Fastlane Z3 Rom

[amesie2]

I just bought a Z3 Fastlane and am waiting for it to arrive. I am guessing that the rom chip hasn't been upgraded yet to allow it to work with an 060.

Does anyone know of a source or have one of these roms for sale?

I am also wondering if anyone knows how to do the 256mb upgrade on these boards or if it is even worth doing?

Thanx

amesie2

[alexh]

amesie2 wrote:
I am also wondering if anyone knows how to do the 256mb upgrade on these boards

It's been many years, and many requests later, no-one has come forward with the information, no-one appears to have a true 256Mbyte capable one and no-one has tried to hack the existing 64mb one.

[PulsatingQuasar]

Yeah. The Amiga scene is getting a bit pathetic.

I can't source the ROM and information to upgrade my Cyberstorm mk1 to a 68060. This shouldn't be too difficult as it only requires a bit of soldering and burning a ROM.

I think it has also to do a little bit with the ego's of the persons that created this hardware and software.

Why not put the binary files for the ROM's and the manuals online so people can modify this stuff? What do they possibly have to gain by not giving us this stuff?

I think the personal vendettas of some people are overshadowing the entire Amiga scene.

[Oli_hd]

Why not put the binary files for the ROM's and the manuals online so people can modify this stuff? What do they possibly have to gain by not giving us this stuff?

Something to do with the Fastlane and 060 cards not being made by individuals, the company that made it has the rights, even if the developer still had the code he couldnt legally release it.

[PulsatingQuasar]

That was my ego ranting part.

Not letting us be able to modify this really, really, really old and UNSUPPORTED hardware by holding back information says more about the people that have these rights then they are aware.

[Oli_hd]

Not letting us be able to modify this really, really, really old and UNSUPPORTED hardware by holding back information says more about the people that have these rights then they are aware.

You should go to Phase5 and have a moan at them.

No, if someone wanted to spend the time and trace back the extra address signals to see which CPLD they went to and look at what signals the chipgets by changing the jumpers the code required should be easy to write, the Fastlane only uses small CPLD's.
The fact is there are almost no businesses left to do the work and hobbiests pick "interesting" projects.

That was my ego ranting part.

Yeah, Im in a ranting mood too  :-D

[omnicron10]

I had a Z3 and I also upgraded the ROM to 8 or 8.5.  The chip was a s27c256-15a.  I have the rom image on a CD somewhere. I will be looking for it. I think I just got in from the Aminet years ago.  I don't see it now on aminet.  I sold my z3 but I know who has it so worst case scenario is we dump that rom.  It did not upgrade the ability to use more RAM but it did work with the 060 and fixed the scsi CDDA audio problem.

[Castellen]

I can supply ver 8.5 ROMs for the Fastlane if anyone needs any, drop me an email.  Note that doesn't do the 256Mb thing (which requires a programmable logic change) but fixes certain compatibility problems as described above.

On a slightly different subject, I had to buy a tube of GAL16V8 the other day, so if anyone needs any replacements programmed to fix A3000 stability issues, I can supply them too.  I've written more detail here.

[omnicron10]

Do the Gals this work for the A3000T?

[amesie2]

I just got the board today and opened it up. I am not sure how to tell the rom version or the rev. of the board.

Is there some way to check the rom version and rev. of the board?

Thanx for the replies to this and the suggestions  :-D

@Castellen

I will PM you if I need the upgrade once I figure this out, normally it is easier to find Rom versions or Rev. on boards other than the Z3.

[Kin-Hell]

v8.5 ROM Image is available from here:

Linky

You can see the version in SysInfo. Look for Fastlane  under Devices TAB on the Scroll Bar.  :-)

[Castellen]

@omnicron10
Yes, the GALs will also work in the A3000T.  They even have the same component designators (e.g. U202, U203).

@amesie2
I think the board's SCSI device driver version matches that of the ROM.  Don't have one with me at the moment to check, so I might be wrong.
So to check the version from the CLI just use:
version z3scsi.device

[orange]

that link Kin-Hell gave you will not work unless you zero fill it till 32,768 bytes, like this

[Kin-Hell]

orange wrote:
that link Kin-Hell gave you will not work unless you zero fill it till 32,768 bytes, like this

Thanks for the heads up orange. Really appreciated!  :-)