A1200 - Blizzard 1230 Mk4 and BlizKick

[NovaCoder]

Can someone explain to me how this all works.  If I set the jumper on the card to copy kickstart into from chipram to the card's RAM does this actually do anything on it's own?  I did try copying a copy of my ROM file (using GrabKick) into my DEVS/Libs (running on OS3.1 using AmigaSys) and the Amiga just got stuck in and endless loop and wouldn't boot to WB?

Do you also have to install the BlizKick software?  What's the diff between the BlizKick software and just setting the jumper?

And finally, I'm assuming that chipram usage goes down if you succesfully copy the ROM to card memory?

Thanx  :-D

[Argus]

These are good questions for Piru, it's his program after all.

I have a BlizzPPC and iirc you need the kickstart rom file in devs:kickstarts/....then you need to modify your startup sequence to call BlizKick early in the boot sequence (there's instructions with the program on how to make the s:startup-sequence modification (e.g. c:Blizkick .....)

I don't know about the jumper, on the MarkIV board that automatically remaps the kickstart on the amiga motherboard into fastram....on the BlizzPPC this is done in software and there's no hardware jumper.  My guess would be you leave the jumper off and let the software (BlizKick) do the remapping of the file in devs:kickstarts/    :-)

[rkauer]

 Blizkick is useful for you if want to modify the ROM image to run your Amiga.

 F. E. : You want to patch some original ROM instruction before the Amiga boots. Then you simply to add BlizKick to your startup-sequence with the path module stated.

 Presto! After a second boot (did from the BlizKick itself), the patch module will be available to the system.

[NovaCoder]

rkauer wrote:
 Blizkick is useful for you if want to modify the ROM image to run your Amiga.

 F. E. : You want to patch some original ROM instruction before the Amiga boots. Then you simply to add BlizKick to your startup-sequence with the path module stated.

 Presto! After a second boot (did from the BlizKick itself), the patch module will be available to the system.

So if you just want to run with your ROM, you just have to set the jumper on the card to automatically copy your image to fast ram?

Do you have more available chip ram after this jumper is enabled?

[Damion]

Do you have more available chip ram after this jumper is enabled?

The jumper maps the ROM into fastram, otherwise data is read from the ROM directly (no chipram used).

--edit-- Actually, a few parts of the ROM still do end up in chipram (expansion and exec IIRC), but those can also be moved to fastram.

 

[NovaCoder]

-D- wrote:

Do you have more available chip ram after this jumper is enabled?

The jumper maps the ROM into fastram, otherwise data is read from the ROM directly (no chipram used).

--edit-- Actually, a few parts of the ROM still do end up in chipram (expansion and exec IIRC), but those can also be moved to fastram.

 

Very interesting, thanks.

[pVC]

Jumper on the board just affects if the contents of the ROM are copied to fast ram or not. No software is needed for that and it's purely for the speed. It's faster to read from fast ram than from rom.

Blizkick is made to modify the rom stored in the fast ram. You can replace the current rom with completely different version and/or apply different patches to rom. Blizkick comes with bunch of useful patches itself, but you also can add other patches to it. For example you can separate rom updates from OS3.5/3.9 setpatch and apply them with Blizkick instead (then you can avoid one extra reboot by setpatch, when you have two reboot on cold boot in worst case). So, because Blizkick uses rom stored in fastmem, you need maprom option enabled to be able use it.

No chipram is harmed in either cases in practise. 0,5M of fastram is used when maprom is enabled.