P96 RTG driver development for new hardware

[kolla]

Have you considered using AROS/m68k instead? It is quite capable. I have a plan to build a minimalistic OS3.1 like AROS distribution, targeting MIST and Minimig for now as those are systems I have.

[kolla]

@kolla

tbh, i dont know how to boot your arcade with rtg support. i guess you have an 1mb kickstart? if you were softkicking from amiga kickstart you would have to:
AROSBootstrap ROM boot/amiga/aros.hunk.gz somecard.card somecard.chip
at the beginning of the s-s, but maybe it can be just compiled in, better ask toni;)

Not sure if you intended to address me? I have only booted AROS successfully on Minimig, bootstrapped from AmigaOS, loading the 1MB AROS kickstart to RAM. I intend to trim down the kickstart, throw out everything strictly not needed, so it fits within 512kB and can be loaded directly by the Minimig without going via AmigaOS. When 1.5 MB of non-chip RAM is all you have, you don't want 1MB to vanish for no good reason I know Chaos who is doing Minimig implementation for MIST is doing some work so the 1MB AROS kickstart will load on MIST.

[kolla]

in case you want to run a current nightly build they are here:
http://aros.sourceforge.net/nightly1.php

the rom images are either on the floppy or on the boot iso, boot/amiga directory, but i dont know if its a in a proper format you need. you dont need the floppy otherwise, if you can boot from hd. decompress the iso to a bootable partition and off you go.

there is currently aome problem with screenmode prefs, but otherwise it should work.

Content of AROS-20151124-amiga-m68k-boot.lha is:
aros-amiga-m68k-rom.bin  512 kB
aros-amiga-m68k-ext.bin  512 kB
aros-amiga-m68k-ram.elf   1450768 B
bootdisk-amiga-m68k.adf 901120 B

It is obvious for me what adf, rom.bin and ext.bin are, but what is the ram.elf file?

[kolla]

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executable_and_Linkable_Format

[kolla]

if there is any, aros nightly has enabled debug output on serial, baudrate 115200

Hm, isn't that a wee bit too high baudrate for an Amiga?

[kolla]

Yes, I suppose for logging it works well enough. For data transfers, be it zmodem or IP over PPP, 115200 is not at all reliable, even 57600 is stretching it. 38400 works most of the time.

[kolla]

The idea is really to keep the P96 license model untouched, in the same way Alex and Tobias originally considered it. The user gets P96 for free, but if you're developing a hardware that depends on a P96 driver, you have to license it - yes (gosh!) for money, for a sum that still has to be discussed. The money does not go into my pocket, or into the pockets of Apollo. But somebody has to keep care of the software, and somebody has to pay the party.

How is this at all relevant for MIST, FPGA Arcade and other hardware that has no dependance on P96? Remember, it is only when using Amiga softcores that it even becomes relevant to *maybe* use RTG.

Or to put it more correctly - the license model of P96 is stupid.

[kolla]

You will still need something, however P96 may not be the easiest option at that point as it was designed for add on cards and not for mixed OCS/ECS/AGA/SAGA graphics.

In my view, CyberGraphX is and was way better. P96 only became "standard" when it was chosen to be included with OS3.5 or 3.9 (I cannot remember). CyberGraphX was firmly planted in what became "the blue camp", whereas P96 became part of the hack&patch mess we currently know as "the red camp".

[kolla]

As far as I'm aware developers don't have to pay any licence fee to develop a CGX driver.

The only viable business model.

The end user is theoretically supposed to pay for CGX if they like using it but the free trial is fully functional with no time limit and CGX3 has been long abandoned for CGX5 which is MorphOS exclusive.

Also, CyberGraphX was something _anyone_ could buy, not just "manufacturers". I have personally bought CyberGraphX 4 at least twice, as a user. P96 is only something I have only really used with UAE and Mediator, though I have also tried it on various other hardware (CV64, PicassoIV... stuff I have mostly gotten rid of).