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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Topic started by: krashan on December 07, 2012, 06:54:49 PM

Title: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: krashan on December 07, 2012, 06:54:49 PM
It's nearly 12 years since a group of hardcore amigans lead to a little commotion in the Amiga market, releasing to the world their own creation - Prometheus PCI card :)

It was a great challenge for each one of us, perhaps on the verge of madness. Yet, we strongly believed in what we were doing and gave it our best. For various reasons our plans didn't come up as expected, but this is how the life goes. We have no doubt, that it was a very valuable experience for us (at least for those sincerely signed below).

Once again, we would like to stirr things up a little bit. We have decided to give you, the world, a complete documentation, plans, firmware and all the files necessary to create your own Zorro3 PCI bridge. You can freely modify, copy or use them for a basis of your own construction and even build an exact copy of Prometheus. There is just one rule. It has to be free. Whatever you create, either by using our work as a whole or just a part of it, must be free.


Check it out:

http://krashan.ppa.pl/articles/prometheus/

Sounds like fun? We hope so, because we have more suprises. But next one will come from the good guys of E3b.


Best regards,

Filip Dąb-Mirowski
Grzegorz Kraszewski




Work on Prometheus hardware didn`t stop. For a new Prometheus based hardware, DaVinci, the whole CPLD design was revised and written from scratch by E3B. To track down the DMA issue quite some investigations were made, and after identifying the root of problem the Prometheus CPLD design was equipped with a new PCI arbiter, including features like round robbin
fair arbitration, high priority Zorro access, enhanced PCI config mechanisms with support for PCI bridges and some other enhancements which may be discussed later on.
Unfortunately the DaVinci project was stopped after fully working prototype card was running. The software part was rewritten and is being maintained by Tobias Seiler, who contributes the software also as gift for the community. The library supports both old and new firmware Prometheus transparently.

The compiled binaries are being made public for free, so you can simply upgrade your own Prometheus - use it, as you like, as long as no profit is being made from it. We provide some small manual on how you can flash the CPLDs of your Prometheus card, and on request assist you on specific questions. If you feel like giving us some feedback, dont hesitate to contact us - I`m sure we will find some small gift ideas :)
Please understand that the source codes of the new CPLD design are notbeing disclosed. There's load of work involved, and quite some experience which we dont feel to give away for free.

So please enjoy your new Prometheus CPLD upgrade - hope you like it as
much we enjoyed the development work!

Web page link will be http://www.e3b.de/prometheus/

Michael Boehmer
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: XDelusion on December 07, 2012, 09:11:19 PM
Cool!
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: ognix on December 07, 2012, 09:55:57 PM
A great gift for the Amiga community!
Thanks a lot!  :-)
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: Zac67 on December 07, 2012, 10:07:59 PM
Awesome - if now only Michael B, would release those DMA capable firmwares I suppose he did for you... ;)

PS: the link for the ByteBlaster circuit is a bit off.

PPS: duh - I guess I should've read the whole post before going berserk over your release! It's all there! =8^O
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: Duce on December 07, 2012, 10:45:46 PM
Very nice, big ups for getting this into open source.
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: jj on December 07, 2012, 10:49:03 PM
wow.........thats  amazing news and very generous.  Thank you
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: yssing on December 08, 2012, 12:02:36 AM
very cool :)
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: Matt_H on December 08, 2012, 02:34:05 AM
@ Krashan

I had no idea Prometheus was your design. Very cool, and thanks for the release. I hope this means someone like AmigaKit can commission a production run...
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: billt on December 08, 2012, 02:38:44 AM
This is really cool news!
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: mboehmer_e3b on December 08, 2012, 01:34:30 PM
Quote from: Zac67;717996
Awesome - if now only Michael B, would release those DMA capable firmwares I suppose he did for you... ;)


He will. We are just doing some tests for the necessary release of ne library, Tobias Seiler is quite busy on that right now.

For me, Prometheus "business" is hobby now, so please understand that I cannot spend just lot of spare time into it. Family first :)

Michael
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: ChaosLord on December 08, 2012, 01:41:42 PM
Quote from: mboehmer_e3b;718092

For me, Prometheus "business" is hobby now, so please understand that I cannot spend just lot of spare time into it. Family first :)

Michael


We, the people of the Amigaverse, are your family. :knuddel:
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: mboehmer_e3b on December 08, 2012, 02:45:23 PM
Quote from: ChaosLord;718093
We, the people of the Amigaverse, are your family. :knuddel:


Well, here's some little person nagging on my feet, claiming that this is the falsification of the truth :)

Michael
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: Zac67 on December 08, 2012, 03:16:41 PM
Quote from: mboehmer_e3b;718092
He will. We are just doing some tests for the necessary release of ne library, Tobias Seiler is quite busy on that right now.


Wow, patience will be rewarded! Maybe we can wait for a bit longer... ;)

Many thanks to all involved!
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: Crumb on December 09, 2012, 11:31:27 AM
thank you!
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: Heiroglyph on December 12, 2012, 06:33:25 AM
Wow, this is great!

My Prometheus has served me well.  Now if something goes horribly wrong it's at least fixable.

The DMA fix would be very welcome.

Thanks guys!
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: xPhilx on December 12, 2012, 12:00:44 PM
Fantastic news and very generous. I appreciate all the hard work that has been, and continues to be put into the development of Prometheus. Thank you guys, each and every one of you involved!
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: som99 on December 12, 2012, 12:04:06 PM
Great news, a big thanks for your hard work and releasing it open  source!
Thanks!
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: AltRN8 on June 20, 2013, 09:29:21 PM
Any word on the update being released?
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: carvedeye on June 20, 2013, 10:18:16 PM
Awesome news :)
Title: Re: Prometheus PCI Bridge Goes Opensource
Post by: AltRN8 on November 22, 2013, 02:00:17 AM
Any updates on the update being released? I haven't seen any changes to the webpage so I was wondering if this was still a possibility?