68000 vs. 68010 CPU performance

The 68010 is a fully compatible drop-in replacement for the 68000, with a few extra features and slightly better performance.

In case you always wondered how much of a speed gain the 68010 would be over the 68000 here are the hard facts as given by classic Amiga benchmarking tool SysInfo:

MC68000 at 7.09 Mhz: 528 Dhrystones

MC68010 at 7.09 MHz: 547 Dhrystones

That's an increase of 3.6%.

Tested on Amiga 500 rev. 6a, 512KB ChipRAM, SysInfo 4.4.

Note that this is a generic SysInfo speed test. Using optimized code in a real-life application, 68010 potentially has a bigger margin over the 68000.

Support the APECAT

An interesting little project by Norwegian developer Stian Søreng, the APECAT - short for "Amiga Processor Expansion Card for Application Transfer" - aims to enable you to upload data directly to your Amiga's memory.

The APECAT - a successor of the "68k Sandwich" (see "Sources" below) - is quite a simple circuit board, using an ATmega128 controller, that sits between the Amiga 500's mainboard and the MC68000 CPU. Being able to use a PC computer and this board to "inject" software directly to the Amiga's RAM would hugely simplify a software developer's work, and also has a lot of potential for retro gamers.

BUT! It doesn't work yet. So far things look promising, but there are still a few issues to iron out - so Stian Søreng asks for YOUR help!

If you're an Amiga hardware / assembler guru maybe you can contribute?

Go to his blog site and project page for more information:
http://jmp.no/blog/work-in-progress-apecat

Sources:
http://jmp.no/blog/a-68-sandwich
https://amiga-news.de/de/news/AN-2019-03-00035-DE.html