P96 RTG driver development for new hardware

[JimDrew]

I asked Toni some basic questions when we were trying to figure out the problem with monitor files not even appearing in the ScreenMode setup.

The UAEGFX monitor file source really doesn't help with the Picasso96 stuff.  It just gives you a basic monitor file skeleton (which is nice).  I am looking for info on the system patches that are available for replacement.  The PicassoIV monitor driver has a bunch in there - more than any other Picasso96 supported board.  I have disassembled the monitor file some, and I should be able to use the disassembly along with a few bits of source code from FUSION to figure out some of the system patches.  I have a PicassoIV board in my A3000, so I can look at system vectors as well and see what doesn't point to the normal Intuition/Graphics routines.

[JimDrew]

I am guessing that .elf = is the PPC version, since that is what the PPC code hunks are called.

Where do the AROS rom.bin and ext.bin get mapped into the Amiga's address space?


NOTE!! Apparently AROS already works fine with the Replay board... from the AROS website:

AROS at AmiWest 2012

     Author:Jason McMullan  Date:2012-11-02    At AmiWest 2012, Samuel Crow and Jason McMullan demonstrated AROS v1 running on the Sam460ex from ACube, the FPGA Arcade Replay from FPGA Arcade, and the Raspberry PI from the Raspberry PI Foundation.

[JimDrew]

Looks like the ext-bin.rom is PC relative and can be placed either in the 0xE0 area, or the 0xF0 area, with the main rom in the normal 0xF8 area.  I will setup a HD partition and .ini for Replay and try it.  I don't expect any issues.

I have only worked with .elf hunks on PPC machines (Amiga with PPC and PowerMacs).  I didn't realize it was a new hunk type in general.

[JimDrew]

I changed the mode ID from 0x3FF2 to 0x3FFE and saw no difference in features or performance.  I guess I need to really need to thoroughly disassemble the PicassoIV monitor file to figure out the system hooks.

[JimDrew]

sigh.. slowly im tired of reminding everybody who wants to liberate p96 or create a driver for it that there is aros cybergraphics, that would very likely be less hassle to port over to genuine amiga system than getting actual p96 sources released. hell, it even has a wrapper that accepts p96 drivers..

Where can this be found?

[JimDrew]

Cybergraphx v3 and its driver development kit are both freely available, as is the CGXAGA driver for ECS/AGA screenmodes with source.  

http://aminet.net/package/driver/video/CyberGraphX3
http://aminet.net/package/dev/misc/CGraphX-DevKit
http://aminet.net/package/driver/video/CGX-AGA

What I need is information (or an example) for creating a CLDriver.  That info is not contained in these archives.  This is the same situation as the Picasso96 card driver.  We have a skeleton driver that works, but it is missing a LOT of the hooks for accelerating functions.  If there is source code to an actual card driver (CLDriver in the case of CyberGraphics), that would be great!