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1
Amiga OS / Re: AmigaOS Classic - Solid Window Dragging
« Last post by Ancalimon on April 25, 2024, 05:37:29 PM »
I totally forgot I had this :)

Is there a way to maybe reduce priority? Moving it over icons caused amigamp to cut out the module playing.

Also can the program be modified so that it does not drag the window from the top two pixels of the upper window border? Using the new intuition.library resize windows from all four borders, the top border resizing does not work.
2
In this video, we install a Fastlane Z3 Fast SCSI2 card in my Amiga 4000 and use a BlueSCSIv2 to upgrade the machine with much faster disk IO and the potential of a CD-Rom and WIFI based networking.  However, the Fastlane Z3 did not work at first, so follow me as I trouble-shoot the card, go over its quirks, get it working, set it up for optimal performance and go on to benchmark it.

Video:  Amiga 4000: Is the Fastlane Z3 the best home for a BlueSCSIv2 Upgrade?

I'd love to hear your feedback on the video, in its comments, or indeed here. The Fastlane Z3 was something of a unicorn before I bought it,
And now, having used it, it feels more like a porcupine. Watch the video to see why. Its a complex beast...
3
Amiga/MorphOS/AROS Programmers Forum / Re: ALS, a new graphics system - RELEASED!
« Last post by Ancalimon on April 25, 2024, 05:32:00 PM »
I wish the programmers could release the source code for Jetstrike AGA.

https://www.amigapd.com/interview-aaron-and-adam-fothergill.html

Maybe someone could make it go smoother
4
Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion / Re: Need assistance with A3000D ROM 3.1 upgrade
« Last post by Jope on April 25, 2024, 11:55:29 AM »
Rear sockets U182 and U183 are for 27C220 type chips and the front sockets U180 and U181 are for 27C400 type chips. You can only have one set populated at a time.

Early A3000s need a ROM tower if U180 and U181 are used. It is unclear to me which revisions truly need it. 7.1 definitely needs it and 9.0 definitely does not, but this is not all of the revisions. :-)

U182 and U183 are always the correct 27C220 pinout in A3000 motherboards.

1.4 ROMs do not stop you from using a Z3 memory card, I have this combination in my A3000, but I forget which revision the board is now. It has a ROM tower and IIRC it is 7.x.

I found a few more data points here:
https://www.amigalove.com/viewtopic.php?t=1339

7.3 boards shipped with ROM towers, 8.9 did not need a ROM tower.

Most likely 6.9 will need a ROM tower too if 27C400 style ROMs are to be used.

An educated guess is that all of the people who burn KS ROMs for sale currently will do 27C400 chips and aren't aware of the tower-less 27C220 possibility for older A3000 revisions.
6
Amiga OS / AmigaOS Classic - Solid Window Dragging
« Last post by Ancalimon on April 24, 2024, 05:11:50 PM »
Are other programs enabling solid window dragging apart from mcp and powerwindows on AmigaOS 3 ?

What I would like is a utility with this sole purpose preferable that works better with new intuition and layers from AmigaOS 3.2
7
I made progress.  I think all this just might work out.

I made screenshots with my scope of what is going on with the E signal.

Initial shows the E from processor (yellow), vs the half divided E output of the modified accelerator.  This is the condition at the beginning of this thread.

I was able to hide every other E pulse with an AND gate with inputs from two diver flip flops, the resulting E signal is 25/75 duty cycle.  This produced a white screen, by itself this was not enough.

Another attempt was to just use the divider output with 50/50 duty cycle, as in Dennis's design, but likewise by itself it produced a white screen.

Last (working) picture shows E from processor (yellow), 1st divider flip flop (green), and the E output from AND of two divider flip flops (pink).  There is about 8ns delay of the pink pulse vs yellow, and a 4ns delay relative to green.  I was able to boot to Workbench with a physical floppy (Epson SMD-300), but not the Gotek, although I was able to run ATK from Gotek and do the timer tests, they all passed.  No game tests because I don't have any on hand on a physical floppy, need to get the Gotek working.  I think it's a timing problem, I think I need to shave at least 4ns with faster flip flops, which I don't have on hand, will need to order some.  This is all the progress I can make until then.
So what got it working is feeding this E signal into the NOR gate (U4C on the schematic), as well as using this E to trigger the /VPA and /VMA latching (U5B).

I have an idea for how to generate proper 40/60 duty cycle, by doing an AND of the 1st divider flip flop and the E from processor, then XOR with 2nd divider flip flop.  The cycle math works out as follows, at 28MHz the period of E the Amiga chipset expects is 40 cycles (4x10), so the 50/50 pulse generated by the divider is 20 cycles.  The E pulse from the processor is 4 cycles.  By using the circuit I described I cut off 4 cycles from the pulse of 20.  The result is a pulse of 16 cycles, which is 40% of the 40 cycle period.  I am not going to try this until I get faster divider flip flops because this isn't the source of my problem at the moment.
I kept thinking about this, and what I read in the 68000 datasheet.  The datasheet says the beginning of the E period is not guaranteed, so it wouldn't matter if the generated E pulse is delayed by whole cycles.  This is likely why this "just works".  I did still have a concern whether it's a problem when externally generated E is somewhere else relative to the processor state machine, but I realize the divided E frequency wouldn't coincide with any processor state machine anyway, so it seems this doesn't matter either since I already know that works.

The only reason this sloppy E clock timing works at all is because the 8520 CIA is not a Motorola 6800 peripheral chip. If it was, this 14 MHz accelerator design would fail. Commodore designed these custom chips for the Amiga and using the E clock to drive them somewhat simplified the Amiga's I/O hardware design.

But just because you can sometimes get away with sloppy timing does not means it's often good idea to do so.

The fundamental timing problem is still not corrected because @ 28 MHz the CPU's E clock cycle will end in one 7 MHz clock. A more reliable way to handle this problem is to disable the CPU E clock cycle by disconnecting VPA and connecting a pull-up resistor. You then add logic to generate VMA when the E clock is low and keep it latched when the E clock is high. Here are some example boolean logic equations:

/VMA = /E * /VPA # /VMA * E

Next you need to generate ETERM to terminate the cycle:

/ETERM.D = E * /AS * /VMA
/EDTACK.D = EDTACK * /AS * /ETERM
/DTACK.D = DTACK * /AS * /EDTACK
/DTACK.T = DTACK * /AS * /EDTACK
 
NOTE: ETERM and EDTACK are registered on the rising edge of the 7 MHz clock (but you can experiment with the falling edge). DTACK is registered on the 14 MHz clock. Also, DTACK is a Tri-State signal.

As far as creating the proper 60/40 duty cycle, that's probably not as important as having the E clock at the proper frequency and having the rising edge synchronized with the 7 MHz clock. The main reason to keep the correct duty cycle is performance concerns.

Then when you get the E clock timing problem solved, you can worry about the other timing problems listed in my previous post. ;D       

BTW, some 68020+ systems can be modified for improved performance. Here is the link:

https://forum.amiga.org/index.php?topic=74945.msg850556
   
8
I made progress.  I think all this just might work out.

I made screenshots with my scope of what is going on with the E signal.

Initial shows the E from processor (yellow), vs the half divided E output of the modified accelerator.  This is the condition at the beginning of this thread.

I was able to hide every other E pulse with an AND gate with inputs from two diver flip flops, the resulting E signal is 25/75 duty cycle.  This produced a white screen, by itself this was not enough.

Another attempt was to just use the divider output with 50/50 duty cycle, as in Dennis's design, but likewise by itself it produced a white screen.

Last (working) picture shows E from processor (yellow), 1st divider flip flop (green), and the E output from AND of two divider flip flops (pink).  There is about 8ns delay of the pink pulse vs yellow, and a 4ns delay relative to green.  I was able to boot to Workbench with a physical floppy (Epson SMD-300), but not the Gotek, although I was able to run ATK from Gotek and do the timer tests, they all passed.  No game tests because I don't have any on hand on a physical floppy, need to get the Gotek working.  I think it's a timing problem, I think I need to shave at least 4ns with faster flip flops, which I don't have on hand, will need to order some.  This is all the progress I can make until then.
So what got it working is feeding this E signal into the NOR gate (U4C on the schematic), as well as using this E to trigger the /VPA and /VMA latching (U5B).

I have an idea for how to generate proper 40/60 duty cycle, by doing an AND of the 1st divider flip flop and the E from processor, then XOR with 2nd divider flip flop.  The cycle math works out as follows, at 28MHz the period of E the Amiga chipset expects is 40 cycles (4x10), so the 50/50 pulse generated by the divider is 20 cycles.  The E pulse from the processor is 4 cycles.  By using the circuit I described I cut off 4 cycles from the pulse of 20.  The result is a pulse of 16 cycles, which is 40% of the 40 cycle period.  I am not going to try this until I get faster divider flip flops because this isn't the source of my problem at the moment.

observation I made regarding the 14MHz accelerator in OP that the flip flop (74x112) used to divide the E frequency from the processor is falling edge triggered!  Meaning the E signal it outputs is delayed by the 4 processor clock cycles (of the 10 in the 6/4 duty cycle split) and rises on the falling edge of processor E![/b] (That doesn't seem right, but somehow it works.) 
I kept thinking about this, and what I read in the 68000 datasheet.  The datasheet says the beginning of the E period is not guaranteed, so it wouldn't matter if the generated E pulse is delayed by whole cycles.  This is likely why this "just works".  I did still have a concern whether it's a problem when externally generated E is somewhere else relative to the processor state machine, but I realize the divided E frequency wouldn't coincide with any processor state machine anyway, so it seems this doesn't matter either since I already know that works.
9
A600 GS / Re: Welcome to the A600GS forum
« Last post by BozzerBigD on April 24, 2024, 08:29:07 AM »
AMiNIMiga has a shared folder that is visible on PCs hence files can be exported/imported.
10
Hi All

After a lot of trying I could not get the A314cp to connect to the internet so I have given up and sold my towered on eBay.

I am not very good with Discord etc so couldn't find much info, need to slim down my collection anyway!

Regards

Barry

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