ThroughPut 1.3, written by Rene

Gentlemen,

An interesting little benchmark application, from the perspective that
results are fully repeatable and can be used to calculate other 
performance parameters, such as polygons per second, as Rene shows in 
a sample on his web page, http://www.coolmedia.de/throughput/ . 
Additional "formula's" would be helpful for determining other 
performance parameters.

I am interested in it principally for benchmarking Mac configurations 
using Photoshop, which could quickly show what the best video 
combination is, versus running lengthy tests with actual client 
files, which is our present process.

Rene, can it be used for this?

FYI, here are our results, running tests on two of our PMac's, one 
showing the difference between OS 8.6 and OS 9.0.4.

Regards,

Rod Paine

                    ---------------- Bytes Per Second -------------------
Tested Config.      CPU           FPU         AltiVec   CacheBurst DrawSprocket
                                                                    Lib version

8500/604e/200MHz
PCI Voodoo3 2000
author's config.   24,281,200   40,996,400       n/a     7,066,800    D-1.7.3?

B&W G3 450MHz
ATI 128 in PCI
slot*, OS 9.0.4    31,948,800   50,688,000       n/a    19,353,600      1.7.2

Biege G3 466MHz
6MB Builtin Video
OS 8.6             25,497,600   41,779,200       n/a    14,131,200      1.1.4

Biege G3 466MHz
6MB Builtin Video
OS 9.0.4           26,112,000   43,008,000       n/a    14,438,400      1.7.2


*ATI 128 PCI video card moved to PCI slot, so that Adaptec 39160 
could be used in 66MHz slot originally used by ATI 128 PCI.

-- 
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            ASTEC Company, Inc., Virginia, USA
Consulting, Systems Integration and Systems Management
Services for Apple Macintosh Business Users, since 1988.
       540-338-3547 voice 8 AM - 5 PM Eastern Time

" I am going to try this card in a 20th Anniversary Mac using the PCI Bridge patch http://www.orangemicro.com/bin/PCIBridgePatch.bin

'Support for the Power Macintosh 6500, 5500 and Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh!!

We now have the PCI Bridge Patch for the Power Macintosh 6500, 5500 and Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh. This will allow the OrangeLink FireWire USB board to work on these systems. Simply run this patch program and it will update you system's PRAM. If you wish to remove the patch for any reason just reset your PRAM by starting your Macintosh while holding down the Control-Option P-R keys.'

Don't know if the PCPro has the same issue with it's PCI slots - just a suggestion
Regards
Peter Hardie
coDESIGN "

"Mike,
... I am willing to offer readers of XLR8yourmac the following deals (from today 7/28/ thru 8/2), and there is limited quantity available (first come, first served):

FireWire PCI 3 Port PCI card $69.00
FireWire CardBus 1 Port card $69.00
FireWire CardBus 2 port card $79.00
Combo FireWire/USB Hub $88.00

I may also be able to offer the 'generic' 2.5" enclosure (not in the Apple colors, but in the 'standard' color - see attached image) at a reduced price of $115.00 for a limited time.

when they place an order, they need to enter the following code into the Company Name field in the Shipping Information section:

XLR8YOURMAC

http://www.fwdepot.com/

thanks,
Jeff "

"I've been in the beta-test program for the NewerTech MaxPowr G3-PB upgrade card since June. As NewerTech has now annouced this product, testers have been authorized to talk about it.

Why did I get this upgrade? Because upgrading to a Pismo would require me to get rid of or "adapt" existing peripherals (Bookendz doc, cd-r, hd, scanner, keyboard, printer, mouse, drawing tablet). My experience has been those adaptors essentially suck, and I couldn't afford (or didn't want to) replace all my perfectly good peripherals. The cost of Pismo (and selling my perfectly good but somewhat beatup G3) was too high for what you get. Firewire and USB mean nothing to me (and can be added to the Wallstreet anyway), Faster video means nothing to me (I don't play games), and the loss of SCSI, a cardbus slot, ADB, and serial was unacceptable. That said - the price of the upgrade is a BARGAIN in comparison to upgrading to a Pismo. Get the Newertech upgrade, add a firewire and usb card, and you've basically got a 466mhz Pismo, for a lot less money. So on with the review!! (:

First, let me say that support from NewerTech has been first-rate. They worked closely with me to coordinate the upgrade of my PB/233 to 466mhz while I was in the process of travelling (from Alaska to California to Washington D.C.). I've never received such high quality support - from ANYWHERE. They really bent over backward to deal with me in a professional manner.

Second, the upgrade itself is wonderful. I use my Powerbook daily both at home and all day at work (I take it to work with me to avoid using the Wintel boxes I am provided with), and am on it constantly. As a very heavy user of my Powerbook, performance is important to me (I use it a lot for graphics work and X emulation). I had been holding off upgrading to Pismo, hoping desperately that someone would provide the means to upgrade my current Powerbook for the reasons explained above. This upgrade from Newertech has breathed new life into my machine and I am now confident that I can get another year out of it, at least.

Third, the speed. It's incredible. Programs like Pagemaker and Photoshop appear to load in a fraction of the time that they used to. The system itself seems to run cooler, probably due to the revsion 3.0 Copper G3, according to Gauge Pro), and the battery life seems longer. This upgrade makes all the difference in the world for my Powerbook and my ability to continue to use it. As an added bonus, I can continue to use my SCSI, ADB, and serial-port perhipherals with ease!

In summary, I think Powerbook owners would be a fool not to get this upgrade. The money is much better spent than money on anything Apple is offering, or likely to offer in the future. Newertech's products and tech support is first rate, and so is the Maxpowr G3-PB upgrade.
S. Weems "

If you've upgraded to a Newer Tech or Powerlogix PB G3 CPU upgrade, please post an entry in the Rate Your CPU Upgrade database.

" Hey Mike -
I have a PowerCenter Pro with g3/400 upgrade, 192mb RAM and I recently put in

1) an 18 gig HD from Seatgate
2) a Xclaim Vr PCI card
3) a Orange USB/Firewire PCI

Unfortunately, I don't have any USB products yet, so I don't know how helpful this is, but the firewire has worked fine, getting video with imovie off of a Panasonic dv-910. There are still some bugs (my cd-rom now seems to cut in and out - I am trying to find the right driver combination, computer crashing when using the tv tuner - any ideas would be appreciated) but in general things are working well. I will email you after I use some USB products.
Phil "

" I would definitely suggest upgrading to OS 9.0.4

I have never tried Firewire in the PCP machines, but in several Beige G3's and in an 8500 G3 and 9600/300 all had Firewire problems until OS 9.0.4 were installed, then all problems went away. In each case the computer could not find the DV camcorder with OS 8.6. At least 2 of the 4 cards I have installed were ADS Pyro Firewire cards.

worth a shot
good luck
[the Friday's report noted the PCPro user was running OS 8.6] "

" Hi Mike,
I have just about given up on upgrading my PowerCenter Pro 180 (Mac OS 8.6) to FireWire. The symptoms are always the same:

1. The FireWire bus will eventually hang, which in turn will hang the OS. Both external drives I tried have two LEDs; when the bus hangs the left light stays lit. In one case the left light stays lit even with the drive turned off, which to me implies a bus-powered light...

2. Running the APS PowerTools drive test, a FireWire drive will pass write tests, but read errors will occur with increasing frequency until the utility declares a test failure and the FireWire bus hangs the next time the OS accesses the drive. This happened with different drives, so it wasn't the drive.

The following variables have been changed but the result is the same:

- OrangeMicro FireWire/USB combo card
- PowerLogix FireWire/USB combo card
- Western Digital 1394 adapter (so it's not a combo card PCI bridge problem)
- Apple FireWire drivers 2.2, 2.3, 2.4
- APS and Western Digital FireWire external hard drives and their drivers
- Before and after installing NewerTech G3 400 card
- Zapped PRAM with TechTool
- Made sure every card on the motherboard was seated in all the way
- Pressed CUDA motherboard reset switch
- Installed PCI Update
- Moved card to different PCI slot
- Ran card from boot disk with nothing but a clean system and necessary device drivers, with no other PCI cards present

I don't have a digital video camera yet so I have no insight there. I was hoping FireWire would give this computer easy mass external storage.

No tech support department claims to know about this type of problem. (Most helpful tech: PowerLogix). Because the symptoms occur regardless of hardware or software, I'm more convinced it's something up with this specific motherboard than with any particular card or drive, but I'm still hoping I missed something. Other PCI cards work great. USB on the combo cards works great. Let me know if you hear of anything.

Conrad "

Friday's news page problem report follows for those that missed it.

" Mike,
So you can add it to your info, I unsuccessfully tried installing a firewire direct firewire/usb card in my powercenter pro 180. Using the Apple Firewire 2.4 drivers, in addition to the Apple USB 1.4.1 drivers, plus firewire direct's own drivers, the usb part of the card does not work at all. I'm running OS 8.6 with 96 megs of RAM. No USB devices (a microtech cameramate smartmedia/cf reader and some mouse) are recognized by the computer.

The firewire does work-- imovie can see and control a Sony TRV-310 digital8 camera with the card, however capturing does not work. By comparison, using the same set of extensions, a firewire only card (that I borrowed from a pc) allows this computer to capture a few seconds of video before the lack of hard drive speed comes into play.

Furthermore, in imovie, the card from the pc will display the video in the imovie window, while using the firewire direct card, only a blue screen will be displayed (but the tape will play on the camera lcd normally.)

I've emailed firewire direct's tech support, but have not received any suggestions beyond reinstalling the all the drivers. I'll probably end up returning the card.

If you want any more info, feel free to contact me. Hope this is useful.

Andrew Raff
http://www.andrewraff.com "

I asked Andrew what brand of PC Firewire card he used (ADS Pyro?). The previously posted Firewire Combo Card Feedback page also notes problems from a PowerCenter Pro owner with an Evergreen Combo card. If any other PowerCenter Pro owners have used the FWDirect combo card, please contact me with your system specifics.

• Newer Tech PB G3 upgrade in Powerbook G3/233/512k (rated 10)
  (see news post today for his comments)
• Newer Tech G3/300 in 6500 (rated 9)
  (Notes disabling QD3D extension solves video card issues)
• XLR8 G3/300 in PowerCenter Pro 210 (rated 9)
• Apple G4/350 OC report

You can find these full reports by searching the database selecting the indicated Mac model and upgrade card brand/type. If you've upgraded the CPU on your Mac, please post an entry in the database. Search the database of over 4000 entries from most every upgradable Mac model *before* you buy.

Software Updates:
• MacNAME 0.37b5
• Videoldelic
• Installer VISE 7.0
• Netopia R-Series Routers
• Markztools 8.0.1

Apple TILs:
• PowerBook and iBook: AC Adapter, Battery, and Recharger Identification
• NetBoot Drive Unmounter: Read Me
• Apple Pro Mouse: Optimal Setting in Mouse Control Panel

Mac News:
• First Lab Test: Dual-Processor Power Macs (Macworld/Zdnet)
• G4 Cube 'may be delayed« (Macworld UK)
• Jobs Âunhappy at biography' (Macworld UK)
• VR Toolbox ships QuickTime VR creator (Macworld UK)
• Apple to offer monitor solution for new Macs (Macuser UK)
• Virtual Ink coming to the Mac (Macuser UK)
• The Hidden Computer (Macworld/Zdnet)
• Author replows old ground on Jobs and Apple (SVtech)
• The Mouse Makers Match Apple (Macworld/Zdnet)
• 'Making the Macintosh' documents Apple history (maccentral)
• Web 3-D shootout in New Orleans (macweek/zdnet)
• iMovie Grows Up (Macworld/Zdnet)

Gaming:
• Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. II Screenshots (IMG)
• Wilco 737 FLY (Wilco)

Other Net News:
• If It Ain't Broke, Upgrade It! [mentions xlr8yourmac.com :-] (Washington post)
• Finally! A Single Phone Number That Will Find You Anywhere (zdnet)
• Boycott the RIAA [napster forums]
• Napster Wins Stay in Appeals Court (yahoo)
• Sony Shows Memory Stick-Sized Camera (techweb)
• Intel, AMD battle for chip speed crown (news.com)
• Rambus, Pentium 4: The Hall of Mirrors (the register)
• Traffic pressures stall Napster alternatives (news.com)
• Gnutella Gains From Napster's Woes (AZ central)
• First Electrically Powered Organic Laser May Lead to More Widespread Use of Lasers for Various Applications (businesswire)
• EMI and MP3.com sort it out (the register)
• Breakthrough in Lasers, With Many Potential New Uses, Reported (NYtimes)
• Escaping from DSL installation hell (upside)
• RIP Bill gets go-ahead/a> (Macworld UK)
• Eliminating Notebook Keyboards (slashdot)