> You don't get an odd gain like 16.7% from a multiplier change.

Generally speaking, you get a 16.7% frequency gain by changing the multiplier from 6 to 7. But the multiplier of the PPC460EX is set to 5 by default, so yes, this couldn't be the case here.

> since the memory clock would be affected by this it seemed likely that initially they
> changed the ratio that memory was based on to prevent memory instabilities.

Let me summarize how I understand you and me perceive how ACube may have proceeded with this:

1. CPU: 1000 MHz, bus: 200 MHz, multiplier: 5 (stock default)
2. CPU: 1167 MHz, bus: 233 MHz, multiplier: 5 (created memory instabilities)
3. CPU: 1167 MHz, bus: 212 MHz, multiplier: 5.5 (non-ideal ratio)
4. CPU: 1150 MHz, bus: 230 MHz, multiplier: 5 (production model)

Any objections? :-)

> the company apparently pushes these parts harder than you would expect for a
> company building boards intended for both the hobbyist and industrial markets.

I think ACube does the pushing solely for the Amiga market mainly for the psychological effect of the numbers. Pegasos II G4 has so far been the fastest hardware for OS4 and shines with a CPU clock of 1.0 GHz. To create the impression of providing a hardware with a faster CPU they simply had to go above 1.0 GHz for marketing reasons alone, knowing that there're still people who directly translate clock speed to performance even with diverse CPU types. Now with the overclocking, the Sam460ex delivers as much DMIPS as the Pegasos II G4 ;-)