IDE - usb through a Spider - a good alternative to powerflyer?

[mboehmer_e3b]

Is this, then, inaccurate?
If the 4000 supports dma to the mediator from fast & chip memory...

A4000 with Buster 9 and 11 does support DMA to fast memory on the motherboard and the chip memory, as well as between Zorro III cards. DMA from Zorro III to CPU board memory must be supported by the CPU card (e.g. all phase5 cards do).

Regarding the Mediat*r4000: it has six Zorro III slots (plus one for the bridging card), but the Buster has only five bus request lines... strange. But to decide if it does DMA from Mediator to Amiga, check the following:

- does it work with Buster 7? If so, it is non-DMA, as Buster 7 doesn't support Zorro III DMA *at all*. There's no way of checking the Buster revision in software, so you would have to activate DMA by a software switch.

- does the software ask about Buster 9 or 11? DMA is buggy on Buster 9, and you need to take some workarounds for this, so if the software doesn't care about these differences, DMA is unlikely.

- check the bridging card between Zorro III and PCI: check pins 60 (/BRn) and 64 (/BGn) on the Zorro connector. These two lines are mandatory for Zorro III DMA (as well as E7M on pin 92); if they are not connected, Zorro III DMA is *not* possible at all. If they are connected and DMA is active, then short low pulses on /BRn (140ns, synchronized to raising edge of E7M) must be there, as well as longer phases with /BGn being low (which is DMA active).

Michael

[mboehmer_e3b]

Hi ChaosLord,

Greetings person with the unpronounceable name.  

C'mon, it's not my fault that your grand-grand-grand-parents did forget the umlauts when they left Europe centuries ago :-D

I wish more people would write messages like yours, all chock full of delicious and yummy technical infos!

Sorry if it was too technical, but I was tired of some guys repeating what they see written on webpages, believing it without ever thinking about it :getmad:

Michael    

[mboehmer_e3b]

(These restrictions allow their usb driver working ONLY with the Spider card hardware.)

If ones takes some minutes of thinking, one can come to the following conclusions:

- Spider(II) are normal bulk NEC USB cards
- software must distinguish a Spider(II) from NEC cards
- Spider(II) must have something different
- Spider(II) work under Windows and Linux
- difference is no hardware modification
- PCI cards have configuration ROM like Zorro cards
- the difference must be in some Flash memory
- the NEC USB controller has no Flash memory
- there's a SPI EEPROM on the card (like on NICs)
- compare PCI listings from a Spider(II) and a NEC card
- find the difference...

So no need to mess around with software code :-)

Nevertheless pirating code is illegal. As well as altering user data without permission.

Michael

[mboehmer_e3b]

I know that Mr E3B has been trying to repair the Prometheus design for many months, as the original Prometheus does not have working PCI-to-PCI, and does not have DMA to Amiga motherboard at all.

Hey, you are da man, you must be ingenious to find out... it was pronounced on several new pages.
But your information is outdated, as PCI-PCI DMA is running for months now on my Prometheus...

About direct PCI-to-Zorro III DMA conversion... well. I know it is not worth the time to explain to you, but if you were familiar with Buster design, you should know that it is not possible due to timeout constraints on both the PCI bus and the Buster side.

Michael

[mboehmer_e3b]

Out of curiousity, is there any timeframe for when ordinary users will be able to send their boards in for reflashing?

We are running tests now with some external testers, and are evaluating the handling of the boards (shipment etc).

Please give us some time... it's far better to have it tested into the deep than giving away a fix which does not keep it promises (like the last reflash from the original designer :-(

Michael

[mboehmer_e3b]

...there were always some "eyewitnesses" saying that PCI-to-PCI works well in their Prometheus boards.

Yes, and always some people have seen a working Shark or Dragon... har har har... but seriously. The last DMA fix from Matay did work between PCI slots, but could be interfered from Zorro accesses, locking up the PCI bus.

You'd better wrote that making DMA to Amiga motherboard is too complicated for you.  

Your struggling against reality given by existing bus and chip specifications is admirable.

Michael