Monthly Archives: March 2026

Amiga PPC card setup on the A4000D

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Emerson-Motorola PrPMC8005E PPC PMC card

There has been an active initative at getting some PCI cards with PPC CPUs working on Amiga systems that has PCI slots. That means it is possible to run WarpUp PPC software on Amiga with modern PPC hardware.

I have been following this project with some interest from time to time but never pulled the trigger to get the relevant hardware to get a setup going.

Partly it was because I was swamped with Amiga hardware projects, partly because PPC on 68k Amigas was not really that relevant anymore – unlike yesterday when it was the next logical step for the Amiga to evolve to.

But times change and I reconsidered that last opinion about it not being relevant when I skimmed through the supported applications a year or so ago.

Emerson-Motorola PrPMC8005E PPC card

One supported PPC card by the initative to get PPC working on PCI Amigas is the Emerson-Motorola PrPMC8005E that I was lucky to be able to pick up for a very reasonable sum on Ebay.

The PrPMC8005E-2261 contains a 450 MHz MPC7410 G4 PPC CPU and 128 MB memory. It is a PMC card and fits a PCI card that acts as a PMC carrier on the Amiga.

Originally it is not meant to be used on an Amigas at all, I think the main use is in industrial applications and in telecommunication, but exactly how and why – No idea!

Before I continue, lets look at some previous PPC setups I toyed around with a few years ago.

Previous Amiga PPC setups, time flies…

Phase 5 CyberStormPPC 233Mhz PPC / 50Mhz 68060

This was a top of the line Phase 5 turbo board that I got when I purchased an Amiga 4000D second hand in 2007. This was the top model from Phase 5 that had a 233Mhz PPC chip and a 68060 68k CPU. I had a CVPPC graphics card for it and was running SCSI. It was a fast setup but was highly complex in setting up. I spent a few days before I got it working fine. I think I paid 400 euros for the complete system.

Phase 5 BlizzardPPC 200Mhz PPC / 25Mhz 68040

Here is another Phase 5 turbo card, it is the BlizzardPPC, I remember that it had a 68040 68k CPU and a PPC clocked at 200Mhz (I think). I have forgotten where I got this card from, I guess it was in a bundle, possibly with an Amiga 1200 tower, I had the BlizzardVision graphics card for it too.

Amiga 4000D PPC setup from 2007 or so… those where the days

Here is my Amiga 4000D setup from 2007 with the CyberStormPPC installed. Not much has changed with today really, just the shape of the hardware and the amount of machines.

I got AmigaOS4 for classic PPC system and installed that. Then I played around with some software in 68k Workbench, but no matter how I twisted and turned things I felt like I had expensive hardware that I used too little and just heated up the Amiga 4000 too much – So I sold it all!

…and now I am back (never sell stuff).

PMC PPC PCI carrier board

PMC PCI carrier card for PPC module

So to use the PMC card above on the Amiga you have to add it to a PMC carrier that slots into a PCI slot. This version of the PMC carrier made by a friend in the hobby from a Discord channel we frequently visit. It has a small 40 mm fan to cool the PPC card.

PPC card fits over the PMC carrier card perfectly

The Emerson-Motorola PrPMC8005E PPC PMC card is mounted to the PMC carrier board. As you see it is a perfect fit. The 3D printed bracket has holes for ventilation.

PMC carrier and PPC card sandwiched together

As you can see, the card is really slim even though its a sandwich. The CPU on the PPC card sits under the heatsink on the left side.

Installing PPC card in Amiga 4000D

PPC card + 3DFX Voodoo 3 cards – PCI hardware setup complete

My Amiga 4000D has a Firebird PCI daughter board installed. The PPC card is inserted in the top PCI slot. The card under the PPC card is a normal 3DFX Voodoo 3 card, without it the PPC card wont work. The Voodoo 3 graphics card is the AGP version that is why the bracket is not flush with the case as there is an adaptor that converts AGP to PCI. Bottom slot contains a Multifix-AGA scandoubler.

My original plan was to use a 3DFX Voodoo 4 card but my Voodoo 4 failed to work in my setup in combination with the PPC card for some reason, thus I had to go with a Voodoo 3 instead that is better supported on the Amiga I guess.

A4000D test setup as seen from the top

Here is the setup from the top. Even with active cooling this is a hot running setup, especially with the hot running 3DFX Voodoo 3 graphics card. I wont be running long sessions with the lid on (if at all) and will possibly move the PPC/3DFX setup to a tower setup in the future to enable better cooling.

Problems with running PPC based Warp 3D software

Firebird PCI Amiga daughterboard Molex power connector

As is de-rigeur when dealing with Amiga hardware something has to be weird and strange, unexplainable or simply illogical or based on an error or fault that can not be guessed by mere mortals (or it might be me who f”d up when building something in this Amiga).

In this case everything worked fine, except Warp3D enabled PPC applications that crashed the system – All the time.

68k Warp3D applications worked fine. Non Warp3D PPC applications also ran fine. It was just PPC Warp3D applications that failed to run.

Can you guess how I fixed it? -By not running power to the Molex connector on the Firebird.

With the Molex connected, crashes.

With no Molex connected to Firebird, could run PPC GLQuake all day happily. Why? No idea.

Some demo PPC software on the Amiga

PPC was thought of as the next generation CPU for the Amiga. It was logical because both PPC and 68k was made by Motorola and 68k was not developed anymore. Motorola was not Intel which was considered Wintel and was lame and dumb.

It was a different time back then, much more fanatical, had they chosed ARM or Intel for the Amiga in the middle of the 90ies then probably half the user base would have left the Amiga community in disgust.

In hindsight PPC was maybe not the right choice, but who knew it back then. What everyone wanted was the OS, Workbench, to be fully ported to PPC.

AmigaOS4 installed on an A4000D with a CyberStormPPC

That eventually happened with AmigaOS4 around 2006 for owners of a Phase 5 PPC accelerators. Using AmigaOS4 classic was nice but limited as it only supported system friendly software, understandable as it is just like AmigaOS4 for next gen hardware.

Thus for most PPC owners, they still run Workbench on 68k CPU while the PPC CPU is just sort of a co-processor that runs PPC applications launched from the 68k Workbench when needed.

But that does not mean there are no interesting PPC software to run. You wont see them here today though as I was just trying my PPC card out with some standard software such as:

Warp3D Gears demo

Gears PPC Warp3D demo application

This is just a demo to check that Warp3D and PPC is working. Imagine the gear spinning around very smoothly.

WarpUp Voxelspace

Voxelspace PPC demo application

This is another PPC demo, the Volxelspace demo where you can travel around a voxel landscape. Hit F1 to render the voxel landscape with 060 or PPC and see the impressive speed up with it running on the PPC CPU.

PPC GLQuake

GLQuake running on PPC, really fast!

Off course, the raison d’être for having hi-end Amiga systems – trying out Quake on it for 15 seconds and then doing something else.

Links

Here are some links about PPC on the Amiga:

N2630 Amiga 68030 CPU card metal bracket

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N2630 metal bracket

N2630 is a great 68030 CPU card you can build yourself for the Amiga 2000 or A2000EATX project. You can find more information about the N2630 project on the website here.

N2630 CPU card with 3D-printed bracket (that has a part broken off)

There is a model for a bracket for the N2630 that you can 3D print. I did that but it was too flimsy and eventually broke in two pieces.

I was planning on ordering a 3D metal print of the bracket from JLC but heard of arymanx on Amibay who had made a small batch of metal brackets for the CPU card. In this hobby, you have to act fast, or the chance might never come up again so in less than a week a shiny metal N2630 Amiga 030 CPU card bracket arrived to me from UK.

If you are interested in a metal bracket for the N2630 too, feel free to contact arymanx directly about it on AmiBay.

Another view of the N2630 metal bracket.

Its just a bracket, but is a great reminder of that it is the small details that makes a DIY build great.

Metal bracket mounted on to the N2630, my A2000EATX is in the background.

I mounted the bracket to the N2630 with two screws and nuts. The nuts got a drop of blue Loctite to hold them secure. Fitment was excellent.

Back of my A2000EATX. One slot left for a NIC.

Not only does it hold the card better in the case it also looks better.

Pay no attention to the nut wedged between bracket and case. The CPU slot I used when building my A2000EATX motherboard was taller than a regular CPU slot used on the Amiga 2000 making the CPU card sit further out from the motherboard.

Installing 3DFX Voodoo 4 in Amiga 4000D with Firebird PCI daughterboard

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Amiga 4000D setup for PCI card installation and test run

Here is my Amiga 4000D with PCI slots. It has an Firebird daughterboard that has PCI slots, Zorro slots and one video slot. More information about the Firebird PCI boards here.

Firebird PCI daughter board for Amiga 4000D

This is an older picture of my Firebird PCI daughterboard with no cards mounted to it to get a better look at it. This was before it was fully built, that is why it only has one PCI slot.

I tried PCI on the Amiga years ago on my A1200 with a Mediator A1200LT – I was not sold on the concept as I felt the performance was lacking. Since then I wanted to give PCI on the Amiga a fair chance again and so I had to get the Firebird to try out PCI on a big box Amiga properly!

3DFX Voodoo4 PCI

Here is a 3DFX Voodoo 4 PCI graphics cad I got years ago, back when they sold for a reasonable sum. It has spent close to 15 years in storage. Along the way it got a capacitor knocked off (that I am pointing on). I replaced the capacitor, added a heatsink and fan to it and hoped that it would still work.

Amiga 4000D with PCI cards, Zorro cards and a video slot card

Here is a closeup of the Amiga 4000D with the Firebird PCI board holding the Voodoo4 PCI card and a PMC carrier holding a PPC card. I will make a separate post about the PPC card in the top slot in the future. The other cards you see is a purple Multifix-AGA, GottaGoFaZt3r and a CPLDICY.

Testing Voodoo 4 PCI RTG output in Workbench with HippoPlayer

…aaaaand surprise, the 3DFX Voodoo4 PCI graphics card worked!! Installation went really smooth even if it was not a simple point and click installation.

Looking at the cards listed on the PCI bus

There is only so much time on the weekend so I ran out of time installing the PPC card, hopefully I will look into it next time. I will also need to set up an automatic switcher between RTG and scandoubled output. As usual, you are never done in this hobby….