Inspection of an old Amiga 1200 Accelerator upgrade card, the Viper 1240 produced by DCE. Installation of 68040 processor, Crystal oscillator and memory. Benchmarks, 3D games. Comparison to 68030 Amiga card.
Seems like my ever wandering interest and attention span has drifted back to Amiga related matters. This happens now and again and usually results in an expensive accusation of old or new hardware.. Looks like I’ve done it again. I’m now the owner of a DCE Viper 1240 card.
Viper 1240
DCE (DCE Computer Service GmbH) produced it in the early 00’s. Vesalia initially sold it as a alternative to existing accelerator cards. Phase5 Blizzard and Apollo cards had stopped production before this time but were still available from some retailers. DCE Viper cards used the same MACH 130 & 131 CPLD’s found on the Apollo cards.
The same card was sold with various speeds of the 68040 processor. 25 , 28, 33, and 40Mhz have been observed.
It was also configured as the Viper 1260 with a 68060 processor. Although it’s not listed in the Big Book Of Amiga Hardware as 1260. These were clocked at 50 or 56Mhz.
Most times, cards like the 1240 have the CPU soldered directly to the board. However, mine has the CPU socket installed. This was likely done at the factory by the quality of the soldering. It looks like this cards was intended as replacement stock for either the 68040 or 060. The installed Crystal was 56Mhz and can be used for either processor. This will slightly overclock the 68040 to 28Mhz and the 68060 to 56Mhz. As the CPU is socketed, it can be upgraded with a 68060 and 3.3v regulator.
Crystal replacement
My intention is to run a 68040 at 40Mhz, the maximum rated speed of this processor. Removing the crystal and installing push pin connectors is very easy and only took me a few seconds. I also have a 50Mhz crystal to get the stock 25Mhz clock speeds for comparison.
68040 CPU’s
A brief overview of the 040. The Motorola 68040 is a very overlooked processor. It’s regarded as less popular than the later MC68060 for a few reasons. The 040 uses more power and its core operates at 5v rather then 3.3v for the 060. This means the 040 puts a greater strain on the power delivery system, and generates more heat then the 060. This can be a problem for desktop A1200’s like mine. I’ll address this later.
That said, the 68040 is much faster than its predecessor the 68030. Often 3 times as fast at the same clock speeds in some tests. This can equate to huge improvement in web software, 3D games and some rendering applications. I’ll show this later. While the 68060 is more popular, its also much more expensive to get now than the 68040. Its not common to find people using the 040 in anything other the Amiga 4000 these days.
The 68040 started production in 1990 and went through several revisions of the mask version, and the manufacturing process. The first unqualified product run were marked as XC instead of MC. These processors are fully working, but contain a known bug in the MMU called “errata”. Its nothing to worry about and worked around by software libraries on the Amiga.
The earliest XC68040 processors were also built on a 0.8µm scale and are known to run very hot at higher speeds. There are still plenty of examples of the XC68040R40 that can run at 40Mhz. These will need a heatsink and fan to remain stable at higher speeds. Later revisions marked with the K63H, and L88M mask revisions are rumored to run cooler. They were built on the 0.57µm process. That’s almost a 30% shrink in transistor size! Genuine L88M mask chips are very hard to find, some are fake. All 68040 processors (with exception to the “v” models) are 5v. 68060 are all 3.3v, this contributes to their better power efficiency and thermals.
So what version do I have. Well, I have one from each end of the scale.. Firstly a XC68040RC40M and a MC68040RC40
| CPU Version | Mask | Production years | Process |
| XC68040RC40M | No mask number. Could be D50D ? | 1990-1995 | 0.8µm |
| MC68040RC40A | K63H | 2000-2002 | 0.57µm |
More information on the 040 versions and revisions can be found here.
Testing the 1240
When the processor arrived in the post I was very keen to try the card in my Amiga 1200. I had already replaced all the capacitors, and performed the recommended timing fix’s. The latter being needed for revision 2B motherboards.
Initially I was greeted with a flashing power LED and no boot process. When I removed the memory module, the Amiga booted fine. I spent some time trying different 72pin memory modules thinking that was the cause. After a while, I tried booting with the “RAM” jumper on the card in the open position. It booted perfectly with the fast RAM installed. I ended up using a 128Mb Simm as it was smaller in size than the 16mb in the photos. Only 64Mb are addressable on this card.
This system already had the MuLibs library’s installed, Also the OS 3.2 CPU library’s, so there was not need to install separate 68040.library in the libs: folder. Everything was running smooth and stable in my testing. No problems found so far. Workbench felt much more responsive than with the 030 accelerator I had been using.
Temperature and Cooling
I can tell that the XC processor is quite warm when running at 28Mhz. At 40Mhz though it definitely gets VERY HOT to touch after a session of playing Doom. If I continue to use it at this speed it will need a heartsick and fan. I set the card back to 28Mhz after a short time to avoid overheating or damage. The MC68040RC40A (K63H) is cooler at both speeds, but still gets hot. This seems in line with other peoples findings with this revision.
When installed the 1240 the A1200 desktop case, there isn’t much room for a heatsink. The problem is that the processor is on the top of the board, and is very close to the keyboard. The CPU socket also uses up some space. I located a very slim heatsink the same size as the processor. Then I tried fitting fans of various sizes, but none would fit in the restricted space. In the end I designed and 3D printed an air channel to focus air over the processor. This works quite well and keeps the processor cool enough even in games.
The air channel uses a 50mm fan connected to 5v power to force air over the slim heatsink. It fits perfectly below the keyboard and isn’t too loud. I’m still revising the design to make improvements, but its working well.
Benchmarks for Viper 1240
With classic Amiga’s, the “gold” standard for benchmarking is still Sysinfo. This program has been around since the early 90’s. Newer releases have made improvements in 040 and 060 testing. Both processors gives a healthy 21.75MIPS at 28Mhz, and 31.09 MIPS at 40Mhz.
I’ve also included the SysSpeed benchmark results above. These results are slightly less than displayed in SysInfo. However, the program can be more reliable when testing very high end Amiga systems with 060 and PPC processors. Again, with both processors score the exact same result within margin of error.
Games
Along with the WHDLoad game set for Amiga, I now have power to run Doom at an acceptable frame rate. On the 68030 Doom needed to be in the low detail mode, and reduced windows size. Now on high detail and full screen (although still at PAL resolution 320×256 ). The version Doom tested is DoomAttack and can be found on Aminet.
Moving on to Quake. I’ve been pleased how well Quake can run on AGA 060 systems in the past. The version tested on this Amiga is the official ClickBoom release of Quake. Resolution is 320×256 (PAL), Screen size is reduced to 75% and I selected the 1×2 pixel setting.
Using the built-in TimeDemo1, I get 7.8 FPS at 40Mhz. This is practically unplayable, still it’s impressive to see it running at all on a 040 Amiga. I’ll leave this game to my 060 Amiga.
Upgrade to 68060?
There is a good chance the card can be upgraded to a full 68060. My 1240 has the MACH 130 chip. Although the 131 version is most preferable for the 060, many people online claim the MACH 130 will also work.
Overall the Viper 1240 is a very good and stable card. I’ve had no issues so far running this card. As long as you keep the CPU temperature under control with some custom cooling, everything should run fine.
IF you like this, then take a look at some of my other Amiga projects.
Neil – 8bitplus – 2025
Recent Comments