READ THIS FIRST!!! This document contains important information on the installation and use of this software.
Afterburner 3.0
The
overclocking and performance enhancement utility for the Palm. The tool that
meets your need for speed!
Older
Palm IIIs and some Palm VIIs and other models using non-EZ CPU's are now
supported but with a reduced feature set.
If
you are having problems, please read through the issues at the end of this
file. The answer to your problem might be there.
|
3.0k |
Reduced
overhead required in implementation of Gray LCD. More efficient now. Added
separately defineable grayscale LCD/n setting. |
|
3.0j |
Tweaked
clock settings for more precide baudrate generation. Fixed a bug in the Adjust
Ticks so that now system frequency is also preserved when Adjust Ticks is not
selected. This has some impact with some serial and IR compatibility at
certain frequencies when this option was not selected. |
|
3.0i |
Added
silent notify feature by flashing LCD on speed change (for non-color LCDs
only.) |
|
3.0h |
Fixed
bug in Norm button. The LCD/n checkbox function was inverted, now corrected.
Added option for Grayscale LCD/n setting in registered version (for AvantGo
and grayscale issues) |
|
3.0g |
Now
works properly for older Palms running non-EZ CPU's. Added 23MHz stepping for
older Palms optimal speed. Fixed LClk/2 so that it actually works. Was not
working before. Fixed faulty "Norm" button. Note: After installing, remember
to adjust all your speeds up a notch. In particular LClk/2 would now be at
22MHz if it was previously at 24MHz. Set it back to 24MHz and save that. |
|
3.0f |
Added
option for forcing LCD/n to 1 when going below 16MHz. This will reduce screen
flicker at low speeds. Removed options for CS0 and CS4 as these don't seem to
do anything useful. Added non-EZ CPU compatibility (preliminary)! Fixed error
when leaving Speeds panel by means other than OK or Cancel button. Changed
app name from "Afterburner Hack" to "AfterBurner Hack".
Improved serial behaviour? Hope this doesn't break IR support. Addressed a
Hackmaster bug that resulted in strange exceptions after Afterburner was
disabled under some conditions. VERY
IMPORTANT:
Delete 3.0e or any previous 3.0 versions BEFORE installing 3.0f. |
|
3.0e |
Removed
useless LCD-ws option. Added LCD/n which gives up to an additional 8 or 9%
boost in speed, in addition to StreakHack functionality as a side-effect. Note: If installing over
previous versions, please make sure LCD-ws was set to 0 before installing new
one. Failure to do so may lead to wrong contrast, correctible by setting
LCD/n back to a low value of 0 to 4. Alternatively, try setting LCD/n to 1
BEFORE activating 3.0e for the first time after installing. After making the
change, you need to exit Hackmaster (with Afterburner enabled for it to take
effect.) |
|
3.0d |
Fixed
a possible memory leak problem. Added checks for non-EZ CPU's and for OSes
lower than 3.1. Also implemented more thorough clean-up for the config
panels. |
|
3.0c |
Fixed
a problem identifying the IIIc. Also improved the serial routine to provide
broader support. |
|
3.0b |
LCD-ws
now correct defaults to 7 and LClk/2 correct defaults to 24MHz now. |
|
3.0a |
Released
but a minor bug that affected Hotsync crept in. This release fixes that
Hotsync problem. |
|
3.0 |
Original
release. |
Following
from the tremendous popularity of Afterburner 2.0 and 2.2, we all awaited something
that will follow for the newer PalmOS, such as the OS 3.3 and now OS 3.5.
However, the original author Jean-Paul Gavini, had not made any plans to pursue
this project further, and so I began looking into this project. Initially, I
only patched some of the versions to fix some problems and make it compatible
with the newer OSes that were in use.
However,
after a short while, it became obvious that such a course of action would be
severely limited in its possibilities. So, I began re-coding Afterburner 3.0,
from ground up in assembly language, with Gavini's permission. Doing this
allowed me to now add a host of new features that were not previously there in
the earlier versions. I have preserved some of the "look" of the
original Afterburner as it didn't seem necessary to re-invent the wheel.
So,
after weeks of coding, we now have Afterburner 3.0. This version supercedes all
the 2.3 versions that I was working on before this.
This
is essentially a performance enhancement utility for Palm's with OS 3.1 and
upwards. It does this by various means, including raising the frequency of the
internal clock and reducing system wait-states, among other things. On a Palm
Vx, for example, I can see a performance of 288% in relation to a regular Palm
III.
It
is highly recommended that you backup your data with something like BackupBuddy
before trying this out just in case anything should go awfully wrong. Most of
the time you won't have to worry about anything more than a soft reset.
Here's
a list of features of what is new in Afterburner 3.0 that was not found in the
previous (2.x) versions:-
All
these, and everything that was previously offered:-
In
short, I've thrown in everything I can think of that I might want in an
overclocking utility in an effort to make this the premiere, economical and
top-performing overclocking tool for your Palm.
I
have also decided to make this thing shareware, again with Gavini's knowledge
and clearance. This is only a mere $8, just to make up for the many long nights
I’ve put into this thing. The shareware version does not include GoType, IR,
Serial port compatibility but has everything else. You still end up with more
than what you got in Afterburner 2.x.
In other words, if you are using an unregistered version, you can
expect your IR beaming to not be working at any speed other than normal (16MHz
or 20MHz depending on your machine.) Likewise for the serial port with modems
and other peripherals such as keyboards, etc.
In
addition, there are now a number of features that are available only in the
registered version. I will also continue to add more features to the registered
version but bug fixes will be reflected on both registered and unregistered
versions.
The
registered version will also automatically report your machine's normal clock
speed in the titlebar of the configuration screen. In the unregistered version,
this only shows the "Unregistered" message in the titlebar.
To
register, please go to:-
http://store.yahoo.com/pilotgearsw/danielwee.html
Or
you can go to http://www.palmgear.com
and do a search for Afterburner 3.0. I appreciate your registration. Gives me incentive
to work at this utility. All future upgrades will be free for registered users.
Registering will help me justify my
aching back from the hours of coding and debugging that went into re-writing
Afterburner. J
If
you have registered with PalmGear, you would have received a password to
download the registered version. Whenever I come up with a new version, I
always send PalmGear a copy of the latest registered version for download. You
can use your password and download that copy once they have put it up. However,
this uploading is a manual process on PalmGear's administrative side and it may
not show up as quickly as the unregistered version which is done immediately by
myself.
If
you are downloading an older version, you may want to wait a little while and
try again in a day. Usually it won't take longer than that for PalmGear to
upload the new file. You can always check your version by looking at the
titlebar of the configuration panel of the hack.
Many
people have been overclocking their Palm and to date I have not heard of any
instance where the hardware was actually damaged as a result of overclocking.
You might see greater battery drainage if you run at the highest speeds settings
for long periods. I am almost certain that damage is not possible up to about
26MHz and I've been running at 28MHz for as long as I've played with these
things.
Having
said that however, I must insist that you use this application at your own
risk. This particular version allows you to make some serious tweaks that could
upset performance (but nothing that cannot be cured by a simple soft-reset). I
will not overclock sensitive operations, such as Flash programming (FlashPro, JackFlash, etc.) too
aggressively although I’ve not had problems doing so in the past. Just be
careful.
Make
sure you delete any instances of Afterburner Hack and AfterburnerII from your
system before installing this Hack. They cannot co-exist with Afterburner 3.0. You
might also want to remove CruiseControl as well since you won't be needing it
anymore. The functionality is provided for in Afterburner. (You also won’t need
StreakHack, NoStreakHack, NoWaitZ, Steroid, Tornado_V either) Also, check that
Afterburner DB is also removed from the system as well as the new database is
not totally compatible with previous databases. You will want to disable Afterburner Hack in Hackmaster before
doing any deletion or you might experience a fatal error.
Having
done that, make sure you have Hackmaster installed (if you don't already have
it), and then install Afterburner Hack.
Perform
a Hotsync operation to get the Hack into your Palm. Check the titlebar in the Configuration
panel after installation to make sure that you have the correct version
installed.
Before
you activate the hack from Hackmaster, click on the "+" on the
right of the listing in Hackmaster. This will bring up a configuration screen.
Nothing you change on this screen will be committed until you click
"OK". If at any time you should change your mind, just click
"Cancel" and you will be back where you started.
It
is highly recommended that Afterburner be the first hack to be activated in
your list of hacks if you have more than one installed. Disable ALL your hacks
and then activate Afterburner Hack first. Then check out all the configuration
and Speeds panel to make sure all is in order. Then enable your other hacks one
by one.
Doing this will avoid installation order conflicts later on.
The
"Norm" button will set the clock speed back to your machine's normal
setting. This works whether the Hack is active or not. The purpose of this is
more as a fall-back feature in case things are not going well for you. For
example, you might have deactivated Afterburner, but your machine is stuck in a
different speed setting that prevents Hotsyncing. This should not happen under
normal circumstances, but if it does happen, you could try pressing this
button. Usually, you would do this after the hack has been deactivated.
The
"Speeds" button will bring you to a screen where you can select the
speed you want for individual applications. Again, the changes made will only
be committed if you choose the "OK" button. Cancelling will send you
back to the Hackmaster listing.
It
seems that under some conditions, it may be necessary to uncheck all the other
hacks you have in Hackmaster and start with Afterburner. If you are
experiencing unusual errors in Afterburner, please uncheck all your other hacks
and then activate only Afterburner to see if there is a problem. If there is
none, you can re-enable the other hacks one by one. There is a good chance that
this procedure will resolve some of the unusual errors that you may experience.
I am still looking into why this is the case.
If
you need to remove the hack if you don't have OS3.5 or higher, you will need
some database management utility since hacks don't show up in the Applications
delete list. If you have FlashPro installed, you can use that to delete the
Hack. Otherwise, you might want to look into a utility like Z'Catalog or
FPSUtil and other similar utilities. This is not a bug but a limitation of the
Palm's built-in delete utility. With OS3.5 you can just delete it from the
Applications delete utility.
Before you try deleting the hack, please make sure that it is
already de-activated. Similarly, if you are going to Hotsync a newer version of the hack
over an existing installation, you MUST de-activate it in Hackmaster
first or you will get a Fatal Exception.
First
of all, please note that for non-EZ CPU's, the following options will NOT
appear on your configuration panel as they are related only to EZ machines. The
hardware just isn't there. The EZ-specific features are:-
Palm
IIIe, IIIx, IIIxe, IIIc, V, Vx, VII (some), Visor, Workpads, have EZ CPUs.
Older ones such as the Pilot 1000, 5000, Pro, Palm III and the like use non-EZ
CPUs.
You
can get a brief description of the options by tapping on the "i" info
icon at the top right of the configuration panel. The options are as follows:-
|
0-ws
Core |
Sets
zero waitstates for CPU core operations. This is one of the major ways to
boost performance and is a recommended option. CruiseControl also sets
this. |
|
Fast
Page |
Sets
zero waitstates in the Fast Page mode operations. This will yield a very
minimal performance boost (1%). |
|
Slow
RAM |
This
option actually adds waitstates to RAM accesses for slow RAM. It will lead to
a slightly lower performance but this might be useful if dealing with
unstability at very high speeds. Leave this off normally unless you are
really pushing it above 30MHz. |
|
Fast
Mpx |
Fast
multiplexing mode yields a major performance boost and is a recommended
setting. CruiseControl also sets this option. |
|
Notify
on |
Fast Audible alert when changing speeds Normal Audible alert when returning to normal speed Slow Audible alert when slowing down below normal speed The
checkbox next to Notify allows for silent notification. This will flash the
LCD instead of making a sound during speed change. This feature won't work
for color LCDs though. |
|
Default |
This
allows you to choose your default speed setting. Applications are normally set
to this speed by default. If you don't have Afterburner DB yet (because you
have not gone into the relevant panel), all apps will default to this speed. |
|
Find |
Like
above but applies only to the built-in Find function. Keep is the recommended
setting for this. |
|
LCD/n |
Sets
the divider for LCD pixel clock. The higher the divider the lower the pixel
rate and system CPU loading. This can boost overall performance of CPU up to
8 or 9% on certain machines. StreakHack does this too. Has the side effect of
affecting contrast in the same way StreakHack does. Default value is 1 or
2. (With this, you won't be needing StreakHack) You may have to adjust
your contrast. You should play with this to get the best combination
between the best performance and a flicker free display. Use the contrast
setting to compensate for contrast changes. |
|
Accel |
Sets
the battery conditions at which speed change is allowed. Set to "Always"
by default. You can specify that overclocking only be allowed when the
battery is above a certain percentage level. |
|
Slow |
This
allows you to select battery conditions whereby your Palm will automatically
be clocked at 10MHz to conserve power. |
|
LClk/2 |
This
sets the frequency at and above which the LCD pixel clock is halved. This defaults
to 24MHz and your should normally NOT mess with this one as it can
produce weird screen corruption problems. For experimenters. Otherwise, just
leave this alone!!!! |
|
Adjust
Ticks |
This
will adjust the system ticks timer so as to maintain a constant and correct
tick rate regardless of your clock settings. This should normally be set
unless you want the ticks to run faster. Games, for example, and some timing
applications may depend on these ticks so it is best to leave it activated. Recommended
setting. |
|
Gray |
This
will automatically set LCD/n to selected value when in grayscale mode. If “Off”
is selected, then the feature is disabled. This can be used to reduce
flickering in apps that suffer from it, eg. AvantGo. |
Note: Changing these options will
not cause them to take effect immediately. They will come into effect when you
launch any app after leaving Hackmaster.
The
lowest speed setting allowed by this program is 10MHz, which can be quite
sluggish to use. Normally, you would choose slower speeds in interest of
conserving battery power, say on a long trip away from home for example.
Afterburner
3.0 will automatically detect your normal clock speed, which can be either
16MHz or 20MHz, depending on your machine and what modifications you may have
applied to it.
The
normal top speed, corresponding to the "Fastest" setting in previous
Afterburner versions, is 29MHz. Above this, your CPU PLL may not lock
reliably and you may get fluctuating Benchmark results, leading also to
irregular baud-rate generation and hence un-reliable serial and IR
operations (including GoType keyboards). However, some of the newer CPU's may
have some luck at the highers speeds. I would only recommend the higher speeds
for experimentation, and for this I have included options up to 32MHz.
Remember, you may not see anything better than 29MHz and you should stay below
that for reliable performance.
For
older Palms, running at above 23MHz might lead to problems or resets. Make sure
you backup before pushing the clock speeds.
Note
also that IR performance may be better at certain frequencies than others. This
is due to the way the baud rate for the IR unit is being generated. Play around
to see what works best. On some machines, this tops out at 24MHz, on others it
is 26MHz. You just have to try and see.
Norm
|
This
will be the detected normal speed for your machine, either 16MHz or 20MHz
depending on the model. |
|
Keep
It |
What
this does is that it just maintains whatever speed was in effect at the time of
launching this app. So if you set app B to Keep It and were running app A
(say the launcher) at 24MHz, just before running app B, app B will keep that
24MHz speed setting. |
|
Default |
This
will use whatever was selected as default speed in the configuration panel.
Most apps should be set to this speed for the greatest convenience. |
The
performance index used in this document is taken from the Benchmark utility by Neal
Bridges. This can be found at www.palmgear.com or at his home page at
www.quartus.net for free. Please note that the Benchmark screen from the
graphics from PalmGear is a screen-shot of this software and does not reflect
any built-in benchmarking facility.
Make
sure you have Hackmaster installed and that Afterburner is activated.
Try
the following (for EZ CPU's):-
Check 0-ws
Core
Check Fast
Page
Check Fast-Mpx
Check Adjust
ticks
Set Default 28MHz
Set Find Keep
Set LCD/n 2
Set Accel Always
Set Slow Never
Set LClk/2 24MHz
For
non-EZ CPU's:-
Set Default 23MHz
(more than this and a Fatal Exception is likely)
Set Find Keep
Set LCD/n 2
(or 3 for even more speed but less contrast)
Set Accel Always
Set Slow Never
I
am continually seeking to improve Afterburner III and to make it as stable and
as usable as possible, hopefully making this the king of overclockers for the
Palm. So if you have a feature request or any suggestions that you think might
make this a better app, please feel free to send them to me. I don't promise to
implement it but I will certainly give it due consideration. Likewise, if you
are experiencing problems and errors, please let me know so that I can get it
fixed.
There
are some known issues when using this utility:-
1.
This
does not work well with EVPlugBase at this time. I've not had the time to
really look at that and make it work. In particular, you may find that the
Speed panel or the Config panel doesn't come up or comes up as a blank. Please
use Hackmaster instead to avoid this problem for now. I was told that some of
the later revisions of EVPlugBase seems to work but I've not tested this
myself.
2.
Some
other hacks may sometimes conflict with Hackmaster. Of interest is the order in
which the hacks are installed. If you are finding that you crash on the
configuration panel, try disabling all the other hacks except Afterburner Hack,
and then re-enable them one by one, trying to see you are able to open the
panel without problems after each one. Do this especially if you find that you
get an error when trying to get into the Speeds panel.
3.
Some
screen corruption issues with IIIc. I don't have a IIIc to test out the actual
problems but I will be working on this. So far, I have determined that the IIIc
uses a separate LCD controller instead of the one in the DragonBallEZ like the
other non-color models. Because of this, it is harder to resolve the problem
since I have a lot less control over the color-LCD controller and information
on this is sparse. This also means that all the LCD settings will be irrelevant
to the IIIc. It also appears that some color-LCD's can handle acceleration up
to 30MHz without any corruption so there could be some variance in the IIIc LCD
hardware out there. In particular, scrolling may leave artifacts on the screen
because this is a blitter operation in the hardware. This problem inherent to
the LCD controller and I can’t do much about it.
4.
Serial
(including keyboards and other peripherals) and IR functions is unlikely to
work reliably if the clock is set to anything above 29MHz. This is because
although the CPU thinks it is running at that speed, in actual fact it may not
be locking reliably to the frequency set. Fluctuations in the frequency prevent
stable performance at these frequencies.
5.
The
hardware up and down buttons don't work while in the various
configuration panels in Hackmaster. This is NOT a bug but a limitation of
Hackmaster. Those button events never get passed to hacks. Okay, so why do the
buttons work for hack XXXX? Well, if those hacks are using lists, then the
scrolling is handled by the system and thus benefits from the button presses
automatically. However, we are using tables in Afterburner (to maintain the
look of ABII) and we are processing the scrolling ourselves. As a result, no
buttons. But you gain a more useful interface.
6.
My
contrast seems affected by the LCD/n. Or the screen is too dark after
installing 3.0e. Yes, it is affected. Nothing to worry about. It's just a side
effect of changing the pixel clock frequency. StreakHack does the same thing
and in fact, you won't need StreakHack anymore. If you are installing 3.0e over
older version, please set LCD-ws (in the previous version) to 0 before
installing 3.0e. If you are reading this AFTER you had the problem, try setting
LCD/n to 1. That should fix the problem but if that fails, just give it a soft
reset to restore screen contrast. Alternatively, try setting LCD/n to 1 BEFORE
activating 3.0e for the first time after installing. After changing this
setting, you need to exit Hackmaster before it will take effect.
7.
My
screen is flickering! Or, my screen is dark. If you just installed version 3.0e
without following the instructions for this version, you might see this
problem. To remedy it, just set LCD/n to 1 in the configuration panel.
8.
Afterburner
is apparently being confused if you keep a "backup" copy of your app
in Flash. Ie. you have 2 identical copies, one in RAM and one in Flash. If such
a situation exists, setting the speed for any one of them will suffice. The
other copy (listed alphabetically) will keep reverting to default.
9.
There
may be a conflict with NoWaitZ. Try deleting NoWaitZ if you are experiencing
problems and happen to have this app on your system. You won't need it anyway
if Afterburner works as AB does everything NoWaitZ does and more.
10.
There
is a problem with AvantGo in grayscale mode on some Palm models due to the fact
that AvantGo does some strange things directly to the LCD registers. Check the
"Gray LCD" option to reduce this problem.
11.
I
don't seem to be able to get the speed improvements anywhere nearly as high as
what some are reporting. I have a non-EZ Palm. Non-EZ Palms have older hardware
and it is very likely that you will not be able to overclock as much as some of
the newer machines. Furthermore, there is no zero-waitstate option for non-EZ
CPU's. It just isn't in the hardware. Therefore you will not see the kind of
performance that you will get with the newer EZ CPU's.
12.
My
keyboard (or serial peripheral or IR) doesn't appear to be working. I am using
an unregistered version of Afterburner. Support for keyboards, and other serial
peripherals, and IR, are available ONLY in registered versions. If you are
using a Stowaway and the HotSync is coming on when it is not supposed to, try a
slower speed setting. Remember, you have to set the speed for the editing app
(eg. MemoPad) and NOT just the control or configuration app.
13.
I
am installing Afterburner 3.0f but after installation, I still see version
3.0e. A change was made to the app name in 3.0f that could confuse Hackmaster
if you failed to delete previous 3.0 versions prior to installing 3.0f. To fix
this, simply delete 3.0f from the system and re-install.
14.
It
appears that Hackmaster has a problem properly uninstalling Afterburner because
of the trap it uses. This means that Hackmaster could try to run Afterburner
even after you have disabled it under certain conditions. This was a tough bug
to trace! but it's not my bug. However, I've kludged a workaround for this and
those strange errors after disabling Afterburner should be gone now.
Nevertheless, on occasion, you might get into a situation where you are
installing a new version of Afterburner (through Hotsync) and Hackmaster still
hasn't properly released the code even though it has been unchecked. You will
end up with a reset in mid-Hotsync session. Nothing to worry about. Just reset
and Hotsync again. This is Hackmaster's fault.
15.
The
non-EZ CPU's cannot support speeds in excess of 23MHz. Attempts to make it run
at that speed generally results in a Fatal Exception.
16.
My
Palm crashes when switching speeds but seems to work if the speed is lower. If
this happens, check to see if your battery is in good condition. At low battery
levels, higher speeds cannot be sustained reliably, especially with the non-EZ
CPUs.
17.
Currently,
unless you have Find set to Keep, leaving the Find dialog will leave the
current app running at the Find speed. I need to find a way to restore the
speed of the current app after a Find session. If keeping the speed is
important, just set Find to "Keep" for the time being.
Please
send your feedback and comments to me at:-
Credits
go to Jean-Paul Gavini who first conceived of this fabulous idea. Edward Keyes
for Hackmaster. Hackmaster is a must have program. Please register it for US$5
if you use it.
While
I will continue to provide the best support I can for Afterburner Hack, I must expressly
state that overclocking is not officially supported by Palm(tm) Inc. and you
push these limits at your own risk. I will not be held liable for hatever damage that might occur as a result
of using this hack.
Having
said that however, the risk of hardware damage is extremely low.
THIS
SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES,
INCLUDING (BUT NOT LIMITED TO) THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR
CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY
OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES INCLUDING (BUT NOT LIMITED TO) PROCUREMENT OF
SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
INTERRUPTION HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING
IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY
OF SUCH DAMAGE.