Blizzard 603e PowerBoard For Amiga 1200

 * Product Name          : Blizzard 603e PowerBoard For A1200(T)

 * Model Tested          : Blizzard 603e/166 Mhz with 
                           68040/25 Mhz with FPU (No SCSI)

 * Company               : Phase5 Digital Products

 * Price Paid            : 400 USD

The Review Of Blizzard 603e/166:

 Blizzard 603e comes in a big box (2 times bigger than a Blizzard 1240/60
box).When you open the box, you can see Blizzard PPC in a anti-static cover, a
English/German User Manual, a 880KB PowerUP System Floppy and PPC CD-ROM V2
which includes PPC Utilities, PPC Tools and PPC Demos.

 Unlike Blizzard 1240s or 1260s, Blizzard PPC has components and chips on its
both faces.On one face Motorola PowerPC with a black cooler (which looks like a
Pentium II)  and Motorola 68K is mounted,on the other face there are two 72-pin
Simm slots also the BVision 3D graphics card slot.The concept and the hardware
design is really amazing.

 Blizzard PPC is upgradeable up to 128 MB Fast-RAM, fully autoconfigurating.And
2 Simms slots make memory upgrade easier.I`m using two 16 MB Edo-Simms which
gives me 32MB fast ram.If I need it,I`ll replace one of the 16 MBs with a 32MB
simm and I`ll have 48MB fast memory.There are no jumpers on Blizzard
PPC,everything is Plug And Play !.Also there`s a FlashRom on the board which
stores the PPC startup software (ppc.library V45.16 ,e.t.c) which can be updated
on demand by software.

 I`m using Blizzard PPC in my Micronik Infinity A1200T,but you can use Blizzard
PPC with a desktop Amiga 1200.If you will use Blizzard PPC in a desktop
A1200,you should leave the trap door open or cut a hole in plastic trap door and
put a heat sink/cooling fan there.There are no heating problems in tower A1200
like mine.

 Blizzard PPC boards doesn`t work with standart A1200/A600 PSUs. 4,5 Amps for 5
Volts is needed for A1200 with a Blizzard PPC,but standart A1200 PSU outputs
only 3 Amps for 5 Volts.Old A500+ PSUs outputs 4.5 Amps,so you can use one of
these.Of course best solution is buying a reinforced PSU (like Goliath,e.t.c) or
buying a Power Tower/Micronik Infinity with a strong PSU.

 Blizzard has 66 Mhz PowerPC bus.PPC cpu always uses this 66 Mhz bus.Also the
Bvision slot which the reaches the PPC cpu directly is perfectly suitable for
2D/3D acceleration in graphic operation.

 As I said before there`s a flash-rom installed on the board.So the Blizzard
603e/+ is ready for use after power up.A special version of the RTG system
Cybergraphics is supplied on PPC CD-ROM.Insert your PPC CD into your CD drive
and open PHASE5/CGX3 drawer.Here you`ll find a file called CGX41_70.lha .Unpack
the archive and install Cybergfx-PPC for AGA chipset.(P.S.:Visit
[http://www.vgr.com/cybergfx] Official Cybergraphics Web Site for updates.)
Cybergfx doesn`t speed up AGA chipset but it only emulates Cybergfx on AGA
hardware.With this emulation you can play mpegs with ISIS 2.9 PPC player in a
small window with dithered colors.

 By the way, I think that Blizzard Vision PPC is a must for any Blizzard PPC
owner.AGA is good for some purposes,but it`s too old and too slow.Blizzard
Vision has a modern 2D/3D chip called Permedia2 which is manufactured by
[http://www.3dlabs.com] 3D Labs.Permedia2 has all the features that you expect
from a 3D card.Blizzard PPC will show its real power when BVision is released by
Phase5.Phase5 will release BvisionPPC gfx card in June/July 1998.

 Below are the results of the tests I`ve done with Blizzard PPC/166 :

 * Candy Factory (Gfx Effect Software)..Effect Creation
PPC 603e/166 Mhz |  68040/25 Mhz
2.65 sec         |   53.30 sec

 * Benoit 2.5 (Fractal Software) MandelBrot Draw
PPC 603e/166 Mhz |  68040/25 Mhz
0.5 sec          |  24.0 sec

 * Memory Access Benchmarks (With Phase5`s PPCMemTest Tool)

Performing PPC test with 50 iterations
Memcopy test in progress...
Speed: 27.93 MB/sec
Memread test in progress...
Speed: 111.11 MB/sec
Memwrite test in progress...
Speed: 84.74 MB/sec

Performing M68k test with 50 iterations
Memcopy test in progress...
Speed: 9.72 MB/sec
Memread test in progress...
Speed: 28.40 MB/sec
Memwrite test in progress...
Speed: 29.41 MB/sec


And here`s the list of currently avalible and forthcoming PPC Software :

 Available PPC Software

 * Doom II PPC - Game
 * Elastic Dreams PPC - Real Time Morph
 * Art Studio PPC - Image Catalog/Process
 * Burn-It 2.1 - CD-R Software
 * Wildfire 5 PPC - Animation Process
 * Reflections 4.2 PPC - Raytracer
 * Isis 2.9 PPC - Mpeg/VideoCD Player For SCSI CDs
 * PPC Mp3 Player - Mp3 Player
 * Amiga AMP V1.1 - Mp3 Player
 * Candy Factory PPC - Image Process
 * TurboPrint V6.02 - Printer Software

 Forthcoming PPC Software

 * Fusion PPC - Mac Emulator
 * PC-Task PPC - Wintel Emulator
 * Quake PPC - Game
 * Shadow Of The 3rd Moon 2 PPC - Game
 * Maim & Mangle PPC - Game
 * Explorer 2260 PPC - Game
 * Claws Of The Devil PPC - Game
 * Image FX 3.1 PPC - Image Processing
 * Tornado3D V2.0 PPC - Raytracer
 * Imagine 6.0 - Raytracer
 * Voyager 3.0 - Web Browser
 * Miami Deluxe - Internet TCP/IP
 * Aladdin4D 5.1 PPC - Raytracer

 A Blizzard PPC plus a Bvision PPC combo is a perfect upgrade solution for
current A1200 owners who are stuck with AGA.With a PPC 603e/250 plus 68060/50
you can buy a very fast card or you can buy a powerful entry level PPC 603e/166
plus 68040/25 if you don`t have enough money.I`m sure that Blizzard PPC boards
will push the market forward until new Amigas like Pre/Box or Boxer 2 PPC are
released in 1999.

 I won`t give any ratings,because Blizzard PPC isn`t comparable to any other
accelerator board available in Amiga market.But I can say that it`s the best
hardware development since the release of Amiga 1200.

 Final Words: Join The Amiga PPC Army !

                                                                Sinan Gürkan