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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: marmotta on April 02, 2016, 11:24:00 AM

Title: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on April 02, 2016, 11:24:00 AM
Hallo, I have a small issue with the scsi...

I have two fast disks, ibm DCAS34330 and Seagate Barracuda (all 4gb) but I not able to have speed over 5mb/sec. Sysinfo show me 4,5mb/sec, scsispeed 5mb/sec at max.

I have active termination, short cable, jumper is at synchronous and I have Buster 11.

My config is: A3640 v3.1, 16mb, kick 3.1, wb3.1, net a2065, merlin 4mb. No ide devices.

Maybe the merlin use to much zorroIII bandwith?

Another problem: at normal use I not have problems, but if I go in the boot menu and exit.... I have the kick screen! I need to manual reset to start hdd load. Same problem with wb3.9 kickstart replacement: it load the kick replacement and reboot to kick screen... I need to reset to loading the workbench. Why?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: mechy on April 03, 2016, 01:47:50 AM
Quote from: marmotta;806697
Hallo, I have a small issue with the scsi...

I have two fast disks, ibm DCAS34330 and Seagate Barracuda (all 4gb) but I not able to have speed over 5mb/sec. Sysinfo show me 4,5mb/sec, scsispeed 5mb/sec at max.

I have active termination, short cable, jumper is at synchronous and I have Buster 11.

My config is: A3640 v3.1, 16mb, kick 3.1, wb3.1, net a2065, merlin 4mb. No ide devices.

Maybe the merlin use to much zorroIII bandwith?

Another problem: at normal use I not have problems, but if I go in the boot menu and exit.... I have the kick screen! I need to manual reset to start hdd load. Same problem with wb3.9 kickstart replacement: it load the kick replacement and reboot to kick screen... I need to reset to loading the workbench. Why?

Do you have the latest rev 7.0 roms for the 4091?
Are you using active termination?


the ibm drive is a bit slow at only 5400 rpm,looking at the data sheet its rated 40Mbps external transfer rate,and guess what...this is about 5MB/s :) this drive is doing what it is supposed to.

The seagate barracuda(is this the one that sounds like a jet plane???) you dont give a model so i cant look it up, if its the 7200rpm version it should do a bit better i would think.

Things to check/try:

What filesystem are you using? FFS is slow, use SFS or PFS-AIO
Try the seagate alone if possible.
use active terminators.
try upgrading the roms if possible.

There could be contention with the merlin-those cards were known to be problematic,some even with the upgrades, you might take it out and try the tests.
Sometimes booting with a clean workbench 3x floppy and running the speed tests will give a clear true idea of speed.

Good luck and let us know what you find.
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on April 03, 2016, 09:10:32 AM
Quote from: mechy;806724
Do you have the latest rev 7.0 roms for the 4091?
Are you using active termination?


the ibm drive is a bit slow at only 5400 rpm,looking at the data sheet its rated 40Mbps external transfer rate,and guess what...this is about 5MB/s :) this drive is doing what it is supposed to.

The seagate barracuda(is this the one that sounds like a jet plane???) you dont give a model so i cant look it up, if its the 7200rpm version it should do a bit better i would think.

Things to check/try:

What filesystem are you using? FFS is slow, use SFS or PFS-AIO
Try the seagate alone if possible.
use active terminators.
try upgrading the roms if possible.

There could be contention with the merlin-those cards were known to be problematic,some even with the upgrades, you might take it out and try the tests.
Sometimes booting with a clean workbench 3x floppy and running the speed tests will give a clear true idea of speed.

Good luck and let us know what you find.


Thanks for the reply :)

Yes the barracuda is the jet! Is st15150n.

The A4091 is the DKB version, is the latest version? How I see the rom version?

File system is FFS, with FFS the speed does not go beyond 5mb/sec?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: mechy on April 03, 2016, 04:54:58 PM
Quote from: marmotta;806740
Thanks for the reply :)

Yes the barracuda is the jet! Is st15150n.

The A4091 is the DKB version, is the latest version? How I see the rom version?

File system is FFS, with FFS the speed does not go beyond 5mb/sec?

The barracuda is rated 10MB/s max burst speed, so i would think it could do more than 5MB/s.

look on the 4091 card , there should be a label on 2 chips stating what version roms. You can possibly version the scsi.device it uses in cli to find it.

FFS is known to be slow. sfs or pfs would prob. help.

are you using active termination and quality cables?

How do you stand the sound of that barracuda, its so loud and so hot,you could fry a egg on them ..lol

modern 10K rpm drives are likely quieter and run cooler than that thing :)
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on April 03, 2016, 08:08:12 PM
The code in the chip is M5F / 391592-02

On cli "version scsi.device" show me 40.12

My internal terminator is the original commodore active terminator, external terminator is the IBM Hdd... in the manual of this hdd is write: "terminator is certificated fast scsi2 compliant..." is active or passive???
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on April 05, 2016, 03:03:17 PM
Ok, I ordered ad external active termination and the latest rom 40.13

But I have another question, I have checked the internal voltage of pin 26 (term power) and is ok 4,70v. But from external cable I have 0v.... I need to supply the terminator from external drive?

Is correct? The A4091 supply the internal power term but not external?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: woof on April 05, 2016, 03:18:16 PM
hello

Check if cpu use cache
Check if this A4000 really got an a4000's 3.1 kickstart (I mean not a 3.1 rom from another machine)


Alain Thellier
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on April 05, 2016, 03:25:53 PM
Quote from: woof;806827
hello

Check if cpu use cache
Check if this A4000 really got an a4000's 3.1 kickstart (I mean not a 3.1 rom from another machine)


Alain Thellier


Cache is enabled and the kickstart is 40.68, it's ok?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: mechy on April 05, 2016, 11:12:40 PM
Quote from: marmotta;806826
Ok, I ordered ad external active termination and the latest rom 40.13

But I have another question, I have checked the internal voltage of pin 26 (term power) and is ok 4,70v. But from external cable I have 0v.... I need to supply the terminator from external drive?

Is correct? The A4091 supply the internal power term but not external?

that is useable on the internal, but it appears you need to supply term power for external. Many drives can be set to do this. without power, termination will not work. Good luck.
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on April 05, 2016, 11:20:12 PM
Quote from: mechy;806847
that is useable on the internal, but it appears you need to supply term power for external. Many drives can be set to do this. without power, termination will not work. Good luck.


Yes! I have connected the syquest on external port and now I have the term power at pin 26 :)

I only wait the active terminator and new rom
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: woof on April 06, 2016, 08:56:21 AM
>kickstart is 40.68, it's ok

I dont know exactly : But I had a long time ago an Amiga 4040+DKB4091+SCSI drives and i had lots of problems too ...
Years later I discovered (when using this rom in WinUAE) that the kickstart rom wasnt an Amiga 4040 one

Alain Thellier
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on April 06, 2016, 12:31:07 PM
Quote from: woof;806863
>kickstart is 40.68, it's ok

I dont know exactly : But I had a long time ago an Amiga 4040+DKB4091+SCSI drives and i had lots of problems too ...
Years later I discovered (when using this rom in WinUAE) that the kickstart rom wasnt an Amiga 4040 one

Alain Thellier


How I check this?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: woof on April 06, 2016, 02:45:34 PM
Dump the rom
then check it inside WinUAE
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on April 06, 2016, 03:49:37 PM
Quote from: woof;806867
Dump the rom
then check it inside WinUAE


I used transrom and kickinfo, the rom is correct, is for A4000

With kick info I see scsidisk is version 40.12.... if I change the rom on A4091 it replace in ram the kickstart scsi.device with new version???

The command "version scsi.device" show me the kickstart version or A4091 rom version? :confused:
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: Damion on April 06, 2016, 09:50:50 PM
The A4091 ROM won't replace anything in kickstart, rather it should should show up renamed as "2nd.scsi.device" (any IDE drives would continue to be managed by the scsi.device located in the Kickstart ROM).

Due to reliability issues with Z3 DMA, the transfer rate you're reporting is normal for the 4091. DMA to motherboard RAM (using a 3640 for example) is generally about 1 MB/s higher than DMA to accelerator RAM (and a bit faster still if the motherboard RAM is set to 60ns). Filesystem operations test roughly equivalent to accelerators I have here with onboard SCSI, so in practice, the 4091 "feels" very responsive using PFS3, and CPU use is negligible. (Sidenote: the Fastlane Z3 can be programmed to have a higher transfer rate than the 4091, but at the expense of CPU time). I use a 4091 with a CF AztecMonster in my 4000D, and really love the card.

Dave Haynie wrote lots of interesting info about the 4091 (various websites, and check the usenet archive).
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on April 06, 2016, 09:56:06 PM
Quote from: Damion;806880
The A4091 ROM won't replace anything in kickstart, rather it should should show up renamed as "2nd.scsi.device" (any IDE drives would continue to be managed by the scsi.device located in the Kickstart ROM).

Due to reliability issues with Z3 DMA, the transfer rate you're reporting is normal for the 4091. DMA to motherboard RAM (using a 3640 for example) is generally about 1 MB/s higher than DMA to accelerator RAM (and a bit faster still if the motherboard RAM is set to 60ns). Filesystem operations test roughly equivalent to accelerators I have here with onboard SCSI, so in practice, the 4091 "feels" very responsive using PFS3, and CPU use is negligible. (Sidenote: the Fastlane Z3 can be programmed to have a higher transfer rate than the 4091, but at the expense of CPU time). I use a 4091 with a CF AztecMonster in my 4000D, and really love the card.

Dave Haynie wrote lots of interesting info about the 4091 (various websites, and check the usenet archive).


I not have any device in the ide port and the A4091 use scsi.device, if I connect one device to ide my A4091 change device to 2nd.scsi.device. In my config 2nd.scsi.device not exist.

How I set the ram at 60ns? I only need to have 60ns simm?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: Damion on April 06, 2016, 10:30:19 PM
Hmm.. IIRC, there is a utility named "SpeedRamsey". I'm sure there were a few others ("Report+" comes to mind).
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: zipper on April 06, 2016, 10:32:58 PM
http://aminet.net/util/wb/SystemPrefs.lha
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on April 06, 2016, 10:40:40 PM
Thanks, but I verified and I not have all 60ns simm but a mixed 70/60ns simm...

But two questions remain: with standard ram is impossible to go faster than 5mb/sec with scsi?

And... if I run the command "version scsi.device" it show the version of A4091 or Kickstart rom? If is kickstart rom, how I find A4091 rom version?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: mechy on April 06, 2016, 10:52:40 PM
Quote from: Damion;806880
The A4091 ROM won't replace anything in kickstart, rather it should should show up renamed as "2nd.scsi.device" (any IDE drives would continue to be managed by the scsi.device located in the Kickstart ROM).

Due to reliability issues with Z3 DMA, the transfer rate you're reporting is normal for the 4091. DMA to motherboard RAM (using a 3640 for example) is generally about 1 MB/s higher than DMA to accelerator RAM (and a bit faster still if the motherboard RAM is set to 60ns). Filesystem operations test roughly equivalent to accelerators I have here with onboard SCSI, so in practice, the 4091 "feels" very responsive using PFS3, and CPU use is negligible. (Sidenote: the Fastlane Z3 can be programmed to have a higher transfer rate than the 4091, but at the expense of CPU time). I use a 4091 with a CF AztecMonster in my 4000D, and really love the card.

Dave Haynie wrote lots of interesting info about the 4091 (various websites, and check the usenet archive).

What speeds are you seeing with 4091 and aztec monster?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: Damion on April 07, 2016, 05:15:28 AM
Quote from: mechy;806886
What speeds are you seeing with 4091 and aztec monster?


It's been a while, but I recall performance for reads was 4-5 MB/s (the same setup on my TekMagic 2060 was about 9 MB/s, measured with RSCP (http://aminet.net/package/util/moni/RSCP)). Filesystem benchmarks were the same as accelerators I've tested with onboard SCSI, so in practice (booting, opening windows, etc) it feels really zippy. It also works flawless copying to and from drives on my DENEB (funny, considering it crashes when copying between two drives on the DENEB, but that's another story...).
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on April 15, 2016, 01:52:17 PM
Arrived active terminator and new eprom!

But if I run: "version scsi.device" have the same result... 40.12! Why?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: mechy on April 15, 2016, 05:47:21 PM
Quote from: marmotta;807243
Arrived active terminator and new eprom!

But if I run: "version scsi.device" have the same result... 40.12! Why?

you are doing version on the amiga 4000 scsi.device in 3.1 rom?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on April 15, 2016, 06:18:45 PM
Quote from: mechy;807250
you are doing version on the amiga 4000 scsi.device in 3.1 rom?


I think so... but how I check a4091 rom? I not have 2nd.scsi.device but only scsi.device!

My system boot with kickstart scsi.device instead of a4091 scsi.device in the eprom? :crazy:
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on April 16, 2016, 03:07:52 PM
Ok, I have used scout and it show 40.13! ...version show 40.12... Is a bug?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on April 18, 2016, 10:32:27 AM
Quote from: Damion;806895
It's been a while, but I recall performance for reads was 4-5 MB/s (the same setup on my TekMagic 2060 was about 9 MB/s, measured with RSCP (http://aminet.net/package/util/moni/RSCP)). Filesystem benchmarks were the same as accelerators I've tested with onboard SCSI, so in practice (booting, opening windows, etc) it feels really zippy. It also works flawless copying to and from drives on my DENEB (funny, considering it crashes when copying between two drives on the DENEB, but that's another story...).

You have the A4091, true? You can confirm my boot-up steps?

If I power-on my Amiga it load wb from scsi without a problem, if I reset... no problem. If I go to boot menu (left+right mouse button) and continue the boot process (with or without startup-sequence) my Amiga go to the kickstart screen! I need to reset for load a wb. Is a normal?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: mechy on April 19, 2016, 04:08:27 PM
You may of seen this:
http://www.hough.ca/personal/4091.html#a3640
An interesting note here about how rev 3.1 A3640 needs u209 to be -03(aka like on rev3.2) or there are DMA problems supposedly.I never noticed this way back when i had a 4091.
not sure if this would impact speed.
At the end of the day a quality accelerator with scsi onboard is always best :)
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on April 19, 2016, 05:49:00 PM
Quote from: mechy;807353
You may of seen this:
http://www.hough.ca/personal/4091.html#a3640
An interesting note here about how rev 3.1 A3640 needs u209 to be -03(aka like on rev3.2) or there are DMA problems supposedly.I never noticed this way back when i had a 4091.
not sure if this would impact speed.
At the end of the day a quality accelerator with scsi onboard is always best :)


My U209 is -02 :(

But in this link say the 02 is correct: http://vintagecomputercafe.com/amiga/A4091%20ROM.txt (http://vintagecomputercafe.com/amiga/A4091%20ROM.txt)
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on June 12, 2017, 02:46:28 PM
I changed all capacitors on the A4091 but the problem is not solved...
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: mechy on June 12, 2017, 05:47:01 PM
Quote from: marmotta;826984
I changed all capacitors on the A4091 but the problem is not solved...

I think you are getting all you can from that combo. If you want faster scsi i would suggest a good accelerator with scsi(not apollo).
Cyberstorm MK3/ppc will get you UWscsi at around 30-40MB/s.
warp engine, cyberstorm MKII,gvp4060DT,etc around 9-10MB/s
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on June 12, 2017, 06:37:21 PM
Quote from: mechy;826992
I think you are getting all you can from that combo. If you want faster scsi i would suggest a good accelerator with scsi(not apollo).
Cyberstorm MK3/ppc will get you UWscsi at around 30-40MB/s.
warp engine, cyberstorm MKII,gvp4060DT,etc around 9-10MB/s


The problem is not the speed, I not found why if I go in the boot menu I see the kickstart screen... Only I have this problem?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: amiadudeorwat on June 12, 2017, 11:30:46 PM
The A4091 doesn't need rev 3.2 A3640, 3.1 should work just fine.  Also the problem is the Motherboard RAM/A3640, it was designed for the A3000 so the crippled A4000 Motherboard memory with the A3640 is at fault for the 4-5MB/s speeds.  Remember to set Synchronous mode in the RDB and if possible get some Z3 RAM.  With an 3128 or something like it with higher priority than motherboard memory you can get 7MB/s.  But since the 3128 is slower still than A4000 motherboard RAM for CPU access the rest of your system slows down slightly.
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on June 13, 2017, 12:16:08 AM
Quote from: amiadudeorwat;827007
The A4091 doesn't need rev 3.2 A3640, 3.1 should work just fine.  Also the problem is the Motherboard RAM/A3640, it was designed for the A3000 so the crippled A4000 Motherboard memory with the A3640 is at fault for the 4-5MB/s speeds.  Remember to set Synchronous mode in the RDB and if possible get some Z3 RAM.  With an 3128 or something like it with higher priority than motherboard memory you can get 7MB/s.  But since the 3128 is slower still than A4000 motherboard RAM for CPU access the rest of your system slows down slightly.


And for boot problem? Why if I enter in the early startup menu and I press boot or boot without startup-sequence I have the kickstart screen? When I reset the hdd load without problems...
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: SACC-guy on June 13, 2017, 12:47:37 AM
Quote from: marmotta;827009
And for boot problem? Why if I enter in the early startup menu and I press boot or boot without startup-sequence I have the kickstart screen? When I reset the hdd load without problems...
To me this opens the question..

How do you use the early boot screen correctly?
Since the Early start menu shows all devices, do you have to select?
Are the different part bootable? the same priority numbers?
Do you have to enable/disable?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on June 13, 2017, 12:59:20 AM
Quote from: SACC-guy;827010
To me this opens the question..

How do you use the early boot screen correctly?
Since the Early start menu shows all devices, do you have to select?
Are the different part bootable? the same priority numbers?
Do you have to enable/disable?


In the early startup menu I have my partitions (dh0, dh1) at device scsi-1, all is enabled and I can select the dh1 (workbench bootable). When I press boot appears the screen of floppy fly in to the drive... I reset, all ok..  is very strange!
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: amiadudeorwat on June 13, 2017, 01:30:40 AM
It could be your drive is taking too long to spin-up.  Try flipping dipswitch 5, this gives it more time to spin the drive up.

DIP switch settings        
switch 1-3- SCSI ID        
switch 4- fast bus: ON - disabled        
switch 5- delayed autoboot: ON - enabled        
switch 6- synchronous mode: ON - disabled        
switch 7- termination: ON - disabled        
switch 8- LUN: ON - enabled
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on June 13, 2017, 02:16:59 AM
Quote from: amiadudeorwat;827012
It could be your drive is taking too long to spin-up.  Try flipping dipswitch 5, this gives it more time to spin the drive up.

DIP switch settings        
switch 1-3- SCSI ID        
switch 4- fast bus: ON - disabled        
switch 5- delayed autoboot: ON - enabled        
switch 6- synchronous mode: ON - disabled        
switch 7- termination: ON - disabled        
switch 8- LUN: ON - enabled


When I click on "boot" the hdd is alredy spin and initialized... delay not help

If we are confirm is not a normal for a4091... I suspect a hardware problem but I can't found it
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: amiadudeorwat on June 13, 2017, 03:07:34 AM
I don't think it's a hardware problem.  Could you post your system specs again currently?  Are you using Aztec Monster, are there any IDE devices?  Did you try PFS-AIO?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on June 13, 2017, 05:50:53 AM
Quote from: amiadudeorwat;827015
I don't think it's a hardware problem.  Could you post your system specs again currently?  Are you using Aztec Monster, are there any IDE devices?  Did you try PFS-AIO?


I have tried some configurations, my A4000 is recapped, a3640 is v3.1, buster 11 and 3.1 rom (original not flashed).

I not use Ide devices
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: amiadudeorwat on June 13, 2017, 10:23:45 PM
Quote from: marmotta;827019
I have tried some configurations, my A4000 is recapped, a3640 is v3.1, buster 11 and 3.1 rom (original not flashed).

I not use Ide devices

Have you tried with the dipswitch 7 termination off?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on June 14, 2017, 01:27:19 AM
Quote from: amiadudeorwat;827069
Have you tried with the dipswitch 7 termination off?


Yes I have external active terminator
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: amiadudeorwat on June 14, 2017, 02:45:52 AM
Quote from: marmotta;827079
Yes I have external active terminator

And an internal one?
Title: Re: A4000 and A4091
Post by: marmotta on June 14, 2017, 02:50:58 AM
Quote from: amiadudeorwat;827086
And an internal one?


Yes, the original active terminator of A4091