New unofficial FlashUpdate for the BlizzardPPC 68060

[Cosmos Amiga]

As you know well, the WarpUP solution is better than the PowerUP for the BlizzardPPC...

The ppc.library inside the onboard flashrom must be removed for WarpUP working and an ugly reboot at the first boot is required when using BPPCFix...

Ralph Schmidt the author always refused to remove his ppc.library from the firmware : it was his choice...

So, I decided to mock him with disassembling, and a new FlashUpdate version is born

This new unofficial version will flash a new firmware 44.72 into the eeprom 29F040B without the ppc.library 46.35 and the Amiga will now boot directly to the Workbench, ready for WarpUP !

Was tested successfully on five different BlizzardPPC 68060 here, with and without scsi. And a friend of mine DenisPaul reported ok too at his home !

No 68040 version planned, users have to upgrade their cards with a 060 (I offer this upgrade for 25 euro + the 060 rev2 at 80 euro + shipping back to you and I keep the old 040 for the gold)

Enjoy : http://leblogdecosmos.blogspot.fr/2015/10/flashupdate-blizzardppc.html


Warning for flashing, you have to :

1) Power OFF
2) Put some fastram on the BlizzardPPC
3) Hold key "s" while booting and press both mouse buttons to enter the AmigaOS bootmenu
4) Disable every HD Volume
5) Boot WITHOUT the startup-sequence AND hold "s" again while booting
6) Start the FlashUpdate from a floppy
7) Then wait until it completes...

** If you reset inbetween you may destroy your firmware and you may not be able to boot again. The only solution will be the firmware eeprom desoldering **

[Cosmos Amiga]

I have a 040 version of the BPPC board. wil the removal of ppc.library help anything for the 040 performance or compatibility to the warpup package?

Sorry, only for the 060 version...

[Cosmos Amiga]

So...if I understand what you are saying, you modified Ralph's software and you are offering the modified software for distribution?
It would probably be better to just publish the instructions needed to replicate what tou have done.

I release it as a patch for the last FlashUpdate available...

Possibly... but it does bring out issues about intellectual property rights. And if the PowerUP developers didn't want to modify their boot code for a competing product, well at that point WarmUP developers were free to develop their own boot code. After all, if their solution is that superior, they shouldn't have a problem creating such a small piece of software.

BlizzardPPC are now 18 years old, and no longer in production...

For me, WarpUP vs PowerUP was a fake war : both teams wanna destroy the Classic with division to create a new fully PowerPC hardware... I guess they have this idea/goal since the creation of the dual PPC/68k boards...