5400: Cache

I finally found a retailer in Europe with the correct type of L2 cache addons for my nearly 30 year old Powermac 5400. Only the 256k varient - it should work with 512k and 1MB ones also, but I've never seen these for sale.

I'll try figure out how to actually compare BeRometer results files (I think everything is in BFS resources, not the file) to see what impact it had there, but general usabilty of the machine has gone up by a ridiculous amount for such a small amount of cache.

It's even more obvious in MacOS 8. I have been lead to believe that this is because the 68k emulator is too big for the L1 cache (16k instruction, 16k data according to the ever unreliable summary on Google) on the chip and the still substantial amount of 68k code in MacOS 8 results in continual paging of the emulator to/from main memory; but this is stuff I'm half-remembering from over 20 years ago now - so may be absolute bollox.

For the cost of putting the cache socket on the board, wiring it up, ensuring firmware functionality etc - it clearly would not have broken Apple to actually supply 256k of cache. Such a massive hindrance to performance, done for market segmentation reasons. This machine did ship with only 8MB RAM, of course; so that was already part of the plan.

I still want to get a Comm Slot II network card for it, to free up the solitary PCI slot for something else - I'm not sure yet, possibly USB - but these seem to be even rarer in the EU. 

Most of these online are in the US, but it is currently effectively impossible to get vintage electronics *out* of the US due to incredibly strict application of an e-waste export rule. Some are in China, but An Post are strict to the point of near impossibility on customs declarations for things coming from everywhere except the EU. I can wait longer.

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