DayStar Turbo 601

About

The Turbo 601 is an PowerPC accelerator card for older Apple Macintosh computers (IIci, IIsi, IIvi, IIvx and Performa 600) that can provide a less-expensive alternative to buying a new Power Mac. It began shipping in January 1995 and was originally available in a 66MHz version for the IIci only. A 100MHz version for the IIci was released shortly after.

A few months later 100MHz and 66MHz versions became available for the IIsi, IIvi, IIvx and Performa 600.

Early in 1996, the Turbo 601 for the IIvi, IIvx, and Performa 600 was discontinued (both 100 and 66MHz versions). John Carson got this note from DayStar on the subject:

We have discontinued our Turbo 601 for the IIvx, IIvi, and Performa 600 because it does not support thousands of colours (you'd be limited to 256 colours); nor does it support stereo or microphone.

The 66 MHz versions for the IIci and IIsi are also out of production now (the last production run was in August, 1996).

Update (21 Jan)

All versions of the Turbo 601 have been discontinued. When Andy Baird sent eMail to DayStar to query why the price of the Turbo 601 has never reduced he got the following two replies:

Thanks for your comment re pricing. Let me make two comments in return:

We agree totally that the upgrades are too expensive. However, I can only assure you that we have trimmed the price of upgrades extremely close to cost already. We are not getting any further breaks on the PowerPC 601 chip cost--it has been bottomed out for a while. Plus the 15ns SRAM we use is very expensive since it is a specialized use. Additionally, in order to get higher speeds without "pushing" the motherboard, we use an armload of high-speed (high speed = high price) components. And the board itself. an 8-layer, dual-sided, high-density, dual-populated surface-mount construction, did not reduce in cost either.

This said, I now need to inform you that the product has just recently been discontinued, since the 601 processor chip is no longer available at all. We have no remaining stock left, nor do the mail order companies that were carrying it, nor does Ingram, our distributor that sells to all the "little guys".

Sorry we cannot comply with your wishes re price, but I felt an explanation might better help your perception of the matter !

Sorry for the confusion over our pricing. 1st of all the 66MHz versions were dropped to $499 in June of last year and we discontinued them as a product line in October of last year. 2nd, the 100MHz version is now a discontinued product for the same reason the pricing never dropped - no one makes the 601 processor anymore-- not Motorola or IBM.

That you are able to buy 604 upgrades cheaply reflects the fact that the manufacturers are ending the life cycle on those designs and are now working on a new design at the higher 225MHz+ speeds we will be moving to with our Genesis line.

In fact, the only products we now manufacture are 2- and 4-processor Multi-proccessing machines and the 2-processor upgrade cards (604e 400+) for the 7500, 8500 and 9500 series.

Mac OS 8

I'm indebted to Gary Girolimon for clarifying the following:

(a) A Mac with a Turbo 601 upgrade will not boot with MacOS 8 in 030 Mode.

(b) It would appear that the Turbo 601 System Enabler is NOT required for the Turbo 601 to operate in PowerPC mode with the MacOS 8. Gary writes:

I had a few minutes today to head over to our print shop and check out the old II ci. System 8 installs a control panel called "601 processor upgrade" which seems to have the same function as the "Turbo 601 Control." It gives you the option of restarting with the 601 upgrade card on or off.If you choose "off", the computer will not start up. You are presented with a message that states: "This operating system will not work with this computer." You will have to reboot from the CD and set the "601 processor upgrade" to "on." You might want to do this and then discard the control panel so that someone doesn't accidentally turn it off. Never the less, the Daystar-supplied "Turbo 601 System Enabler" extension is not required as far as I can tell. I am not using it and the computer works just fine and is very stable.

Bronson has also confirmed that his IIci/Turbo 601 runs OK with MacOS 8 WITHOUT the Turbo 601 System Enabler.

Personally, I would prefer using the DayStar "Turbo 601 Control Panel" over the Apple "601 Processor Upgrade"--it does allow control of a number of parameters that the Apple Control Panel doesn't (SCSI Manager 4.3, CacheOn/Off etc).

The fact that the Turbo 601 System Enabler does not seem to be required for PowerPC operation with MacOS 8 is something I just find plain confusing. My instinct is that it is probably safer to keep it in the System Folder, but I can provide no rational or evidence for that opinion.

If the Turbo 601 and MacOS 8 work OK for you using Apple's Control Panel without the Turbo 601 System Enabler then what the hell...! Go for it!! But I can't explain it.

Intuitively, this SEEMS to imply that the hardware and software architecture that controls the 601 upgrade cards is common across the Turbo 601, PowerPro and Apple Upgrade cards. After all, the stuff that MacOS installs that works just fine with our Macs is actually MEANT for the PowerPC upgrade cards in 040 Macs. It's not intended for 030/Turbo 601 Macs, but, nonetheless, it works just fine.

Introduction

Neither DayStar or Apple support MacOS 8 running on Turbo 601 upgraded Macs. What exactly does this mean?

What it means is that neither DayStar or Apple have tested MacOS 8 on a Turbo 601 upgraded machine. Because of this, neither DayStar or Apple will be prepared to help anyone who runs into problems using MacOS 8 with the Turbo 601.

It DOES NOT mean that MacOS 8 will not work with the Turbo 601. In fact the evidence is quite conclusive that MacOS 8 will install and run OK on a Turbo 601 machine. It is a worthwhile upgrade for owners of the Turbo 601 and offers both speed and stability improvements.

Why Does It Work?

It's all to do with Gestalt IDs--

If you are using System 7.5 or 7.5.1 on a Mac fitted with a Turbo 601 the Mac returns a Gestalt ID of 207, 208, 209 or 210 depending on the base model. If you try to install MacOS 7.6, 7.6.1 or in the future MacOS 8 on a machine returning any of these Gestalt IDs you will get an error message saying that the installer doesn't support that particular model of Mac.

Strictly speaking this is correct. Apple does not OFFICIALLY support Macs with DayStar upgrade cards.

BUT--if you install System 7.5.3 on any Turbo 601 upgraded Mac then the Gestalt ID changes to 104 regardless of the base model. NOW THIS IS THE INTERESTING BIT. Gestalt ID 104 is really an LC475 (68040-based) with PPC upgrade--it's not a Turbo 601 upgraded Mac at all.

I have not been able to clarify if this is deliberate or not (I suspect not--I reckon it's just good luck), but either way this is what allows Turbo 601 owners to install and run Systems later than 7.5.3.

SO, once you've installed System 7.5.3 you can then go on and install System 7.5.5, MacOS 7.6, MacOS 7.6.1, and in the future MacOS 8 because the installer thinks you've got an 040 Mac with a PowerPC upgrade. Obviously our machines are NOT LC475s with PPC upgrade, BUT the System that gets installed works just fine with our Macs. What we actually get is a System for a Mac that is a "Power Macintosh Upgrade"--where, in this case, "Power Macintosh Upgrade" really means an 040 Mac with a PPC upgrade card fitted.

(Note--if you currently use Systems 7.5 or 7.5.1 you can go straight to a MacOS 8 installation without installing System 7.5.3 by using the MachID Wannabe utility. For more information see the MacOS 8 Installation Guide below.)

That this happens probably isn't as much of a surprise as you might think. Some of the PPC upgrade cards sold by Apple for 040 Macs were really re-badged DayStar cards--so by supporting the 040 upgraded Macs (which Apple MUST do because they sold the upgrade cards!!) Apple seems to have inadvertently kept the Turbo 601 in the game!!!

The problem that we might have is that our Turbo 601 upgraded Macs will probably not boot in 030 mode with MacOS 8. I never run my Mac in 030 mode anyway so I don't see this as much of a problem. It could prove problematic if the PRAM gets zapped because that re-sets the Turbo 601 to 030 mode--but the way out of this would be to boot from a System 7.5 emergency floppy and switch the Turbo 601 back to PowerPC mode and then reboot with MacOS 8.

TO SUMMARISE. MacOS 8 WILL successfully install and run on a Turbo 601 upgraded Mac in PPC mode because the installer thinks that the machine is an LC475 with PowerPC upgrade.

Although MacOS is NOT officially supported on Turbo 601 upgraded Macs, it WILL work OK because of the circumstances I have outlined above. It's worth pointing out we'll be entirely on our own. If it all goes wrong neither DayStar or Apple will be prepared to help. BUT--this has been the situation since 7.5.3 (DayStar will only help if you're still using System 7.5.1) and many, many people are successfully using System 7.5.5, MacOS 7.6 and MacOS 7.6.1 with their Turbo 601.

The other thing that's not clear is how well MacOS 8 will combine with the Turbo 601 and NuBus expansion cards. I've got a Radius Thunder/24 GT, FWB/StreamLogic JackHammer and Sonic Solutions Ethernet card fitted to my Mac IIvi/Turbo 601. This lot works beautifully with MacOS 7.6.1 and I'm hoping that everything will be compatible with MacOS 8. Unfortunately there's only going to be one way to find out...!

It's really up to you here--if you feel confident about troubleshooting your Mac then installing and using MacOS 8 shouldn't be too difficult. BUT--Caveat Emptor, Mea Culpa, Your Mileage May Vary....etc...etc

Install Guide

If you are running Systems 7.5.3, 7.5.5, 7.6 or 7.6.1 installation is straightforward. Just follow the instructions on the MacOS 8 CD. It's that simple!

If you can, we recommend booting from the MacOS 8 CD and then running the installation (note that you might not be able to boot from the CD depending on what CD-ROM you have fitted).

If you can't boot from the CD then you can make a suitable MacOS 8 boot floppy from the images supplied on the MacOS 8 CD.

If you're still running System 7.5 or 7.5.1 it's a bit more complicated, but it's still not difficult. Here's what you need to do.

• Download the MachID Wannabe utility (19k Stuffit Archive).
• Decompress the archive, and put MachID Wannabe into your Control Panels folder.
• Use Extensions Manager to select the base set for System 7.5 (or 7.5.1). Before re-starting re-enable the Turbo 601 System Enabler, Turbo 601 Control Panel, MachID Wannabe Control Panel, Apple CD-ROM Extension and anything else your particular system configuration needs to boot up.
• Restart the Mac.
• Open the MachID Wannabe Control Panel and set the Gestalt ID of your Mac to a value of 104.
• Install MacOS 8 from the CD.

Important Information (added 17 August)

If, for any reason, your Turbo 601 upgraded Mac gets re-set to 030 mode it will NOT boot with MacOS 8. You will get a mesage that says "This operating system will not work with this computer".

If this happens then you can boot from the MacOS 8 CD and use either Apple's 601 Processor Upgrade Control Panel or Daystar's Turbo 601 Control Panel to re-set the Turbo 601 to PowerPC mode. You can use whichever one of these you have installed in your boot drive's Control Panel folder (the 601/030 mode setting is held in PRAM so it doesn't have to set-up from the boot volume).

ROM Versions

There is a trick in the Turbo 601 control panel that lets you get information about your board. Hold down Command-Control, and click on the Turbo 601 logo. Among other things, Bronson Trevor's Turbo 601 returned the following:

ROM Family: $77D
ROM Checksum: $7C4F0317
ROM Version: 2.5f2
Patch ROM Version: 1.1

Willi Murray gets these same numbers from his recently purchased Turbo 601. Bronson reckons that these are the most recent versions that a board could have. This brings us to an interesting note, however, and that is that the Turbo 601 contains a Patch ROM. Like good modems it is possible to upgrade the board using a piece of software. The first time a user boots up with v1.1 of the Turbo 601 control panel installed, for example, it will do just that.

Update (19 Jan 1997)

Jubel Chen has had his Turbo 601 modified to fix the 256 colours problem and his board now returns the following data:

ROM Family: $770
ROM Checksum: $7B34B470
ROM Version: 2.5f2
Patch ROM Version: 1.2d4

Eccentricities, Bugs & Solutions

This section describes problems that users have experienced with specific applications, control panels and extensions when using the Turbo 601. Many of these problems occur when using Systems 7.5.3 or 7.5.5. and it is worth repeating here that: DayStar do not, at present, support any System later that 7.5.1 running on a Turbo 601.

IIsi Problems

Thomas Linn informed us that when using a Turbo 601 in his Mac IIsi, he ran into tons of crashes until he removed the rear expansion cover to provide better air flow. Bronson remembers that the fan on his old IIsi was rather small!

Thomas also reports that the 365 MB hard drive that was working fine in his IIsi, began to have many disk errors after installing a Turbo 601. Replacing that hard drive with a 170 MB hard drive seemed to make the problem better, but the problem persisted until a 40 MB (the one that was shipped with the IIsi) was placed in the IIsi. This seems a bit strange, and the reasons are not at all clear. It may be related to the overheating problem, and that the larger hard drives have higher power requirements, causing the computer to overheat faster. It may also be related to disk driver issues, but we don't really have to enough information to speculate usefully on this one!

IIvi, IIvx and Performa 600 Problems

DayStar have acknowledged two problems specific to these computers when a Turbo 601 is installed:

(i) DayStar's Turbo 601 FAQ states that when using internal video these machines cannot display more than 256 colours. See the Monitor Problems paragraphs below.

(ii) DayStar's System 7.5.3 Installation Tips and Issues FAQ states that if System 7.5.3 is installed on any of these machines fitted with a Turbo 601 then the 'floppy disk drive will operate improperly'. This problem is described in more detail in the MacOS Issues, Systems 7.5.3 & 7.5.5 section of this web site.

Agfa Scanners

This isn't a problem caused by the Turbo 601, but it's worth noting nonetheless. Willi Murray writes:

I recently installed an FWB JackHammer SCSI accelerator in my Mac IIvi/Turbo 601. When SCSI Manager 4.3 (required for the JackHammer to work) was enabled in the Turbo 601 Control Panel the Mac couldn't communicate with the scanner, a two year old Agfa StudioScan IIsi. The scanner worked OK if SCSI Manager 4.3 was disabled.

I found a driver patch (FLDriver SCSI Patch) in Agfa's CompuServe forum which is intended for any PowerMac driving an 'older' Agfa Scanner. Apparantly 'older' Agfa scanners don't operate properly with the 'new' SCSI Manager 4.3 commands which the scanner driver issues when SCSI Manager 4.3 is enabled on a PowerMac (68k Macs and SCSI Manager 4.3 are OK). The patch modifies the scanner driver and forces it to use pre-SCSI Manger 4.3 commands. I patched the scanner driver as instructed and found that the scanner worked perfectly OK with SCSI Manager 4.3 after doing this.

Agfa UK's technical support staff confirmed my findings and suggested that I needed a firmware update (from version 1.5 to 2.3) for my scanner. I received the EPROM with the new firmware within four days of my telephone call (thanks to the folks at Agfa UK for this excellent service!), installed it straightaway, and unfortunately it didn't make any difference!

I'll continue using the patched driver meantime and post the final solution to the problem when it's sorted.

Note - the FLDriver SCSI Patch is only available from Agfa's library in their CompuServe forum - it's not available from any of their web sites. If you need more information about the FLDriver SCSI patch contact Willi Murray.

Update (8 April)

This problem has still not been sorted in spite of upgrading to the latest version of FotoLook (2.09) as suggested by Agfa Tech Support UK - a complete waste of £125. Furthermore, since the original posting on 30 December a number of people have confirmed this problem and it is NOT only confined to DayStar accelerated Macs and it affects all verions of FotoLook from 2.05 to 2.09 inclusive.

Here is a summary of the facts we have to date:

• The Agfa FotoLook scanner driver cannot communicate with the scanner when either SCSI Manager 4.3 is installed AND/OR a when a second SCSI bus has been installed using a JackHammer (or similar). This occurs in either 030 mode or 601 mode.
• If SCSI Manager 4.3 is disabled (remember that if a JackHammer is installed in a Turbo 601 upgraded Mac you will have to physically remove it before disabling SCSI Manager 4.3) then the FotoLook scanner driver works perfectly OK.
• In addition, Agfa's SCSI ID Checker (similar to SCSI probe) cannot see ANYTHING on the Mac's internal SCSI bus when either SCSI Manager 4.3 is installed OR a when a second SCSI bus has been installed using a JackHammer (or similar).

Again, if SCSI Manager 4.3 is disabled or the JackHammer removed then SCSI ID Checker functions correctly and will identify all items on the internal SCSI bus.

This problem is NOTHING to do with the Turbo 601 as it also occurs when the Macs are in 030 mode. It clearly seems to be something to do with Agfa's software implementation.

Note that the FLDriver SCSI Patch described in the original posting will only patch FotoLook versions 2.05 to 2.07 inclusive. It will not patch FotoLook versions 2.08 and 2.09. I am indebted, however, to Ed Binder for describing a ResEdit hack which will get FotoLook versions 2.08 and 2.09 up and running if you have this problem (this ResEdit hack effectively does the same thing as the FLDriver SCSI Patch).

Ed writes:

The patch worked for me, albeit indirectly. Apparently it will not readily patch 2.09. I got an error about STR# 16515 not being as expected. So I fired up ResEdit and looked at both the patcher and the FLDriver 2.0 file. I found the STR# with that number (named *Custom Values) in the FLDriver file and saw a value there that said OLDSCSIMANAGER=0. I could see from the patcher resources that it was trying to put a 1 somewhere in the STR# 16515 resource, so I just changed that string to=1 instead of 0 and now the scanner works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! with the Jackhammer present and active.

So you can fix any version of the driver this way, even if the patcher won't do it for you.

I know we should not have to be doing this kind of stuff in the first place but at least it all plays together for me now. I don't agree with the AGFA explanation of faster SCSI Manager 4.3 or faster PPC/PCI Macs since this was happening to me on a IIci, with and without a Turbo 040, no PPC hardware at all, using the IIci's slow built-in SCSI bus (2 Meg/sec max with the Turbo 040). I don't think the scanner ROMs could have any effect here. Further AGFA's stand alone SCSI ID checker app would see nothing on the built-in bus, not even the Mac at ID7 or my old hard disk at 0, let alone the scanner.

Yet with no Jackhammer, all would look normal. My best guess is that AGFA is mishandling the SCSI info when there are multiple buses present and not seeing anything. Also supporting this is the fact that OmniPage would work fine with the Jackhammer present. It uses its own chooser based scanner driver. So if the scanner hardware was the problem, I'd expect OmniPage to have the similar troubles.

Anyway I am happy now. The scanner speed is acceptable too...better than no scanning at all.

Note again that Ed experienced the problem with and without the Turbo 040 installed in his Mac IIci.

I wonder if this problem is unique to older II-series Macs with SCSI Manager 4.3 or dual SCSI busses installed. I would have expected an outcry from users if this problem existed for owners of the newer PCI-based Macs.

If anyone has any more information about this, or has managed to get anything sensible out of Agfa I'd be really glad to hear from them.

DayStar Software

All new Turbo 601 cards shipped up to Jan 1997 were supplied with Disk Release 3 of the DayStar Software. This comprises:

• Turbo 601 System Enabler v1.1
• Turbo 601 Control Panel v1.1
• Monitors Control Panel v7.5.1

When Jubel Chen got his board back from DayStar following modification to fix 256 colours problem he got Disk Release 4 of the DayStar software. This comprises:

• Turbo 601 System Enabler v1.1.1
• Turbo 601 Control Control Panel v1.2.1
• Monitors Control Panel v7.5.1

The ReadMe file for Disk Release 4 has been posted to this site.

Update (21 Jan)

Willi Murray received clarification from DayStar today about the functionality of Disk Release 4 of the Turbo 601 software:

Disk Release 4 software only adds functionality to Turbo 601 boards that have been modified to fix the 256 colours problem with IIvx, IIvi and Performa 600s. The Disk Release 4 software works with the modified boards to enable the 'Thousands' of colours option.

Other than the very minor bug fixes mentioned in the Disk Release 4 ReadMe file, the new version of the software offers NO new functionality for other Turbo 601 users.

If you don't have a modified board, you don't need it.

Disk Release 4 has not been posted to DayStar's FTP site.

Digital Storefront

Digital Storefront is a hardware/software 'Telephony' device for the Mac. Jim Tugman reports that in PowerPC mode, running MacOS 7.5.3 or 7.5.5, the Digital Storefront software has an error upon launch, with a dialog box that says 'Sound input device not available'. He also reports that this problem goes away when he uses System 7.5.1, and when he switches back to 68030 mode. This might be related to the Microphone problem reported below.

Machine Type Oddities

Certain applications (like TechTool by MicroMat) check the hardware of the computer to determine what type of Macintosh you are running. If you are using System 7.5.3 or 7.5.5 and a Turbo 601, such an application will report that you are using a LC 575 w\PPC (Gestalt ID 104). Apple assigns a new ID (called through the Gestalt manager) for every Mac that they release.We are not sure if Mac clones have a unique ID or not, but for whatever reasons Apple and/or DayStar decided to assign ID 104 to the Turbo 601. Even though you are not actually running a LC 575, that computer is the decided approximation of any Mac with a Turbo 601. This only started happening in System 7.5.3 because it was with this release that the Gestalt Manager started to return only a general description of the computer (i.e. Power Macintosh) rather than a specific identification. TechTool calls the hardware directly, we think, and this is why it reports back the LC 575 stuff.

If you use System 7.5.1 your machine will be identified as a PowerPC Macintosh IIvi, PowerPC Macintosh IIci... etc.

David Murray tells us that when he runs System 7.5.1 on his Performa 600/Turbo 601 the machine type is set to PowerPC IIvm (yes, M)!

Microphone Problems

Roman Brice brought to our attention the fact that the Turbo 601 causes problems with the microphone on his computer. DayStar's comment on this issue was (supposedly) that it would be impossible to fix the problem due to the low level changes in the ROMs by Apple.

Monitor Problems

DayStar's Turbo 601 FAQ acknowledges a problem which limits the display on the IIvi, IIvx and Performa 600 to a maximum of 256 colors even if enough video RAM is installed to display thousands of colours. This problem affects all Systems including 7.5 and 7.5.1. The FAQ has recently been updated to state that this '256 colours issue' can now be sorted by a component change. (Note that this problem only affects internal video, add-on NuBus graphics cards are unaffected by this problem and will function correctly.)

After installing a Turbo 601 in his Macintosh IIci, Bronson found that the monitors control panel got a bit weird when using internal video. Now, the 'Options' box no longer lets him change the amount of memory he wants to allocate for internal video (the options are there, but they are mostly hidden by an improperly sized 'Options' window).

Netscape 3.0

There have been a few reports of problems when using Netscape 3.0 on a Turbo 601 enhanced computer. We reckon that this probably isn't due to Netscape itself, but is more probably due to RAM Doubler or some other extension.

Netscape 3.0 Gold works fine on Bronson Trevor's IIci/Turbo 601.

You might not believe this, but Netscape 3.0 and 3.0.1 has NEVER crashed on Willi Murray's IIvi/Turbo 601 (it's true!).

QuickDraw GX

QuickDraw GX doesn't seem to work at all. Bronson's computer crashed the first time it was started up with it installed under 7.5.3.

Radius PhotoEngine

Thanks to Jeff Walther for the following:

I have aquired two Thunder IV GX 1360's through judicious net trading and have discovered (and had confirmed by Radius) that the PhotoEngine daughter card on the Thunder IV GX, which provides the Photoshop acceleration, is not compatible with the Turbo 601. You can install the card and the regular Quickdraw acceleration works fine, but if you attempt to load the Radius DSP extension that enables the PhotoEngine the machine will freeze during the booting process--just about exactly after the extension loads.

To reduce heat and save power, I removed the PhotoEngine daughter card from the Thunder IV GX. Radius confirms that this is okay to do. In fact, if you have a Thunder IV GX 1152, after you remove the PhotoEngine you will have a Thunder 24/GT.

RAM Doubler

RAM Doubler and Speed Doubler (Connectix Corp), cause multitudes of problems, none of which seem to be fixed in the newest versions available (RAM Doubler v2.0 caused Bronson's computer to lock up all together upon startup). Gary Zimmerman reports, however, that on his IIsi/Turbo 601, RAM Doubler 1.6.1 works fine under OS 7.5.5. He also tells us that Speed Doubler causes the LaserWriter icon in the Chooser to disappear (that could get annoying...!).

Another good bit of information and advice came from Don Fuller :

RAM Doubler 1.6.2 with System 7.5.5 now works well and seems more stable than it was with System 7.5.3. I only have 20 MB and regularly run PhotoShop and Navigator in large partitions over 12 MB. One culprit I found was a PhotoShop Acquire Plug-in for a scanner making memory demands.

Two areas that seem to make a lot of difference in stability are additional System and Finder Heap spaces. I have consistently used Now Startup Manager to reserve an extra 15-20% of System Heap. And, now have also used Finder Heap Fix 1.0.1 to conveniently set Finder Heap at 256K. I don't know if the Turbo 601 System Enabler or my scanner Acquire Plug-in make extra demands, or what's goin' on. But there has been a consistent, repeatable pattern of better stability with conservative, additional heap settings.

Jubel Chen reports that RAM Doubler 2.0.1 works fine with his IIvx/Turbo 601 MacOS 7.6.1 combination:

I have installed RAM Doubler 2.0.1 on my computer as well. I have been experimenting with the settings, from 20MBs to 60MBs. The best result seems to be the 20MB setting. Even though this setting doesn't give you anything more than your physical memory, the presence of RAM Doubler made RAM footprint from applications a lot smaller. Performance was pretty good with this setting as well.

He sent the this follow-up a few day's after he sent the original information.

I have been playing with the settings again. It seems that RAM Doubler 2.0.1 is stable enough when you are doubling or tripling your memory. Your performance does suffer quite a bit when you use the Triple Memory setting. However, I am not quite sure about the 1.5x or 2.5x (the in-between settings). One of my crashes, I am not certain if it was RAM Doubler related or not, ocurred right after I changed the setting from physical memory only to the 1.5x setting. At this moment, I am using 3.5x to test the stability. Oh yes, if you think 20MB is enough and don't want to run VM, still keep RAM Doubler installed. This will seriously reduce the RAM requirement on all PPC native/FAT applications.

SCSI Manager 4.3

Willi Murray recently installed an FWB JackHammer SCSI accelerator in his Mac IIvi. This requires SCSI Manager 4.3 to operate. Unfortunately Willi has discovered that when SCSI Manager 4.3 is enabled in the Turbo 601 Control Panel then any attempt to use his IIvi's floppy drive will invariably cause the Mac to freeze. The freeze can occur during any of the following possible operations:

• inserting a floppy disk
• mounting an inserted floppy disk
• reading from a floppy disk
• writing to a floppy disk
• ejecting a floppy disk (by dragging to the Trash, CTRL-Y or CTRL-E)

More often than not, the IIvi will completely freeze when trying to mount an inserted floppy disk.

The floppy drive works perfectly OK when SCSI Manager 4.3 is disabled in the Turbo 601 Control Panel.

DayStar Technical Support were FAX'd about this on 30 Dec 1996.

Update (5 Jan 1997)

Installed MacsBug 6.5.3 to try and trap the problem. Found that when MacsBug is installed the floppy drive works much more reliably. Problem returns immediately when MacsBug is de-activated. When MacsBug is installed and the freeze occurs the machine doesn't jump into MacsBug, it still just freezes completely.

Update (2 Feb) - Problem Solved!

DayStar Technical Support eventually replied to my FAX and following an exchange of eMails this problem has been fixed. Unfortunately no single clear cause was identified. Everything worked fine after Willi re-installed his System software AND installed FWB's HDT 1.8s drivers on ALL his hard and removeable media disk drives. Prior to this, the FWB HDT drivers were only installed on the drives connected to the JackHammer card (2GB AV hard disk, 640MB Optical and 200MB Syquest). The hard disk on the internal SCSI bus still had the Apple HD SC 7.3.5 driver installed).

Hopefully the following general information relating to SCSI Manager 4.3 and the JackHammer card might prove useful to others:

1. You should only need to enable SCSI Manager 4.3 in the Turbo 601 Control Panel if you want to set up a second SCSI bus with the JackHammer card (or similar).
2. Don't enable SCSI Manager 4.3 if you don't need it. DayStar report that they have experienced floppy disk drive problems on machines that have had SCSI Manager 4.3 enabled but no JackHammer installed. Here is a portion of one of the eMails they sent to Willi Murray:

...(we have) experienced floppy problems as well with SCSI 4.3 enabled, but with the JackHammer card installed they do not occur...

1. It would appear that the JackHammer card is the only one of its type that has been specifically tested by DayStar for compatibility with the Turbo 601. Others may work, but you can't really be 100% sure until after you've tried them!
2. Under no circumstances disable SCSI Manager 4.3 if you have a JackHammer card installed in a machine fitted with a Turbo 601. If you do this the Mac will not boot. This situation can sometimes be recovered by holding down the COMMAND, OPTION and J keys when restarting to disable the JackHammer. If this fails then the JackHammer card will have to be physically removed before the Mac will boot up (if you have to resort to this don't forget to re-enable SCSI Manager 4.3 before re-fitting the JackHammer card!).
3. Once the JackHammer card is installed be sure to install the FWB HDT drivers on ALL hard and removeable disk drive media attached to BOTH the JackHammer SCSI bus and Mac's internal SCSI bus. (Although he cannot say for certain, Willi Murray's problems with the floppy disk drive seem to have been related to some sort of weird interaction between the Turbo 601, SCSI Manager 4.3, FWB's HDT 1.8s driver and Apple's HD SC 7.3.5 driver.)

Note - Willi Murray's recently purchased JackHammer card came bundled with FWB HDT version 1.8s. HDT v1.8s is OK if you're still using System 7.5.1 (which Willi is at the moment). If you're brave enough to use System 7.5.3, or 7.5.5, or even System 7.6 with a Turbo 601/JackHammer combination you should really upgrade to the latest version of HDT (currently 2.0.5).

Even if you're playing safe with System 7.5.1 however, it's a good idea to upgrade to the latest version of HDT (Willi ordered his upgrade today!).

Update (3 Feb) - Some Notes on the SCSI Manager 4.3 and 4.3.1 Extensions

The SCSI Manager 4.3 option in the Turbo 601 Control Panel enables/disables a version of SCSI Manager 4.3 that is in the Apple PowerMac ROMs on the Turbo 601 card. The separate SCSI Manager extension that is installed with Systems 7.5 and 7.5.1 is therefore not required and can actually cause problems when you are running in PowerPC mode with the ROM version of SCSI Manager 4.3 enabled. When the Turbo 601 is operated in PowerPC mode the SCSI Manager 4.3 (or 4.3.1) extension should be removed from the extensions folder or disabled with Extensions Manager (or similar).

The only reason you would want to keep a SCSI Manager extension is if you have a JackHammer card (or similar) in your Turbo 601 upgraded Mac and you want to boot in 030 mode. Under these circumstances use Extensions Manager (or similar) to enable the SCSI Manager 4.3 extension before restarting in 030 mode, and disable the SCSI Manager 4.3 extension before restarting in PowerPC mode.

If you need to keep a SCSI Manager extension for booting in 030 mode the correct one to use is SCSI Manager 4.3. SCSI Manager 4.3.1 which is mistakenly installed on Turbo 601 upgraded Macs by System Update 1.0 (System 7.5.1) is intended only for some Centris, Quadra 630 and 040 AV Macs and offers no benefit for 030-based Macs.

If you've installed System Update 1.0 to get System 7.5.1, you'll have the SCSI Manager 4.3.1 extension. If you need the SCSI Manager 4.3 extension you'll need to do a System 7.5 installation. The easiest way to get SCSI Manager 4.3 extension is to first delete the SCSI Manager 4.3.1 extension from the extensions folder. Next, do a 'Clean Install' of System 7.5 and then boot from a floppy. Move the SCSI Manager 4.3 extension from the extensions folder in the new 'System Folder' to the extensions folder in the 'Previous System Folder'. Then delete the new 'System Folder' and rename the 'Previous System Folder' 'System Folder' and restart.

At the risk of repeating myself, you only need to enable SCSI Manager 4.3 in the Turbo 601 Control Panel if you have installed a JackHammer card (or similar) to provide a second, fast, SCSI bus. Don't enable SCSI Manager 4.3 if you don't need it, because DayStar have confirmed that weird things can happen if, for example, SCSI Manager 4.3 is enabled without a JackHammer card being installed.

If you're not using SCSI Manager 4.3 you can safely delete any SCSI Manager extension that's been installed on your machine.

Note that from System 7.5.3 onwards the SCSI Manager extension functionality is integrated into the System file and that when you install System 7.5.3, or later, any SCSI Manager extension found on your machine will be deleted.

Update (30 March) - Jeff Walther writes:

I recently added a FWB/StreamLogic JackHammer with RAID ToolKit 1.8s. With SCSI Manager 4.3 enabled, and regardless of whether the JackHammer is installed, APS's Power Tools will not see any devices on the internal SCSI bus. It sees devices connected to the JackHammer just fine, but nothing on the IIci's bus. Drives that are already formatted function okay. I had a problem because I had a manual mount partition on an APS formatted disk that I soon discovered I could no longer mount, because the APS software no longer acknowledged the existence of any SCSI devices.

I have tried versions 4.0, 4.04, 4.07 and 4.09 of APS Power Tools. If I disable the JackHammer in the control panel, boot in '030 mode and disable SCSI Manager 4.3, APS PT still won't see any drives. If I remove the JackHammer but leave SCSI Manager enabled then APS PT won't see any drives. APS PT only returns to normal if I both remove the JackHammer and disable SCSI Manager 4.3.

If SCSI Manager 4.3 is enabled and the JackHammer card is not installed, then the driver for my NEC 3X CD-ROM drive will not load. It appears with a red X through it. If the JackHammer is installed, then the CD-ROM driver works fine. This is the CD-ROM driver that is based on Casa Blanca's product. It is version 5.0a. On the bright side, I have not had any trouble with my floppy drive.

Retrospect will not scan the internal bus for tape drives with the JackHammer installed. It will only scan the JackHammer bus. I have a 68 pin to 50 pin adapter cable with the top 18 pins terminated so I was able to move the tape drive to the JackHammer and there it works fine.

Retrospect sees all the hard drives on both busses for purposes of backing up from or restoring to just fine. It is only when it is scanning for a device to back up to or restore from (e.g. a tape drive) that this problem occurs. Dantz was wonderful and responded to my e-mail in a day. They called me and after a bit of diagnoses provided a fix. There is an undocumented option under the Configure window in Retrospect. By option-clicking on the Options under Configure a screen appears from which you can choose "SCSI". That gives you a box labeled "Enable Cousin ITT" which enables or when unclicked, disables use of SCSI Manager 4.3 by Retrospect.

Disabling this option, caused Retrospect to only scan my internal SCSI bus for tape drives. Since I don't intend to put any tape drives on the JackHammer bus this is just what I wanted.

BTW, when the tape drive was on the JackHammer bus, Retrospect couldn't load a driver for it, if there was a hard drive on the internal bus set to the same SCSI ID. For example, with the tape drive at ID2 on the JackHammer, and a hard disk at ID 2 on the Mac IIci bus, Retrospect couldn't load a driver for the tape drive, because it already had the hard disk driver loaded and of course that didn't work for the tape drive. This weird since they were on seperate busses. This problem goes away when the tape drive is moved to the IIci bus.

I have the following: IIci, Turbo 601/66 modified to run at 94 MHz, CPU fan stuck to the Turbo 601 heat sink, 4-4 MB SIMM's, 4-16 MB composite SIMM's (these have 32 chips each on them), a JackHammer, a Thunder IV GX 1360 sans PhotoEngine, and a Futura IISX currently installed. I have a Media Vision PAS 16 sound card, another Thunder IV GX and an Ethernet card that I occasionally use but can't install simultaneously because, tragically, I am out of slots. I usually use System 7.5.1. I have System 7.5 on another volume and I have recently installed 7.5.5 on a different drive. All three seem to work okay.

SoftWindows 95

Bill Corea reports that he ran into problems using SoftWindows 95 on his Mac IIci/Turbo 601 setup. He got the following information from Insignia Solutions

If you need to use your DayStar (accelerator), you cannot use version SW 95...at all. DayStar will only work with SW 3.0. Also, you cannot install a lower version (ver 3.0) on top of SW95...Please call Customer Service for an exchange.

David Murray uses SoftWindows on his Performa 600/Turbo 601. He sent the following info:

I find SoftWindows 3.X.X runs very reliably although it is no speed demon. Windows 3.1 is quite usable (if you like that sort of thing).

I imagine the rare problems I have...are only the same software conflicts that any Mac user will encounter.

Update (9 Jan)

Tom Cox sent the following info:

When I tried to install SoftWindows 95 on my IIci with Turbo 601, it crashed. When I then contacted Insignia Solutions, the publisher of SoftWindows 95, the tech support guy told me that there was a recognized incompatibility between their product and the Turbo 601 upgrade. He claimed that Insignia had approached DayStar a number of times, at a variety of levels up to CEO, proposing joint work to resolve the problem. Apparantly DayStar didn't respond to Insignia's approaches.

We feel we must point out that this is only one side of the story. If this true however, it's rather worrying because it seems to imply that DayStar are reluctant to embark on any engineering work required to support the Turbo 601.

Sound Problems

Stereo sound became a bit of a problem after Bronson installed the Turbo 601. Instead of the clean, crisp stereo sound that he had come to expect from his Mac, now when the computer plays stereo sounds, it sounds like a popping and clicking LP. He reckons the problem got better when he installed OS 7.5.5.

A work-around for this problem is a little extension called NoStereo. Even though it disables stereo output from your Mac, it does eliminate the clicking and popping caused by the Turbo 601. We have only tested it in Bronson's Mac IIci, but there is no reason why it shouldn't work in other configurations.

Zip Drive Software

The Iomega Driver (v4.3) caused many problems when Bronson installed OS 7.5.5. Bronson has to use the FWB removable driver if he wants to use his Zip drive under 7.5.5. There is a 4.3.2 version of the Iomega driver available, but we don't know if it fixes the problem as Bronson prefers to use the FWB driver.

Update (11 Jan) - Jubel Cheng sent the following info:

It's not ONLY a problem between Turbo 601 and the Zip software, but between Zip software and ALL MacOS CPUs. There is way around this. Rename 'Iomega Driver' by adding 2 or more spaces before the name. This generally solves the problem. BTW, the latest version of Iomega Tools is 5.0.1. It can be downloaded from the Iomega Web site, the size is about 1.26MB download.

Troubleshooting The Turbo 601

Most Commonly Asked Technical Questions

QUESTION: When I try booting off my System 7.5 Disk Tools diskette, it tells me that this disk will not work with this Macintosh. What do I do to make this work?

ANSWER: You need to build a Òbootable FloppyÓ diskette. To do this copy the System Folder from the System 7.5 Disk Tools diskette to your desktop. Eject the Disk Tools diskette and insert a new high density diskette (name this diskette ÒT601 StartupÓ). Copy the System Folder from the desktop (the one you just copied from the System 7.5 Disk Tools diskette) to the T601 Startup diskette. Copy the Turbo 601 System Enabler (which you will find located on your startup hard drive in the System Folder) to the root level of the System Folder on the T601 Startup diskette. You will now be able to use this T601 Startup diskette as a bootable floppy in Turbo 601 mode.


QUESTION: What do I do if I get the system error "Floating Point Coprocessor not installed" and then a system crash in System 7.5?

ANSWER: Clearing (or zapping) the Parameter RAM should resolve this problem. To clear the Parameter RAM press COMMAND - OPTION - P - R keys simultaneously during the complete startup sequence. Once you hear the third bong or startup sound release the pressed keys. Non-native software will not recognize the 601 FPU, nor will it look to the motherboard to see if it has one. The software will use the PowerPC 601 chipÕs emulation, which does not emulate a 68040 FPU. You will need to purchase SoftFPU (you can find information about SoftFPU on many on-line services). If you are still having this problem do a clean install of System 7.5. To do this, hold down the COMMAND - SHIFT - K keys while doing a custom install selecting ÒSystem for any MacintoshÓ. Using System Update 1.0 for System 7.5 replaces the math library with a new native math library which resolves most of these problems.


QUESTION: I upgraded from a Turbo 040 to a Turbo 601. The speed in native applications is good, but my older applications are running slower. Why?

ANSWER: A Turbo 601 66 MHz emulates at approximately the speed of a 25 MHz 68040. A Turbo 601 100 MHz emulates at approximately the speed of a 33 MHz 68040. You need to upgrade all of your software to the PowerPC native version, where possible, and check with the vendor of any 3rd party hardware to verify that the hardware is PowerPC 601 compatible in order to take full advantage of the PowerPC 601 chip.


QUESTION: I installed a DayStar Turbo 601 board and now some of my existing hardware does not work properly. What should I do?

ANSWER: Verify that your Video Board, SCSI Board, or other hardware is PowerPC 601 compatible. Contact your hardware vendor to assure PowerPC 601 firmware compatibility.


QUESTION: I am not seeing much of a performance increase with the Turbo 601 installed. What is slowing it down?

ANSWER: Make sure you are running native software and verify that it was installed for the PowerPC 601. Make sure your video board is accelerated (not just compatible) for PowerPC. Try disabling different CDEVs and INITs. Several Control Panel Devices (CDEVs) drastically reduce PowerPC performance, especially if they are non-native. Three of these files are CloseView, Easy Access and World Script. These three files were probably installed during the System 7.5 installation.


QUESTION: I am getting Type 11 and Bus errors. What should I do to correct this problem?

ANSWER: Disable all 3rd party CDEVs and INITs and restart. It may be a software conflict.


QUESTION: I am getting a bus error on boot and the dialog box tells me to restart with extensions off. I reboot holding down the shift key but I get the same error? What should I do to correct this problem?

ANSWER: Remove all NuBus boards and disconnect any external SCSI devices. If possible, use on-board video. If you still get the same error, build a bootable floppy and boot off of it. If either of these tests work then the Turbo 601 is probably working properly. The problem is either hardware or software that is not PowerPC 601 compatible. Contact your hardware/software vendor for a compatible upgrade. If you still get the same message, it may be a defective board. If within 30 days of purchase contact your dealer or contact DayStar Technical Support at 770-967-2077 for repair or replacement of the board.


QUESTION: Does the PowerPC 601 chip have an FPU?

ANSWER: Native applications are written to recognize the 601Õs FPU. If you are running native software you will have an FPU. If you are running non-native software you will NOT have an FPU because emulated software expects an 68040 FPU which is only present when running software called SoftFPU (you can find information about SoftFPU on many on-line services).


QUESTION: I installed a DayStar Turbo 601 board and now it appears that I have an INIT conflict. What should I do?

ANSWER: If you have an INIT conflict, verify that your software is PowerPC 601 compatible. Contact your software/hardware vendor for a compatible upgrade. Using non-native INITs greatly reduces system performance. If no PowerPC upgrade is available the Macintosh can be restarted in 68030 mode. This is a feature of the Turbo 601 Control Panel.


QUESTION: I installed a DayStar Turbo 601 board and now I get random system errors and system crashes. Is there something wrong with my board?

ANSWER: Probably not. Make sure System 7.5 was installed by doing a clean install. To do this, hold down the COMMAND - SHIFT - K keys while doing a custom install selecting ÒSystem for any MacintoshÓ. For details refer to Apple's manuals.


QUESTION: What is the latest version of DayStar software for Turbo 601?

ANSWER: The current version of our Turbo 601 software is version 1.1. For more details read TSB 101.


QUESTION: Norton System Info says my machine is running slower than a Quadra 605. What benchmark software should I use?

ANSWER: There are several technical issues regarding the Turbo 601 and the Norton System Info benchmark utility. For several different reasons, System Info does not report reliable benchmark information. When the emulated version of System Info is installed on pre-upgrade non-PowerPC machines, it will not perform native-mode tests on the PowerPC chip. Further, FPU results vary depending upon which version of the System 7.5 math library you have installed. Other internal problems cause Norton System Info to report less-than-real-world performance on the CPU index. DayStar recommends testing with the widely recognized MacBench 3.0 benchmark. MacBench 3.0, a product of Ziff-Davis Labs is available from the Ziff-Davis site on the World Wide Web.


QUESTION: How much of a performance gain will I see with a Turbo 601 66/100 MHz?

ANSWER We have a performance gains chart on our Faxback System showing stock machine, 68040 and 601 products. Ask for document #9030. This information is also available on our World Wide Web home page at http://www.daystar.com.


QUESTION: Do I need system 7.5?

ANSWER: Yes, because it is required for PowerPC 601 operation. System 7.5 is not included with the Turbo 601. Install System 7.5 doing a clean install. To do this, hold down the COMMAND - SHIFT - K keys while doing a custom install selecting ÒSystem for any MacintoshÓ.


QUESTION: I purchased a Turbo 601 which requires System 7.5. Doesn't System Software come with the Turbo 601?

ANSWER: No, only the PowerCard 601, PowerPro 601 40/50 MHz and PowerPro 601 50/66 MHz ship with System Software.


QUESTION: Is the Turbo 601 a NuBus board?

ANSWER: No. The Turbo 601 plugs into your PDS (processor direct slot).


QUESTION: Can I keep my ethernet or video board in a IIsi?

ANSWER: No. The Turbo 601 IIsi Adapter board plugs into the PDS of the Mac IIsi and then the Turbo 601 plugs into the only slot on the adapter board.


QUESTION: I have a Turbo 601 installed on a IIvx and I only get 256 colors in Turbo 601 mode. I get thousands of colors in 030 mode. Am I doing something wrong?

ANSWER: No, you are not doing anything wrong. There is a fix for this problem. It does require that we replace parts on the board. To accomplish this fix, contact Tech Support via fax at 770-967-3018. We will send you a form stating everything that you need to do to send the board in.


QUESTION: Is the FWB SCSI JackHammer board compatible with the Turbo 601?

ANSWER: Yes. The ÒEnable SCSI Manager 4.3Ó checkbox must be checked in the Turbo 601 Contol Panel to enable the use of the JackHammer board. Be sure to read chapter 5 of the Turbo 601 User Manual for more information.

External Links

• https://web.archive.org/web/20040411041328/http://www.brinnoven.demon.co.uk/turbo601/index.html - the basis for this page

See Also

• DayStar Digital

Small Computer System Interface

Peripheral Component Interconnect

File Transfer Protocol