INTERVIEW with OLIVER HEUN (aka Paranoid/Paranoia)
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focussing on TEMPEST,
a new accerlator for
Atari Falcon computers.
EDITOR:
Hello Oliver! Since I know that you are in contact with Cortex, the
British company which is responsible for interesting products as Eclipse,
the PCI-adaptor for Falcon, I am going to get on your nervers and will
try to squeeze anything out of you, you are knowing about the new
accerlator which will be sold by Cortex. Furthermore I know you as a
kind of Atari expert in many terms.
So I am looking forward to your views on the things.
PARANOID:
Errr .... Thank you. :-)
Before we start getting into details however i'd like to point out that
Tempest is joint-venture of Cortex Design in the UK and Istari Software
in Sweden. So basically, most of the information about Tempest i can
share comes directly from Sven of Istari Software.
EDITOR:
But before I start please tell us something about your current Atari
hardware.
PARANOID:
Well, by now it's quite a lot of hardware.
My main machine is an Atari Falcon030 however. Equipped with a Nemesis and
a 14 MB RAM card, it's the machine i do most on. I have a second Falcon,
a simple 4 MB untuned one, which mainly accompanies me to parties.
Besides that i gathered a few STEs and STs by now, mainly second hand, from
friends or from offices when they were being kicked out.
I also have an Atari 800 XL and an Atari 800, but since i'm not really
into Atari 8-bit stuff, i rarely use them.
EDITOR:
Ok, I know that you are going to buy the Tempest accerlator. You didn't
by the Centurbo II card nor do you seem to be seriously interested in
the new Milan 060 computer. What is so special about Tempest that you
decided to wait for this one? Is it faster/cheaper/more compatible or
easier to built in the Falcon?
PARANOID:
The main reason is that Tempest is something completely new. If David
and Sven had decided to stick to the Coldfire-processor (which is rather
an 680x0-sequel), it might look different, but with Tempest being based
on a PowerPC-processor, it will open completely new possibilities to
the Atari scene.
Even though the 680x0-processor has be emulated on the Tempest, the developer
models of Tempest have already outsped all accelerator cards ever made for
the Falcon. And once Tempest is established and probably even available for
Atari TT and ST machines, PowerPC-native programs would be possible, which
means an additional speedup.
And funny as it sounds, due to the software-emulation, Tempest might even
turn out to be more compatible than 68040- or 68060-based speeders. Those
two processors are pretty far away from the 68030 of the Falcon - Tempest
with software emulation basically is an 68030. Or an 68040. Or an 68060,
whatever you want it to be.
Additionally, it will be easy to install. A solder-free installation is
possible, the recommended installation will include soldering. However, the
original 68030 stays untouched - in contrast to some other accelerators.
When Tempest is installed, you have basically a 3 processor system:
68030, PowerPC and DSP 56001.
To make this answer even longer - the software emulation is currently
in working state and emulates all of the important commands of the 68030
(currently, PMMU-commands not included), most of the 68882 commands and
all integer related 68060-commands.
The final version will cover all 68030 commands, all 68882 commands and
probably even all 68060 commands.
Additionally, the emulation is quite intelligent. Major parts of the
code are being translated to PowerPC-native before execution, saved to disk,
and then executed. Critical parts of the code are being emulated in real-
time - but then saved to disk so it can accessed next time.
Sven even got some kinds of self-modifying code to run, which is usually
the death of all cache-efficient processors (such as 68040 or 68060), so
i think the emulation of the 68030 is taken good care of.
All this sounds very exciting to me. No other accelerator currently being
sold or produced offers all this - that's why i think Tempest is the
accelerator to go for.
EDITOR:
Do you really think that this PPC-card are the future of Atari? Isn't
it all a bit exotic for normal users?
PARANOID:
Not really. Apple did this step a long time ago and only a small amount of
680x0-fanatics among the Macintosh users complained.
And you also have to consider that Tempest is aimed at the average user.
The ones who only use their Falcons to view or create demos and use a
powerful PC or Macintosh for their other applications will surely not buy
a Tempest.
The "normal" user however, who wants to speed up his Falcon, equip it with
more RAM and things like that, will surely see the advantage of the
Tempest. Up to 256 MB FastRAM, up to 200 MHz fast, highly compatible due
to the software-emulation, easy to install ... Doesn't sound very exotic,
sounds rather like a dream come true to me. :-)
EDITOR:
Do you know how many Tempests will be produced and how many do you think
will be sold?
PARANOID:
That's a tough question and i can't really answer it.
The Atari scene is small, the Falcon scene is even smaller. It's very hard
to estimate the market and i better have David do this task.
It's an even harder question because it's hard to judge how many Falcons
are still being used for which tasks. A music-studio that still uses Falcons
hardly needs accelerators like this, people that only use their Falcons for
"scene"-purposes might decide not to need an accelerator either.
EDITOR:
Now we soon have 3 major possibilities, if we want to get faster Atari
machines. The Centurbo 060, the Milan II and this Tempest.
How would you describe which possibility is fitting best for what kind
of user?
PARANOID:
I know too little about the CenTurbo060 yet to really judge it. If Rodolphe
keeps all his promises, it's a dream come true, too, but at the moment, he
does everything that is possible to make it a nightmare.
So i can't really answer anything related to the ct060.
The difference between the MilanII and the Tempest is obvious: One is a
completely different computer, the other a speeder for the Falcon.
And that's why i personally prefer the Tempest: You still have a Falcon.
It will still run Graoumf-Tracker, it will run Running, it will run all
the demos - in the worst case, you'll simply have to switch off the Tempest.
I doubt the MilanII will do this, not even with a DSP-card installed.
Besides that - as it currently looks the Tempest will be faster than the
MilanII. Based on Sven's current benchmarks (with working, but yet unoptimised
software emulation), a 200 MHz Tempest is currently about as fast as a
104 MHz 68060.
Additionally, the driver software that is currently being planned will
enable a multiprocessor system in the Falcon - 68030, PowerPC and DSP,
all cooperating nicely - and you don't need to buy a new computer for it.
EDITOR:
Regarding you personally, are you going to use Tempest for making your
Atari a powerful working machine or is it just for playing around? (In
other words, do you think that a Falcon with Tempest can fully avoid
the need of a PC, which we sometimes have to use atm).
PARANOID:
I don't use a PC and i don't need one so i am probably the wrong person to
ask. And if my 25 MHz Falcon already does everything for me that other
people seem to need a PC for, how can a 200 MHz Falcon fail that task ? ;-)
No seriously, of course the Tempest is aimed at people who use their Falcon
as their main computer (or only one) for every task. Since i am such a person,
i will surely use Tempest as a powerful working machine and playing around.
Unfortunately, it's also a question of software. If you need Internet
Explorer and CAB is no alternative, if you have to have Word and Papyrus
can't be used, if Texel is no good for you and you need Excel and if you
just can't live without PC-games, Tempest is surely not a good choice for
you and you better go buy a PC.
However, if you're happy with the Atari software of today and the Atari
software to come and just would like it to run a little ... well, a lot
faster, i think Tempest is the appropriate choice.
EDITOR:
Finally, if you got your Tempest card, are you going to support the
good old standart Falcon/ST-scene anyway (as previously nicely done
by Mind Design by doing different versions for different systems)?
PARANOID:
Yes, i think Mind Designs way of handling accelerators and accelerated
Falcons is a nice way and i will surely try to follow that way.
There's no doubt that the standard Falcons still features a lot of
potential still unused for the demo-coders to explore, but some effects
can look a lot nicer with an accelerated Falcon - so why not use it ?
The advantage is that it requires the same amount of work for the coder.
You write a texture-mapping routine that runs nicely in a standard Falcon
in 160 x 100 - then you can make it run in 320 x 200 on an accelerated
Falcon with very little effort - making it run in 320 x 200 on unaccelerated
Falcons on the other hand is sometimes impossible, sometimes very very very
hard to do.
So i think: Make demos use accelerators when present is nice, but also
make them run on unaccelerated Falcons. :-)
EDITOR:
Ok, thanks a lot for the interview! I am still looking forward to some
intensive testreports about Tempest by you. :-)
PARANOID:
Glad to be of service.
Go to:
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| |
| http://fmax.atari.org |
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for more details about
the Tempest-accerlator
|
