[Steph]

After Sine started the thread on Newton overclocking, and after tinkering with my MP2100, I've also had a go at my Emate:

I use the Emate very infrequently, just for occasional use as a terminal to access the Linux server at work (with PT100 and a PCMCIA 56k modem).

I ran into a snag pretty quickly, the copper traces on the Emate motherboard are more fragile than those on the MP2100, and in trying to remove the original crystal, I tore both traces right off the board. Eeek! Luckily enough remained for me to tack some solder to, and I got some very fine wire on the traces, then 'sealed' it with hot-melt glue to keep it secure. From there it was pretty easy. The Emate is nice in that it has gobs of wasted space inside. I stuck the new 5MHz crystal and a 3.6864 MHz crystal on the side of the metal PCMCIA shield, along with a normal-sized slide-switch to change speeds.

My Emate has the memory-upgrade card in it, and for some reason after you remove all power for a while, it sometimes takes forever to reboot, and then when it does it's erased all it's flash memory. This can be very disconcerting, that long wait, to find out if it's dead or not. Eventually though, it came back to life.

I used the software available from Pixsolutions (Implant) to test the speed-up. Now, this software thinks that it's in an MP130, so the initial reading was wrong. Before I started, the speed was given at 20MHz. Afterwards, it was rated at 27MHz. The Emate was originaly 25MHz in actual fact, and by my calculations, the clock should now be 33.9 MHz. Whatever it is, it certainly seems faster, it is much snappier when used. The ethernet card does not work though when sped-up. However, my 56k PCMCIA modem does still work. I didn't try the built-in serial port though. Sound is sped up (like chipmunks).

Even the slide-switch works, when going from one speed to another, the screen 'flickers' once and then it's done. I'm changing speeds while the unit is on, nothing is running except the backdrop (Avi's).

Due to the fragility of the parts in question and the surface-mount componants, I wouldn't recommend this for the faint-of-heart. There were about 3 occasions when I thought I'd really killed my Emate.

--Stephanie

[WL2100]

Cool good work Steph!!!

------------------
!ooW ÷)

[Paul Guyot]

The problem with PC-Cards and their compatibility with an overclocked Newton isn't hardware, it's software. Indeed, the PC-Cards are not clocked by the host AFAIK. However, they get signals from the host, and the host must follow the specs for the timings and so on. The ATA Support package is written to support a time unit of 1/5.01 which is slightly higher than the MP1x0 time unit (200 ns) and just what's required for an accelerated MP2x00 at 220 MHz (it should work with an accelerated eMate as well).

But this isn't true with every software. I tried to look how to hack the driver of the Farallon to make it support the card with the accelerator on, but since, I have nuked my Newton and I haven't installed the accelerator on the brand new MP2100 yet (I'm using the serial port a lot for low-level debugging, and also, I was a little bit traumatized by the ease with which I killed two units).

Paul

------------------
Newton Evangelist and developer:
http://www.kallisys.com/newton/

[Steph]

Thanks for that information Paul, that stuff is good to know. I hadn't really put much thought into -why- the ethernet card wasn't working, just noting that it didn't. With the switch in there, it's not a big deal to down-shift to use NIE then gear-up again for other things. I've since noticed one other peculiarity, occasionaly when in accellerated mode, the modem card is not recognized when it's inserted. Again it isn't a big deal, just slow down, insert the card, then speed up again, and the card still works.

I'm planning to put pictures and details up on a web page in the (hopefully) near future. I'm insanely busy with work at the moment though.

Sorry to hear about your dead Newts. I use my Emate infrequently enough that while I'd be sad if it died, I could live without it. My MP2100 though, I really depend on. I don't want to have to go back to my Visor.

-Stephanie