Please see my post from a few pages back regarding Motorola/Freescale legacy part numbering.
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G4 7448 and 7457 swap
- Thread starter JoyBed
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Direct from NXP’s web site:
The part numbering qualification appears to follow very similar conventions across the entire product line, including our legacy PPC processors.
I have also sometimes seen brief explanations of these qualifications in the individual product datasheets.
Hey @JoyBed thanks for your contribution, maybe dosdude1 can help too.
I have a brand new, preballed Motorola HX1700LD like yours in picture.
As far as I can understand the DLSD have native support for 7448. But what about the previous?
My one is a PowerBook5,7 - A1107 - which has the screen from a DLSD and 7447 overclocked to 1.83ghz.
Would love to know if it's natively supported so to swap cpus..
Thanks!
It is indeed, though the BootROM will need to be patched. The DLSD is the only PowerBook with native 7448 support. I have a custom version of Flashrom for Linux with added definitions for the flash chips used in these PPC Macs, which can be found here: http://dosdude1.com/files/flashrom/flashromppc.zip
I recommend running under Ubuntu Mate 16.04. With Flashrom, you can dump your BootROM, send it to me, I can patch it for you, and send it back for you to flash on. Remember to boot the machine with a long-hold of power button, to allow access to EEPROM from OS for flashing/reading.
It doesnt say anything about the PowerPC CPUs our Macs use tho, the legacy part is talking about power management devices.
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Hello, I am interested in a 7448 at 1.7GHz. Is there a possibility of purchasing one? I send you a message?
I have a Mac OS X version of flashrom at https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...in-a-beige-power-macintosh-g3.2303689/page-32
It has two methods (or "programmers") for reading the ROM: "anymem" and "internal".
1) Try "anymem" first. That should work on any Mac without using the long-hold of the power button at boot. I used it with my B&W G3.
2) Then try "internal". Then compare the results. The "internal" method is probably suitable for G4s and later. It causes my B&W G3 to hang because it requires more code to read the flash (some extra registers need to be set).
Hello, the Mac Mini works fine at 2GHz:I look forward to the 2Ghz attemptI think I have only ever seen one Mac Mini G4 hit 2Ghz, and that was with a massive heatsink coming out the top of it, I guess they managed to keep it cool enough to stop it tripping the OCP...
I do really want see what could be done with a 7448 now the OCP has been figured, if you use a Last gen Mac Mini G4, PowerMac10,2 then you dont need to worry about firmware patching, as the 4.9.x firmware supports the 7448 natively
you will need an NVRAMRC script to boot MacOS, but thats not too hard to do
"fastest" flash, and using a pencil to overclock.
Another huge update: I FULLY FIXED the NVRAMRC script, and it can now be loaded on boot automatically without issue! I have attached a text file containing the updated script; just set it as NVRAMRC using Terminal in Mac OS. Then you should be able to set use-nvramrc? to true as well, and the...forums.macrumors.com
I wonder if one could find a copper heatsink with the same fin-stack density as the original, for maximum improved cooling?
More details at:
https://rosysumenteinquieta.blogspot.com/2024/04/mac-mini-g4-2ghz.html
Hello, I have not purchased any 7448 yet, I am waiting for a response from @JoyBed.
I hope to encourage more people to convert their Minis to 2GHz. Could it work at 2.08GHz???
Hey Dosdude and Joybird.... Have either of you played around with a 604e daughter card from a 8600/9600? I'm curious as to what the limit of CPU swap there is with the 604 chips. Also either of you interested in cranking up the speed on my Hi-Res PowerBook?
Hi Jeeptrail. If you're trying to get someone's attention on here, what you need to do is add an "@" in front of their username, like so: @dosdude1 , @JoyBed . After what I just did there, they'll be notified they were mentioned here, so maybe they'll drop in and answer your query. Welcome to the forums!
@Raging Dufus I appreciate the heads up on that. Long time PPC user and tinkerer but little time spent on forums lol
Someone shoved me here to say I have a couple 7448s in case anyone needs some.
Model is MPC7448Hx1700LB so 1.7GHz
Dosdude1 has fact-based real-world statistics but from a sample size of 1: the binning is good on the 7448s.
The 1 sample made for a stable 2GHz MDD.
Apologies for the super late reply, life chores always keeps us busy. And thank you for the pointers!
In the meanwhile I’ve acquired another A1107 with a hi res modded screen as they’re a piece of cake to mess with frequency and voltage, although this has power issues so once that will be fixed I’ll be dumping my rom.
My other a1107 still running sweet at 1.83ghz 🔥
But how compatible would OSX 10.5.8 on a PowerPC be with a more modern PowerPC CPU? I mean, trying to find a 7448 and adapt it to a PowerBook is quite a task, maybe the community could come together to create something like the ThinkPad community created for their ThinkPads: A completely new and modern motherboard that fits perfectly into the old laptop.
I hope this isn't too off topic, but these discussions take years, and little progress is made, devices with 7448 processors are becoming rare and expensive, maybe we should look in another direction...
I hope this isn't too off topic, but these discussions take years, and little progress is made, devices with 7448 processors are becoming rare and expensive, maybe we should look in another direction...