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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga Hardware News => Topic started by: Blomberg on March 10, 2003, 12:44:22 PM
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From AmigaWorld.net (http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=278)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Leuven, Belgium - March 7, 2003.
Hyperion is pleased to announce that it has completed an extensive rework of the AmigaOne firmware adding substantial functionality and flexibility for end-users, developers and technicians.
The new firmware will be incorporated in the A1-XE boards which will be shipping shortly.
Newly implemented functionality includes:
- Migration from PPCBoot 1.16 to U-Boot (PPCBoot 2.0)
- Support for PPC 750 FX, MPC 7440/41, MPC 7450/1 CPU's
- Comprehensive GUI for Articia S register configuration
- Comprehensive GUI for general firmware configuration
- Support of additional types of memory modules
- Integration of diagnostic code
- Support for POST card displays allowing for rapid detection of specific hardware faults
- New Articia S start-up code allowing for usage of two banks of unregistered SDRAM
- Booting from Symbios/LSI Logic 53c8xx based SCSI controllers
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Good news, Hyperion :-)
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Ah, what a brilliant relieved news! Just about time, and it looks great, too! Especially the full support of the G4 7451 CPU and unregistered SDRAM! No need to worry anymore then! The XEs are on the way! Wuu Hoh!!!!!!! :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D
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Good
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Great work guys!!!!!
I particularly like the prospect of 2 unregistered SDRAM modules, I knew I held onto my old ones for a reason! ;-)
Cheers,
Graham C
Keep up the good work.
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Yep, send me the AmigaOne-XE!!
I also like the normal type of DIMM support.
I have 2 of 128 MB around! Will be more then enough for most work!
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This is good news. I know that Rogue posts here, and will most likely read this thread, so I can ask a couple of questions that will hopefully be answered!
1) What about the 7445/7 and the 7455/7 G4 chips? (the ones that run at up to 1.4GHz in current Macs, and the new 0.13um G4's)
2) Is that BANKS of memory, or DIMMs of memory? Some DIMMs have 2 banks of memory on them, IIRC.
3) Is that a real GUI? Or a BIOS-like TUI? It doesn't matter, but some people might get upset if it is the latter and they can't use their mouse to click on gadgets!
4) Got any screenshots of the new GUI you can share? :)
Keep up the good work.
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Very good news one thing i have not yet bought is memory so normal sdram will be very cheap
:-D
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Very cool! :-)
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Now screenshots are a must!!
:-D:-D:-D:-D
Yes,i see,only posting to reach "technoid"
:-D
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Yes,i see,only posting to reach "technoid"
Je, je... ¿Cuántos te faltan?
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Great!
Good job Hyperion!
:-)
@ami603:
I liked "Too much caffeine" more than "Technoid" ;-D
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It's all getting better and better.....soon we will sit infront of a cooooooooooool new Amiga. :-o
And just imagine when the "complete package" comes along, great casedesigns, logos, etc......ahhhhh :-D
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This all looks very good!!!!! Thank you, Hyperion! :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D
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Now, the question that comes to mind is:
How can a firmware upgrade fix the fact that Mai's sDRAM controller lacks an on-chip buffer? Does it override the safety mechanism on the northbridge to make this unbuffered ram work, thereby causing potential damage to the DIMM's over prolonged operation?
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Ok, I just answered my own question. They turned-off the energy saving mechanisms inherent in the Mai chip. How did I find this out?
I just downloaded the CVS to U-Boot then read the mailing lists and compared notes to what I knew about the Articia.
*edit due to having stuck foot in mouth*
Overall, looks like a decent project, now just need to see the Frieden Bros. re-submission into the CVS tree. But the code they have there already is damned impressive.
Note,
here (http://ppcboot.sourceforge.net)is the projects homepage
pst, I made sure the link worked first.
I still find OF a better overall solution, but to each their own.
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The changes have not been put back into the CVS for UBoot yet - currently the source will be made available upon request until the new stuff has been merged back into the main CVS.
Why are you making it seem like Hyperion are claiming all the credit, when they have said many times over what the base of their Firmware is?
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Why are you making it seem like Hyperion are claiming all the credit, when they have said many times over what the base of their Firmware is?
I'm not blaming hyperion, I blame the fanatics that believe that PPCBoot/U-Boot is 100% hyperion's work. I've been browsing the sources the past 15 minutes, and have to say that the Frieden bros produce some damned good code. I'm actually impressed.
But after seeing everyone slapping Hyperion on the back, why not visit the PPCBoot homepage and thank those hard working people as well?
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YEEEEHAAAAAAARR :-D :-D :-D
this is good nu's cause it makes buying ram easy peazy :-D
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edit due to having stuck foot in mouth*
At least your man enough to admit it !!
Kudos to you !!
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@Panthro
this is good nu's cause it makes buying ram easy peazy
One thing here though, don't think for a minute that any cheap old RAM can be stuck in there and will work perfectly. Many have fallen for this in the PC market and come unstuck. For reliability reasons alone, I'd go for a recognised brand that you'll be able to remember as and when you'll want to add another stick in there. ie stick to Kingston/Crucial or Samsung.
We've got 2 sticks of DDR133/256MB sitting aroud here ATM, as they will not co-exist with the current 256MB currently fitted into my mates ABIT KR7a board. No combination works, it's any one stick alone only :~(
-john
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@Hattig
I don't check in here as frequently as before to be honest, due to some, well, threads on the forum. I am more frequently at amigaworld.net now :-)
To answer your questions:
1) Dunno. I guess it's a possibility.
2) That's two modules. The term "banks" is a bit misleading I have to admit, since the term is frequently used instead of "rows" in the SD-RAM terminology...
3) Well, it's a menu. It's strictly ASCII. Graphics would have been an option, but for that I would have had to guarantee that there is a VESA Bios on the graphics card, and while that usually is the case, it is a limiation. Supporting both would be too much work and might not fit the ROM anymore.
4) Naw, sorry. I have to admit it looks like a PC bios, although there are some nicer touches, like for example real help for the options being displayed at the bottom of the screen (i.e. not the usual "Press F1 for Help" and it will only list "Enabled" and "Disabled" :-)
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@Downix:
Overall, looks like a decent project, now just need to see the Frieden Bros. re-submission into the CVS tree
Didn't do this yet, partly because the code is really a mess, and partly because I'm out of time. Personally, I don't think there is much in the new code that isn't already in the old code except fixes. The only thing of interest to the rest of U-Boot is probably the menu system.
I'll need to clean up the stuff considerably before re-submitting it.
I've been browsing the sources the past 15 minutes, and have to say that the Frieden bros produce some damned good code. I'm actually impressed.
Ah, thanks :-) Actually, I was always a bit embarrased by the code, since it still produces a lot of compiler warnings (which usually isn't my style at all)... Time pressure, you know...
why not visit the PPCBoot homepage and thank those hard working people as well?
Absolutely. The amout of work to start a BIOS from scratch would have made the whole project impossible. Without the hard work of Wolfgang Denk and contributors, this would have been an impossible misson.
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Ahhhhhh i want my new Amiga :-( :-( :-(
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this is good nu's cause it makes buying ram easy peazy
Don't imagine this means any old RAM will now work in the A1. I doubt that RAM that didn't work before, even in 1 slot, will work now.
Also, go for the quality stuff. The cheapo sticks may well turn out to be just jumped-up PC100 (as I discovered myself).
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@Rogue:
Thanks for your answers, greatly appreciated :)
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*applauding*
Well Done. :-)
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Good news. Thanks Hyperion. :-D