CSA Mega Midget Racer and HD mask question

[SimonV]

I am putting together my "utlimate A500", so far so good but I have some questions.

    - A500 rev6 with 1MB chipram hack and A501 512kb ram card or a KCS powerpc board
    - CSA mega midget racer with 8MB fastram and the maprom option
    - Alfa Data kickstartswitch 1.3 - 3.1
    - A590 with 1GB scsi drive and 2MB fastram
    - Dell external high density diskdrive
    - MV1200 external scandoubler / ff
    - Switch to swap Df0: with Df1: to boot from an external drive.

    The questions ... to get the ram working with fast file system, I should ad a mask in devs/mountlists according the CSA manual. How do I do that in OS3.1 ? see section 9 of the manual.
    http://amiga.resource.cx/manual/Mega-Midget_Racer.pdf

    I got it working by changing the MASK in with HDtoolbox but now I have DH1: NDOS ... fixed with Disksalv3 but I guess that's not the way to do it ?

    I also have this ramupgrade ( picture 3 ) that I maybe want to put in there if it is any good ? I can't find the model or manufacturer but the A500 kick 1.2 that I found it in showed 2Mb ram in workbench 1.3. So what am I going to see when I put it in my A500 ? I could test it but then I have to remove the CSA, I rather don't to that if not needed.

[Thomas]

HDToolbox is the right program to use. Changing Mask does not make a partition NDOS. You must have changed more than only Mask.

[mechy]

I am putting together my "utlimate A500", so far so good but I have some questions.

    - A500 rev6 with 1MB chipram hack and A501 512kb ram card or a KCS powerpc board
    - CSA mega midget racer with 8MB fastram and the maprom option
    - Alfa Data kickstartswitch 1.3 - 3.1
    - A590 with 1GB scsi drive and 2MB fastram
    - Dell external high density diskdrive
    - MV1200 external scandoubler / ff
    - Switch to swap Df0: with Df1: to boot from an external drive.

    The questions ... to get the ram working with fast file system, I should ad a mask in devs/mountlists according the CSA manual. How do I do that in OS3.1 ? see section 9 of the manual.
    http://amiga.resource.cx/manual/Mega-Midget_Racer.pdf

    I got it working by changing the MASK in with HDtoolbox but now I have DH1: NDOS ... fixed with Disksalv3 but I guess that's not the way to do it ?

    I also have this ramupgrade ( picture 3 ) that I maybe want to put in there if it is any good ? I can't find the model or manufacturer but the A500 kick 1.2 that I found it in showed 2Mb ram in workbench 1.3. So what am I going to see when I put it in my A500 ? I could test it but then I have to remove the CSA, I rather don't to that if not needed.

I might be wrong here, but the mega-midget racer ram will have to be mapped as 32bit ram outside of zorro2 space(which it should be anyway) or else the additional ram board that goes in the belly slot will conflict since it maps ram to the  zorro2 space.

[SimonV]

What does actually happen of what I am doing while changing mask ?

I maybe want to use PFS3 but if I do not mistake I have to change the mask for that also.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Does the RAM on the MMR not auto-configure? I have 12MB on my A500 and the only reason I've not gone to 18 is is I could never find the higher capacity chips for my VXL-30.

AFAIK your system should be able to support without too much trouble:

8MB 16-bit fast on the side expansion slot
8MB 32-bit fast on the accelerator
2MB chip

All of those things should autoconfigure, or be selectable with not much more than a few jumper changes. Your mileage may vary.

Edit: are you trying to change the mask to get it to transfer directly from the hard drive controller into 32-bit memory?  I'm not sure what you're trying to do here.  Maybe I need more coffee, lol.  

[SimonV]

read the manual section 9 ... you will understand.

CSA Mega Midget ram does not autoconfigure. It needs a line in the startup-sequence.

I do have a GVP harddrive somewhere, I think that does take 8Mb. The A590 max 2Mb I think.

[SimonV]

And can someone identify the ramupgrade?

[BuzzBrain]

Looks like it is this one:


http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/a580mk2

[amigakid]

Sounds nice.  I have the Midget Racer for my A500, it's not the mega though but the 020 CPU (or was it a 010 can't remember) on it is a nice upgrade as well as the extra RAM.

[mechy]

read the manual section 9 ... you will understand.

CSA Mega Midget ram does not autoconfigure. It needs a line in the startup-sequence.

I do have a GVP harddrive somewhere, I think that does take 8Mb. The A590 max 2Mb I think.

the gvp is likely faster than the 590 and does take 8MB ram,(590 can use 2MB ram)which goes in zorro2 space, so in theory it should live with the mega midgets 8MB that is 32bit.
You would be better off with the gvp +8mb than the 2Mb ram in the belly slot with the other card

[SimonV]

And I have to score a 2Mb chipram upgrade somewhere ...

[SimonV]

So I did find my GVP Impact A500 HD8+ so now it has 16Mb fastram. It seems to have the PC 286 IBM AT emulator in it.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Very nice.  The idea of a "lowly A500" with the same amount of RAM as an A3000 always appealed to me.    2MB chip upgrades usually appear on ebay pretty frequently for around $100-ish, or you could try asking on Amibay.  Sometimes sourcing a used A2000 will score you one, as well (better if the person selling doesn't realize it has one).  Good luck!

[mechy]

Very nice.  The idea of a "lowly A500" with the same amount of RAM as an A3000 always appealed to me.    2MB chip upgrades usually appear on ebay pretty frequently for around $100-ish, or you could try asking on Amibay.  Sometimes sourcing a used A2000 will score you one, as well (better if the person selling doesn't realize it has one).  Good luck!

The CSA Derringer takes 32MB simm and its mapped as 32bit ram.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

The CSA Derringer takes 32MB simm and its mapped as 32bit ram.

And also rare as hen's teeth.    I wish Jens had taken a different approach and gone internal with that ACA500 accelerator, but whatcha gonna do?  Is what it is.