> 
> > Is there a processor upgrade path that is worth the expense for an IPX?
> 
> The Weitek PowerUP is an 80mhz replacement processor for the IPX and
> SS2.  It doubles the processor speed (on the 40mhx SS2 I don't know what
> the IPX ships with).
> 
> Rave[1] sells them new for $195 US and refurbished for $100 US, so you'll
> have to decide if it's worth it.  If you're like me, the cost of this is
> more than you paid for the rest of your system.  I've got one coming right
> now that I picked up on ebay for $60 US to pop into my SS2, although they
> seem to sell for ~$100 most of the time.
> 
> The various benchmarks I've seen (Specint and bogomips) seem to support
> anywhere from a 1.4 to 2.0 increase.  Floating point tests seem to show
> the greatest improvement.  (Sorry, I don't have the numbers around.)  I
> can't speak from any personal experience until my chip arrives.
> 
> Regards, 
> 
> Tony
> 
I got access to both an IPX with a PowerUP and an "original" IPX, with
otherwise similar configuration, and personaly I can't tell them apart
when I use them. But since the question came up I decided to take them
through the "standard" NetBSD benchmark, a kernel build.
The result:
2 hours 36 minutes for the standard IPX.
2 hours 7 minutes for the PowerUP:ed IPX.
Thats an increase of about 1.25. :-/

But thats quite expected since the PowerUP suffers _badly_ from a far
to small cache. It got twice the MHz, but it spends most of them waiting
on the main memory.

So don't expect even a 1.4 increase from a PowerUP chip under "normal"
use.

/Magnus