>
> Ok, maybe that's only 'Really Bad'. It was still embarrassing, and
> induced a bit of stress, and certainly you don't want to have that
> happen in routine use, where you have to take the darn thing apart to
> get it going again.
A lot of people are overclocking their Newtons without realizing the
possible repercussions. The CPU used in the Newton wasn't spec'd to
220MHz, so running it that fast can create a lot of problems. At 162MHz it
already blows 500mW, at higher speeds it could use upto 1.2W and become
damaged due to heat! Power (dissipated) was a HUGE factor that was
considered when the SA110 was designed, so this isn't a minor issue. The
lifetime of a semiconductor is roughly inversely proportional to the heat,
so more heat, MUCH lower lifetime.
Secondly, the internal memory controller on the SA110 is running faster
than the Newton designers intended; all the timing parameters in the
Voyager chipset are now invalid. As a result, all sorts of problems can
occur since the 110's memory controller interfaces to the ROM, the Voyager
chipset, etc. The least harmful is a lockup because invalid data was
fetched from ROM, and among the most harmful is that writes to "Internal
store" will leave the FlashROM in an undetermined state since the FlashROM
isn't being written to properly.
These are your Newtons, feel free to do what you wish, but as an
Electrical Engineer and a hardware designer, overclocking is like playing
Russian Roulette. Also, for the record, I've worked as a design engineer
along side the StrongARM 110 and 1100 designers, and I can tell you first
hand overclocking is not something they suggest.
Thanks,
Speedy2.
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