Good to know. Please let me know if there is any important information, but as soon as my Syncro030/S is shipped out and arrives to me and I will try it out!
Synchr030/S 256MB SDRAM Accelerator for the SE/30
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I already had a sidebar going with this user predating this thread, but I will lay it out here in more detail. This is uncharted territory, I do not have a Synchr030 to test with and only performed some testing with the booster while I had one on loan. I don't recall if I tried Synchr030 with a 30Video card or any other combination thereof.
There's a few other things to unpack here, so I'll clarify in no particular order.
In general, any more than 1 card in a SE/30 (whether it's located in PDS or CPU socket) is not a guaranteed to work scenario. Most combinations of two cards are fine, but 3 card configurations are a wildcard. The only 3 card configuration I'll say definitely works is Bolle Riser + Carrera/Powercache/Turbo040 + 30Video (any model).
There are a few requirements of any card with a passthrough slot in order to improve compatibility with additional cards and accelerators. One of those is buffering of the system clock for downstream cards as the SE/30 system clock is weak to begin with and with multiple cards it degrades badly. I do this on all of my boards with passthrough slots that use the system clock signal.
Booster configurations: Accelerators should be located as close to the logic board as possible. In this case that's definitely the preferred option here as that arrangement will allow the booster to buffer the clock for the Synchro and any other cards downstream. I don't believe that clock buffering is done on the Synchr030, so that's part of the reason I think that strong pull up resistor on the clock can allow the booster on top configuration to work. From what I found all clocks were stable on my board and had the expected phase relationships, so the exact mechanism of action with the resistor is unclear here (however I don't know what requirements/tolerances the Synchr030 has).
My stance on the clock pull up: If the resistor works for you, great, it's probably fine but it's not something I "bless" as a supported way to make that configuration always work especially as why it helps is not known.
30Video cards are not clones, they are a scratch designed board and driver I created last year. The HC and SI cards do not depend on or use the system clock and should be immune from any issues with it. The GS card does use the system clock, if no other clock in the system buffers the clock signal the GS card should be first in the stack to allow it to do so. Anything but that is an untested/non-recommended configuration. Not to say it can't work, but if any issues occur/system instability (well, beyond the usual for Mac OS) that's a possible root cause.
The 30Video cards are very compatible (I've never run into a scenario where they don't co-exist with another board of any type) so I would not expect an issue with Synchr030 itself, keeping in mind the 1-card-per-system intended spec for these systems. The 30Video cards are all fairly closely related so where one works, I would expect the other models to also work. I am aware that it's been tested with the Synchr030 at least a couple of times in the GS version as seen above. I don't know if anyone is running a finished setup with a Synchr30+30Video though.
There's a few other things to unpack here, so I'll clarify in no particular order.
In general, any more than 1 card in a SE/30 (whether it's located in PDS or CPU socket) is not a guaranteed to work scenario. Most combinations of two cards are fine, but 3 card configurations are a wildcard. The only 3 card configuration I'll say definitely works is Bolle Riser + Carrera/Powercache/Turbo040 + 30Video (any model).
There are a few requirements of any card with a passthrough slot in order to improve compatibility with additional cards and accelerators. One of those is buffering of the system clock for downstream cards as the SE/30 system clock is weak to begin with and with multiple cards it degrades badly. I do this on all of my boards with passthrough slots that use the system clock signal.
Booster configurations: Accelerators should be located as close to the logic board as possible. In this case that's definitely the preferred option here as that arrangement will allow the booster to buffer the clock for the Synchro and any other cards downstream. I don't believe that clock buffering is done on the Synchr030, so that's part of the reason I think that strong pull up resistor on the clock can allow the booster on top configuration to work. From what I found all clocks were stable on my board and had the expected phase relationships, so the exact mechanism of action with the resistor is unclear here (however I don't know what requirements/tolerances the Synchr030 has).
My stance on the clock pull up: If the resistor works for you, great, it's probably fine but it's not something I "bless" as a supported way to make that configuration always work especially as why it helps is not known.
30Video cards are not clones, they are a scratch designed board and driver I created last year. The HC and SI cards do not depend on or use the system clock and should be immune from any issues with it. The GS card does use the system clock, if no other clock in the system buffers the clock signal the GS card should be first in the stack to allow it to do so. Anything but that is an untested/non-recommended configuration. Not to say it can't work, but if any issues occur/system instability (well, beyond the usual for Mac OS) that's a possible root cause.
The 30Video cards are very compatible (I've never run into a scenario where they don't co-exist with another board of any type) so I would not expect an issue with Synchr030 itself, keeping in mind the 1-card-per-system intended spec for these systems. The 30Video cards are all fairly closely related so where one works, I would expect the other models to also work. I am aware that it's been tested with the Synchr030 at least a couple of times in the GS version as seen above. I don't know if anyone is running a finished setup with a Synchr30+30Video though.
Yes, I forgot to mention that I had talked to you. I'm so sorry about that!
Thanks for the in-detail explanation, that is very good to know. I will let everyone know if it works and if not, what issues I am having. Thank you so much to everyone who is contributing over here, I can't stress enough how cool this forum is!
Thanks for the in-detail explanation, that is very good to know. I will let everyone know if it works and if not, what issues I am having. Thank you so much to everyone who is contributing over here, I can't stress enough how cool this forum is!