TF1260 Firmware Update ... er Update?

News & updates for the upcoming 68060 accelerator

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terriblefire
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Re: TF1260 Firmware Update ... er Update?

Post by terriblefire »

Right i spent a good bit of yesterday on the firmware... I've been removing the clock switch trick and dealing with the resulting things that have popped up.

I had an issue with IACK not working until i realised I'd set the 060 to ignore the TA for 2 clocks. I changed that to 1 and its fine and faster.

I had an issue with lockups in the slave state machine.. thats been resolved.

I got the firmware from floppy and started looking at chipram performance. I've managed to get some gains here.. Basically the Amiga is pretty crap.. if your cycles have a gap between them it doesnt respond in a timely way... I started with
WhatsApp Image 2021-08-08 at 18.12.47.jpeg
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I trimmed off a bit of fat at the start of the cycle and got to this...
WhatsApp Image 2021-08-08 at 18.57.56.jpeg
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You can see most of the time is spent waiting for the Amiga... ROM cycles are pretty good but Chipram slot allocation is nasty. If you go over the slot time it seems your bandwidth will half because you missed where the amiga wants you to start a slot. Now i need to get a little bit more off the tail end of the cycle and we're good.

Final thing to deal with is the fastmem <-> chip transition.. I get a lockup at the moment. I know why i just need inspiration to solve it.
———
"It is not necessarily a supply voltage at no load, but the amount of current it can provide when touched that
indicates how much hurting you shall receive."
moebius_rising
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Re: TF1260 Firmware Update ... er Update?

Post by moebius_rising »

terriblefire wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 3:54 pm Just want to put a final thing in here for those kicking off on EAB/Facebook and PPA.PL...
I really get frustrated when people are getting pushy with vendors (software and hardware alike), I completely walked away from most things Atari ST/Amiga on Facebook, was always turned off by the old hags on EAB, and PPA.PL, isn't really in my native language (and I've heard enough to avoid entirely anyway)

I've found here (Exxos), some of the discord channels (especially AmigaBill's) excellent refuges from those places, have frequented only these two for almost a year now, and haven't looked back since.

I'm sure your new firmware will be fantastic, my TF1260 is extremely useful as-is anyway, so I view any subsequent release as a nice bonus.
terriblefire
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Re: TF1260 Firmware Update ... er Update?

Post by terriblefire »

One 14Mhz cycle per dtack trimmed...
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———
"It is not necessarily a supply voltage at no load, but the amount of current it can provide when touched that
indicates how much hurting you shall receive."
idc
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Re: TF1260 Firmware Update ... er Update?

Post by idc »

Nice work, looking good mate! Take your time, I’m in no hurry to send my card away for a firmware update just yet, I’m enjoying it as is. :D
terriblefire
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Re: TF1260 Firmware Update ... er Update?

Post by terriblefire »

I've just got some numbers for the chipram improvements i've been working on ...
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Its not stellar yet and right now burst mode is off for fastram.. but its moving in the right direction.
———
"It is not necessarily a supply voltage at no load, but the amount of current it can provide when touched that
indicates how much hurting you shall receive."
trixster
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Re: TF1260 Firmware Update ... er Update?

Post by trixster »

Thanks for the updates, it’s looking good :)
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Duncan
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Re: TF1260 Firmware Update ... er Update?

Post by Duncan »

thanks for keeping us in the loop big man :)
"I've seen things you people wouldn't ken, I've seen motors on fire, on the shoulder near Kinryan, I have watched vejazels glitter in the dark, at the black Trongate, awe these moments, will be lost in time, like beers ... when I'm hame. Time to fry"
Higgy
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Re: TF1260 Firmware Update ... er Update?

Post by Higgy »

Question, are these improvements keeping your clever drop down to 14Mhz for cooling when accessing Chipram or is that lost?
And then if lost, was the main heat gains just on CPU? Or on CPLDs also ?
I know heat generated by chips is all relative and not necessarily detrimental. I'm surprised how hot a Raspberry Pi runs.
terriblefire
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Re: TF1260 Firmware Update ... er Update?

Post by terriblefire »

I'm removing the 14Mhz trick.. It was expressed by democoders that they do FPU stuff during the chipram accesses and slowing the clock hurts that.

Its pretty much a firmware rewrite at this point.
———
"It is not necessarily a supply voltage at no load, but the amount of current it can provide when touched that
indicates how much hurting you shall receive."
terriblefire
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Re: TF1260 Firmware Update ... er Update?

Post by terriblefire »

burst is back on
WhatsApp Image 2021-08-11 at 21.34.16.jpeg
WhatsApp Image 2021-08-11 at 21.34.16.jpeg (63.27 KiB) Viewed 2411 times
———
"It is not necessarily a supply voltage at no load, but the amount of current it can provide when touched that
indicates how much hurting you shall receive."
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