The PowerBook G3s had socketed CPUs which allowed even upgrading to a 1ghz G4. Could a card possibly be made with an FPGA to simulate an even faster processor while also allowing more RAM to be installed?
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Question about G3 PowerBook potential
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An FPGA is not needed for more RAM - at least up to two GB. Dosdude made a guide on how to add more RAM to Power PC laptops. Anything above around 1.6 GB is not useable in OS 9, to the best of my knowledge, so OS X would be the only reason to even want a full 2 GB.
The difference is that the RAM sockets are built into the processor card on the PB G3.
Not all the RAM sockets are built into the processor card on all Powerbook G3s.
This guide points out that on the Lombard one RAM slot is not on the processor card. https://lowendmac.com/2008/upgrading-your-lombard-powerbook-g3/
It still seems as though the method outlined by dosdude to add more RAM should work with only some adjustments - that mod was done on a G4 upgraded Ibook G3.
At the very least, it seems like it’s certainly possible to make reproduction processor cards that run at a (relative for a G3) decent speed in the near future. Not necessarily an "upgrade" but a replacement in case a processor fails.
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7400s and 7410s will fit on the daughter boards, if they're soldered on. I have a Pismo with a 7410 running at 550MHz. That's about the highest you'll get on one of these. I have no idea if creating a board that will fit a 7450 would even work. I feel like that would also involve some ROM and firmware changes.
Dosdude1 is the guy to ask about this.
Dosdude1 is the guy to ask about this.
UTM showing a 4.25 Ghz G4 gives me ideas for an alternative, but idk fs how to implement them. A board (maybe a Pi 5 Compute Module) would have to emulate the processor core and be able to communicate with the G3's components.
Emulating a 68k CPU like in the case of the PiStorm is much faster than the real CPUs, but I think that PPC emulation is too slow even on faster ARM hardware for reasonable gains, at least for now. My Mac Studio M1 beats my DLSD 17" in integer operations but it falls short on FPU right now.
A Pi 5 would have a lot more trouble with this but regardless I'd actually want to see a Pi strapped to a daughter board on a processor board
A Pi 5 would have a lot more trouble with this but regardless I'd actually want to see a Pi strapped to a daughter board on a processor board
Tried this on my M4 mini, got similar results against my DLSD: integer is overwhelmingly higher, floating point not so much. Though the difference in floating point is what I'd consider negligible for most tasks.
We could have emulation completely stronger than a G4 in our time. Maybe not quite G5s though. Especially with still broken multi-core.
We could have emulation completely stronger than a G4 in our time. Maybe not quite G5s though. Especially with still broken multi-core.
The Wallstreet/PDQ, Lombard and Pismo have a second memory slot on the bottom of the processor daughtercard. There is no soldered-in-place RAM on these models. The "Kanga" G3 and the 3400C have soldered RAM along side an additional user-accessible memory slot.
The article you're referencing mentions this in Step 7 (remove daughtercard) and Step 8 (remove and replace memory module).