include the System 7.x Finder, Aldus PageMaker 4.0g (or higher), Adobe Premiere, and PixelPaint Professional

As far as the PurpleRam I did eventually see that, but the price of $50 per two megabyte is painful. That means $100 to half way populate my Thunder/24... I'd love to find two 4MB modules which are apparently on some Truevision Targa boards.
Posted by: David Cook on 2025-05-14 20:28:17
Here is a SuperMac Thunder/8 (not 24) ROM, version 1.7.2b.

And just to put it somewhere, here is a Radius Pivot IIsi 2.6 ROM.
Posted by: eharmon on 2025-09-15 19:02:21
I suppose this is good a thread as any: I was poking around the Radius listings on eBay today and realized something curious. The ThunderColor 30/1600 and Thunder IV run the same chipset:

Radius 298-0001-01
Radius 298-0002-01
Radius 298-0010-01

The ThunderColor has an extra NEC chip that looks custom, too. But I thought this was kind of interesting and I don't think it's documented anywhere. I guess the ThunderColor is mostly just a PCI Thunder IV.
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