Dual-ROM gvpscsi.device for GVP Series I SCSI controllers - testers wanted!

[mark_k]

Hi,

Over in [thread=68830]this thread[/thread] I mentioned the possibility of "remastering" the gvpscsi.device v3.15 ROM to work on Series I SCSI controllers with no updated PAL chip needed.

Well, I've been working on that and have something that works in emulation at least. It needs testing with real hardware.

If you have a real Series I controller, burn a pair of 27C64 EPROMs with the data in the attached archive, install them in the controller and test it out. Excerpted from the .txt instructions in the archive:

Code: [Select]

Remastered dual-ROM gvpscsi.device for GVP Series I SCSI Controllers
====================================================================

2015-02-24: First release for testing

IMPORTANT: This version has only been tested in emulation, not on real Series I
hardware. Please report any problems you encounter!


Introduction
------------
GVP Impact Series I SCSI controllers have two sockets for auto-boot EPROMs.
Later boards originally shipped with V1.0 ROMs (scsidev.device 1.1.6) and a set
of EPROMs could be plugged into the empty sockets on earlier boards.
Unfortunately the old V1.0 ROM has many problems:
 - It only supports disks with 512-byte sectors.
 - There is a capacity limit of 1GB (for 512-byte sectors).
 - No removable media/disk change support.
 - It only supports mounting and booting from OFS and FFS (DOS\1) partitions.
 - It does not support HD_SCSICMD, so is incompatible with partitioning
   programs like HDToolBox, SCSI-direct-capable filesystems, or anything
   else which uses HD_SCSICMD. The only partitioning software which will
   work is GVP's own.
 - The driver expects DOS drive names in the RDB to be in a non-standard
   format, so it won't boot from disks partitioned on another controller.
   Conversely, other controllers won't mount/boot from a disk which was
   partitioned using the old GVP software.

Later on GVP introduced a new driver, gvpscsi.device, which is much more
compatible, probably has fewer bugs and better performance. The last version
which works with Series I hardware is 3.15, which can be obtained from Ralph
Babel's web site: http://babel.de/amiga.html

If you don't need to auto-boot, you can remove or disable your current auto-
boot ROMs and use the BindDrivers version of gvpscsi 3.15. But if you *do* want
to auto-boot, there is a problem. With gvpscsi.device 3.15, the ROM data is all
on a single chip. Some or all Series I hardware requires an updated PAL chip in
order to use the single ROM. Nowadays that updated PAL is probably difficult or
impossible to obtain.

This "remastered" dual-ROM version of gvpscsi.device is intended to work
around that problem.


Warning
-------
If you have partitioned your hard disk using the original GVP software,
gvpscsi.device will not understand the original partitioning scheme. Your
partitions will not be accessible once you change ROMs. For advanced users, it
is possible to manually edit the RDB to allow gvpscsi.device to recognise it.

An easier alternative will be to, before changing ROMs, note the partition
layout (LowCycl, HighCycl, BlocksPerTrack etc.). You can manually set the
partition layout to match that using HDToolBox etc. after changing ROMs.

In any case, you should make a complete backup of all files on your hard
disk before changing ROMs in case something goes wrong.


How To Use
----------
There are three files:
 - gvpscsi_315_EVEN.bin (8KB)
 - gvpscsi_315_ODD.bin (8KB)
 - gvpscsi_315_wordwide.bin (16KB)

gvpscsi_315_wordwide.bin is only of use with an emulator like WinUAE, *not*
real Series I hardware.

Obtain two blank 27C64 EPROM chips. Program gvpscsi_315_EVEN.bin into one, and
gvpscsi_315_ODD.bin into the other. Replace your original V1.0 ROMs with the
EPROMs you just programmed. The gvpscsi_315_EVEN.bin EPROM replaces the
original ROM which has EVEN on its label, and similarly for gvpscsi_315_ODD.bin.
Be careful to insert the new EPROMs with the same orientation as the old ones.

[orcish75]

Hi Mark_k

Thanks for the incredible work you're doing on these series 1 boards. I'll gladly test the roms for you on my card and report back the results. I'll only be able to do on Saturday when I can get in front of my A2000.

Just to let you know, the Impact A2000-HC Series 1 card without memory can use the single v3.15 rom without a PAL update, the issue only seems to affect the cards that have memory as well.

Cheers

[orcish75]

Hi Mark_k

My Willem eprom programmer died on me when I was trying to burn the 3.15 roms over the weekend. My one friend has a friend who has another eprom programmer. I'll hopefully get hold of it tomorrow and I'll do all the tests and memory dumps you require. Sorry about that.

[orcish75]

Hi Mark_k

I burned the new 3.15 files you supplied and so far it's working perfectly. Autobooting works as well as being able to put filesystems in the RDB. I'll let you know of any problems if I come across any.

I've attached the memory dumps here for you.

Cheers

[mark_k]

[I posted a version of this to the EAB forum thread too.]

Update!!!

The other day I noticed that Ralph Babel has made his own dual-ROM version available on his web site. Judging from the file datestamps in gvpscsi3dual.tar.bz2, those ROM images were built back in 1991 (but presumably never publically released until recently).

I have attached an archive containing those official ROM images padded to 8KB and a combined 16KB one (for WinUAE/emulation use).

There's an important difference between my remastered ROM images and Ralph's "official" dual-ROM version. My version copies itself to RAM at boot time, so the driver code runs from RAM. The official dual-ROM version doesn't do that, so the driver code runs directly from the EPROMs on the GVP board.

Which version should you burn for use on your Series I board, mine or Ralph's? If you have an unaccelerated (68000) system use Ralph's; that will save a little RAM and the code will run faster if you don't have any true fast RAM. In that respect, Ralph's dual-ROM set is better than the original single-ROM version (which also copies itself to RAM at boot time). So even if you have an original single GVP EPROM which works in your board, burning a set of two EPROMs and using those instead provides some benefit.

If you have an accelerator with 32-bit auto-configuring fast RAM, or your board is installed in an Amiga 3000 or 4000, my version should be better, because the driver code will run from fast 32-bit RAM.