fx-9860gii-2 brief introduction

[Mjim]

I managed to pick up a fairly good condition second-hand fx-9750GII SH4 model (didn't realize it would be an SH4 version). The fx-CG50 is still on it's way...but I'm a little more excited about that now as I had no idea that the screen was much bigger (just thought they were all the same size, even the fx-9860G2 is noticeably bigger).

First impressions:
Much better condition than my now dead SH3 one. The old display also had some stress marks on it (slightly darker spots); but I must say that I did prefer the lighter background on the SH3 version; it still has great contrast, but the other display was a little more reflective so would probably be a tiny bit better under low light (can't test it now since it is deceased).

I had a look inside and it is also using a different flash chip: MX29LV320EBTI-70G. This is quoted as having a 100,000 rewrite cycle lifespan, with 20 year data retention. This is still hugely more reliable than the multi-layer flash seen in high capacity computer drives, though not as fantastic as the old SH3 version of the fx-9750GII I had. My guess is that bigger flash chips are more reliable (I think the SH3 one was 0.13 micron), but you get more chips on a smaller process, so it probably makes sense to abandon an older process for a new one so that you could sell more chips using the same amount of silicon.

SH3 fx-9750G2 PCBS:
Keyboard: GY362-E4W
Motherboard: GY362-1

SH4 fx-9750G2 PCBS:
Keyboard: GY362-E4W
Motherboard: GY801-1 (some of the text is written over, so this may not be correct).

I'll do some benchmarks using xerxes code (Divided by 10 for a per loop count):

- 0.857 C.Basic 2.38 / Integer Mode (Nrm mode in Ftune3, 29.49MHz - Defaults)
- 1.290 C.Basic 2.38 / DBL Mode (Nrm mode in Ftune3, 29.49MHz - Defaults)

- 0.757 C.Basic 2.38 / Integer Mode (F3 mode in Ftune3, 29.49MHz - SH3 timings)
- 1.129 C.Basic 2.38 / DBL Mode (F3 mode in Ftune3, 29.49MHz - SH3 timings)

- 0.219 C.Basic 2.38 / Integer Mode (F4 mode in Ftune3, 117.96MHz)
- 0.329 C.Basic 2.38 / DBL Mode (F4 mode in Ftune3, 117.96MHz)

- 0.152 C.Basic 2.38 / Integer Mode (F5 mode in Ftune3, 235.93MHz)
- 0.245 C.Basic 2.38 / DBL Mode (F5 mode in Ftune3, 235.93MHz)

That first benchmark is fairly interesting, since Hlib did quite a bit better there (0.673s & 1.034s respectively). I was under the impression that the fx-9860G2-2 and fx-9750G2-2 were very similar hardware-wise, but maybe this isn't the case. Were any timings or the code changed to get that sort of result?

EDIT:
Ftune2 gives better results on the highest setting:
- 0.122 C.Basic 2.38 / Integer Mode (F5 mode in Ftune2, 235.93MHz)
- 0.188 C.Basic 2.38 / DBL Mode (F5 mode in Ftune2, 235.93MHz)