REV 3 - REV 5 - The beginning (ST536)

All about the ST536 030 ST booster.
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exxos
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Re: REV 3 - The beginning

Post by exxos »

Badwolf wrote: Thu Apr 28, 2022 3:28 pm You could try changing the code to hard coded values rather than worry about the memory detect?

It's basically only setting ramvalid to a magic number and ramtop, from what I can see. Presumably something else comes along and adds it to the memory pool later? Maybe that's the difference between TOS3 and TOS2?
I did try all this earlier but did not change anything.. I was trying to trick it into thinking it had TTram rather than trying to test it. I tried all sorts of combinations to no avail.

Code: Select all

move.l    #$05000000,(_ramtop).w
move.l    #$05000000,(memttop).w
move.l    #$05000000,(_phystop).w
move.l    #$1357bd13,(_ramvalid).w   /* ramtop is valid (ramvalid == RAMMAGIC) */
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Re: REV 3 - The beginning

Post by exxos »

stephen_usher wrote: Thu Apr 28, 2022 3:30 pm As TOS 2.06 has no idea about TT-RAM it doesn't have code in it to make sure that the RAM it's allocating for the screen is in ST-RAM. TOS 3.06 would have this logic built into it.

Similarly, TOS 2.06 won't have the logic to prevent it using TT-RAM for DMA.
Indeed. The PAK patches seem to alleviate those problems, but enabling the lot causes other problems as previously mentioned.

I have pretty much been going through line by line turning on the patches one at a time and trying there is combinations but to no avail.
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Re: REV 3 - The beginning

Post by Badwolf »

exxos wrote: Thu Apr 28, 2022 3:33 pm I did try all this earlier but did not change anything.. I was trying to trick it into thinking it had TTram rather than trying to test it. I tried all sorts of combinations to no avail.
It could be this is just being done too early and is confusing things as per Stephen's suggestion.

I note the way Hatari hacks TOS is to basically do an Maddalt() at some point rather than hacking the variables.

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DFB1 Open source 50MHz 030 and TT-RAM accelerator for the Falcon
DSTB1 Open source 16Mhz 68k and AltRAM accelerator for the ST
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Re: REV 3 - The beginning

Post by exxos »

Badwolf wrote: Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:06 pm It could be this is just being done too early and is confusing things as per Stephen's suggestion.

I note the way Hatari hacks TOS is to basically do an Maddalt() at some point rather than hacking the variables.
Yep, That is what I mean. Declaring the RAM to early with of course, as we all know will screw up 206. The PAK changes fix that some, but it causes the AES to screw up. So damned if you do and damned if you don't kind of thing.

But maybe the PAK changes do not fix the problem fully, hence the AES issue. I think it is just turning into a complete disaster trying to update TOS206 with TTram . The only possible workaround would be to allow the memory test show one start-up, I just not allocate the RAM. But really that is somewhat pointless if they PRG has to be loaded to allocate the RAM to use it anyway :roll:

I still have not figured out why 306 won't work with the TF536 either. slightly annoying as 306 seems to need 512K space, TOS206 only needs 256K :roll:
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Re: REV 3 - The beginning

Post by Badwolf »

exxos wrote: Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:15 pm I still have not figured out why 306 won't work with the TF536 either. slightly annoying as 306 seems to need 512K space, TOS206 only needs 256K :roll:
Your chip is a 4096, isn’t it?

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DFB1 Open source 50MHz 030 and TT-RAM accelerator for the Falcon
DSTB1 Open source 16Mhz 68k and AltRAM accelerator for the ST
Smalliermouse ST-optimised USB mouse adapter based on SmallyMouse2
FrontBench The Frontier: Elite 2 intro as a benchmark
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Re: REV 3 - The beginning

Post by exxos »

Badwolf wrote: Thu Apr 28, 2022 7:36 pm Your chip is a 4096, isn’t it?
Yep.
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Re: REV 3 - The beginning

Post by exxos »

ahhhh So it seems the PAK patches were trying to set the Falcon's Videl up not the ST shifter :shrug: So now LOW & Medium res are behaving as they should! :D


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Need to start some testing now , see what I broke :lol:
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Re: REV 3 - The beginning

Post by stephen_usher »

:dualthumbup:
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
Collection now with added Macs, Amigas, Suns and Acorns.
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Re: REV 3 - The beginning

Post by exxos »

ALT-RAM working without any "install" software. GB6 running fine in ALT-RAM :)

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YAART saw alt-ram and passes fine.

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MAPROM 4KC LOADED.

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BLITTER ADDED :)

Oddly in 206 it should be disabled if I am reading the code right :shrug:

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@agranlund BLITFIX seems to hard disable the cache in the desktop menu, can't turn it on anymore ? Assume by design ?

I had another thought about using patched ROM images., maybe a tweak to maprom. In that if it finds a file eg: TOS.BIN, it would load that into fastram, if the file isn't found, then it copies the ROM to fast ram like normal.

I have 5k free space in TOS206 ;)
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Re: REV 3 - The beginning

Post by exxos »

:lol:
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Anyway, I'm looking into the ST-RAM cache issue again now I am the master of TOSsing :lol: There are that many fixes for the floppy drive already. So i'm going to try turning some of them on now and see if they have any effect with my new setup.
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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