The printed circuit board of Ramixx500 offers an improved dissipation. Overall it is about -3°C colder than the original Commodore Rev. 8A.1.

Particularly, we observed improvements across the following surfaces:

• Denise and Video Hybrid circuit
• Paula, CIAs and RS232

A good strategy was to use a solid ground plane under the main heat source, minimizing the thermal resistance and maximizing the heat dissipation. Consequently, we have avoided fragmented ground planes on both layers and eventually we have considered narrowed power tracks.

Thermal cycle:

OFF > Cooldown 120 minutes > ON > Warm-up (kickstart screen) 30 minutes > Load condition (ECS game) 55 minutes > Screen capturing 5 minutes > OFF

The whole PCB

Left: Ramixx500 V2, Right: Original A500 Rev 8A.1

CPU and FAT Agnus

Left: Ramixx500 V2, Right: Original A500 Rev 8A.1

Denise and HY

Left: Ramixx500 V2, Right: Original A500 Rev 8A.1

Paula, CIA and RS232

Left: Ramixx500 V2, Right: Original A500 Rev 8A.1

Gary and Audio section

Left: Ramixx500 V2, Right: Original A500 Rev 8A.1

RAM chips

Left: Ramixx500 V2, Right: Original A500 Rev 8A.1

Condition:

• Still air room temperature, natural convention
• No RF shields mounted, underneath thermal insulation
• Ramixx500 V2 has all 74LSxx replaced by 74HCTxx
• A500 Rev 8A.1 has original logics

Equipment:

• FLUKE TiS45 Thermal Imager (160x120 Resolution, 30Hz Infrared Camera)