Mtec 1230LC

[hppacito]

Hallo everybody !

Seems, that I will win an auction on ebay, for an A1200 with what seems to be a Mtec 1230LC. Is there any more data than the blurry photo in TBBAH ?. This borad has 4MB soldered onto the pcb. Can that be expanded using... some hack ?
btw, when an accelerator is "PCMCIA" firendly, where does the RAM reside ? (read: Address z.B. 0x08000000 or 0x04000000).
Chip is in 0x00000000..0x001fffff
Fast is in 0x00200000..0x00bfffff
Slow is in 0x00c00000..0x00dbffff (I think)

And where is the RAM in for example a Blizzard 1230

thx !

[zipper]

Does it have EC 68030 chip? Some el cheapo 030 accelerators coud only address 8 MB (24bit) like 020 machines.

[Piru]

@zipper

Nonsense. 68EC030 address full 32-bit.

[Piru]

@hppacito

btw, when an accelerator is "PCMCIA" firendly, where does the RAM reside ?

If the memory is conflicting it resides at 0x00600000 (overlapping this address).

Typically non-conflicting boards have 32-bit address space, that is the memory beginning is at >= 0x01000000.

And where is the RAM in for example a Blizzard 1230

That depends on the Blizzard model. At least -II, -III and -IV have full 32-bit addressing.

[hppacito]

@Piru:

Typically non-conflicting boards have 32-bit address space, that is the memory beginning is at >= 0x01000000.

Actually internal to the processor, all addresses are 32 bit.
That could mean that they decode the full 32 bits of the address bus. Mmmm, not a big deal.

That depends on the Blizzard model. At least -II, -III and -IV have full 32-bit addressing.

So... where !?!, may you be a bit more specific with the number ?, is it important (read: the os only would use memory in the range ... to ...) ?, and how if I find how to add some more mem, is the os going to see it, do I have to run some soft/driver/oracle-invoquing-techniques ?

thx

[Piru]

@hppacito

Actually internal to the processor, all addresses are 32 bit.

Not really. 68000, 68010 and 68EC020 ignore the upper 8bit of addresses.

So... where !?!

You don't need to know.

how if I find how to add some more mem, is the os going to see it

Avail and ShowConfig.

do I have to run some soft/driver/oracle-invoquing-techniques ?

With Blizzard, no. The memory is fully 32-bit (not conflicting with PCMCIA) and autoconfig (no need to mess about with jumpers and/or drivers).

[hppacito]

Not really. 68000, 68010 and 68EC020 ignore the upper 8bit of addresses.

Ehhh, half and half.
The Ec020 doesn't ignore the upper 8 bits.
The M68020UM section 5.2.1 says that the upper 8 bits are used internally but not externally, for the on-chip cache.
The others have a 32 bit PC register, but only output 24 bits of addresses. I don't know if they don't have all the buffers to output all address lines or not. The DragonBall has a 68000 core with 32 bits of addresses extternally. So is still valid what I said.

You don't need to know

Yes, I need to know, because of the mod I am planning (read above).

Avail and ShowConfig.

And.. is going to use it, besides showing it ?

With Blizzard, no. The memory is fully 32-bit (not conflicting with PCMCIA) and autoconfig (no need to mess about with jumpers and/or drivers).

That sounds like the memory is 32 bits wide (in data).
And the autoconfig part... doesn't say nothing about the actual value to me.

Let ask a bit more directly: Do you know the actual address value, or dont ?, if you do, would you tell me ? If you don't can you find it for me ?

thx.

(btw: What is that difficult to understand about what I asked ?)

[zipper]

Piru wrote:
Nonsense. 68EC030 address full 32-bit.

OK, but several accelerators have max capability of(4 or) 8 MB, because of having just soldered memory or budget controller:
Viper 1230 LC, 1230/28 RTC
Mtec 1230 LC (4), 1230/ RTC
Elbox 1230 LC, TRA 1200
Harms TJA 1230
etc.

[Piru]

@hppacito

Yes, I need to know, because of the mod I am planning (read above).

I don't see any sensible description of a mod anywhere, explanation what you're trying to do, or why you'd need to know the start address.

And.. is going to use it, besides showing it ?

!?
Ehh, if it is shown by these tools, it is in use already!

That sounds like the memory is 32 bits wide (in data).

I didn't say anything about the data width of the memory. It is 32-bit though.

And the autoconfig part... doesn't say nothing about the actual value to me.

What value?

Let ask a bit more directly: Do you know the actual address value, or dont ?, if you do, would you tell me ? If you don't can you find it for me ?

The addresses depend on the memory configuration of the board, there is no clear start address, except that it's always >= 0x01000000 to avoid conflicts. If you need to know more than that, disassemble the different Blizzard roms.

(btw: What is that difficult to understand about what I asked ?)

Why is it so difficult to explain wtf you're trying to do?

[Piru]

@zipper

OK, but several accelerators have max capability of(4 or) 8 MB, because of having just soldered memory or budget controller

Sure, but that's just suckyness of the board design, the total memory size is not limited by the CPU.

[hppacito]

I'll start over:

Board: Mtec 1230LC.
Processor 68030
Builtin RAM: 4MB DRAM soldered to the board
Address range used by this memory: 0x00200000..0x005f0000 (guessed), so doesn't conflicts with PCMCIA.
The board doesn't seem to support any additional memory out-of-the-box.

What I want: To expand that memory.

(All that, except the addresses, can be clearly read in my 1st post !, details found in the BB of AH, as I said).

The question was:

Can I expand the memory with a hack ?

As it doesn't have any socket to add chips, simms or zips of DRAM, that _implies_ that some kind of DRAM module or chip should be soldered to the existent (or remove those), and to connect them to some address space.

That was also clear, due to what was explained.

So the new question was:

What address normally use the memory in a Blizzard, so I can use the same in my modified board.
I know that the autoconfig method assigns an Address to the board depending on the amount of memory needed, but for A500 (according to the hw manual of the A500/A2000, you can also request a specific address, IIRC).

*****

Maybe all that was so clear to my due to the fact that I was planning it. But as a matter of fact, if you reread the posts, I think it is just there.

[Piru]

@hppacito

I seriously doubt that you could expand the memory. Typically these el-cheapo cards had the design fixed to the emount of memory fitted.

Anyway, if the available address is your only worry: You can use anything 0x01000000 .. 0x7fffffff. Well obviously you can't overlap with the existing memory you have, but other than that you're free to use whatever address you like.

In the end you're far better off by just grabbing some Blizzard which can take upto 128 or 256MB.

PS. Not everyone is a mind reader.