Sonnet PPC PCI Card

[arnljot]

PIPE DREAM MODE ON:

The Sonnet PCI PPC Card is now in stock: see here at about $60 for a 400mhz G4

If one had the skills. What licenses are needed (WarpUp) to make a driver?

Or would one have to do it by rev engeneering the current WarpUp release? Or are there WarpUp docs available which says how to make a new PPC HAL for WarpUp?

[arnljot]

@alexh
I know about the sonnet + shark relations. Thats how I first noticed the card as someone pointed out that they are twins, infact spitting images of eachother. Maybe it was you

So now I have two questions:

1) What can make the card incompatible with Classic amiga PCI boards

2) (Still) What resources and legal stuff is needed to make a WarpUp HAL for such a card, granted that a hardware superhero looked at it

[arnljot]

@ddniUK

LOL, I know I invited to "Pipe dream mode", but that just... hehe

@alexh
I would guest that for os3.9 they hit legal issues. Maybe no license for the WarpUp HAL.

If it was for OS4, then surely it was legal and not technical. The technical issues must have been related to a coldfire versions 68k handling, no?

[arnljot]

@da9000 & alexh

Very interesting. I see what kind of limitations one could have like alexh points out. But like he also says, one could invert the roles, so that the 68k moves data for processing on the sonnet. This to overcome an assumed limitation where the G4 on the sonnet doesn´t have direct access to amiga hardware registers.

---
What I am prepared to bring to the table:
1) Contact Sonnet and see what support can be gotten from them.

2) Contact Elbox directly and simply ask.

3) Offer a bounty:
- I have a spare Amiga4000D whith a 060@50mhz holding a 180mhz 604e ppc. I would outfit this with a PCI graphics card, mediator and sonnet g4 card to anyone who has the skills, time and motivation to attempt this.

The bounty will be offered if we can first establish that this might be done. If #1 or #2 fails. Then the endevaour is over.

Id like to hear what bloodline, hans, alexh and piru thinks about this. Platon42, mboehmer, da9000 and other of the old boys too of course!

[arnljot]

@alexh
I was thinking about the AInc vs. HVOF case, not realising that it´s only from april 2007.

Maybe it was like you first said. That the DMA issues and a rework of the DMA card wasn´t doable cost wise, and that they neither could defend a $400 markup.

I remember once reading that the SharkPPC needed a hardware upgrade to the Mediator. But can¨t seem to find the source now. Also, I think that the Shark PPC was a OS4 only product, maybe they didn´t see it viable to market it for Classic WarpUP customers.

That´s my angle. I want to find out if there is something the os 3.x community can do here.

[arnljot]

Hmm

This from the dragon FAQ might give a hint:

Dragon FAQ wrote:
Q: Will using SharkPPC card be possible with DRAGON?
A: Yes. SharkPPC can be used in the PCI slot of the DRAGON board as well as in the PCI slot of the MEDIATOR board. What's more, due to the enhanced DRAGON's DMA capabilities, the SharkPPC card in the DRAGON PCI slot has direct access to all resources of the Amiga 1200 motherboard as well as to DRAGON's DDR memory and all cards in the DRAGON's AGP and PCI slots.
As we informed many times, SharkPPC production will not start before the final version of AmigaOS4.0 is released.

[arnljot]

@alexh

Do you think we can find a capable programmer who would be interessted in the bounty I suggested?

I think that if such a person could get it to work under 3.9, then perhaps some of the experiences could be passed on to 4.x

It´t not a big thing if it could be pulled off. Just a nice little extension to the Amiga

[arnljot]

@alexh

I´m not familiar with that, what happened?

EDIT: oh, you must have edited

[arnljot]

@alexh

Yes I see what you mean. Though I hope that these point´s make a difference

2005 vs. 2008: Realism. Back in 2005 there was still hope Today efforts put into Amiga development is for the enthusiasts. Not for great masses, or even thousand of Amiga users, only the few. So things will move slowly, and things will be hard. But:

Sonnet: We might get the datasheet for the card from them.

Bounty: It´s not to entice the greed geene in a coder, but just practicality. There might be a sufficiently skilled Amiga coder out there who might not have the kit needed to look into this. The bounty seeks to cure this.

What I´m aiming for here is cynical optimism. How am I doing so far? :-D

[arnljot]

@mschulz

You wrote:
Let's go dual CPU, let's go Bi-Endian

I like that one!

Btw, good work on AROS. Do you need a new labour of love any time soon? ;-)

[arnljot]

@da9000

I´ve just committed the cyberstorm ppc to a bounty for the sonnet card now But if it doesn´t happen. Ask in a while for a csppc in amibay, and I will sell it to you for a good price if you are a os 3.x ppc utility coder. Doesn´t have to be big things, just have a pulse as a os3.x coder ;-). It will not be the extortinate ebay prices, I don´t need the money - I need Amiga PPC coders :-D

[arnljot]

I've been following this thread now and read with interest what mboehmer_e3b and mschulz have written.

To mee it seems like the case against a Sonnet card on the classic amiga is 100% water tight...

But I can't that it can be electrical limitations on the Mediator boards (might be for others), but rather with DMA and what else it can access of the classic hardware.

I'm a bit stumped that it really can be so, but I'm no hardware man, and must trust what the forementioned gentlemen have said, including also alexh.

[arnljot]

I know Tony (of WinUAE) doesn't like PPC amigas... but Imagine if UAE could wrap this card and present it to the emulated amiga as a Blizzard or Cyberstorm. That would be a little fun...

But the most use we could have for it seems to be as a "extra CPU" for a x86 AROS or Morphos machine.

It could perhaps even accellerate a SAM440 or Efika?

[arnljot]

Status update:

After having read throught this thread it seems that most, if not all people agree that using the Sonnet PCI card is impossible on the Mediator. DMA is the reason, also 3.3v vs. 5v seems to be an issue.

Also, I emailed Elbox the 13th of August, asking them on this issue. Some have reported to at least get the answer which is in their FAQ, which is "when OS 4 is out".

The subject of my email to them was "Information about your mediator product and related", it contained four questions presented in a civil and polite manner.

Due to this I don't see any point in offering a bounty for this to be developed.

Thus, I join the ranks of the cynic disillusioned and blasé  :crazy: