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GadgetUK · 23 August 2019, 12:02

I thought I would share my experiences here, and perhaps at the same time post some comments about the TF534 in general. I recently was gifted a 534 from 8bit dreams (which was MUCH appreciated), and initially had some issues trying to get it working but after updating the firmware it became rock solid (even at 50Mhz with 3 or so different CPUs - I see no issues whatsoever related to the speed of the CPU of my boards here). I can run the system for hours and hours without any issue whatsoever.

That said, I found that the new ZRAM board doesn't play ball with the 534 - maybe it has something to do with that DMA issue someone mentioned above? It does work with Supra boards though. I've also ordered another 4MB board (and old one that uses SIPS) to see how that gets on regards compatibility.

I am using it in a rev 6 (or rev 4) A2000 with a Kipper CPU slot relocator and it does run perfectly. I understand that it doesnt play ball with some other Zorro cards - that is to be expected as there is so much variation out there. This hasn't been tested with every Zorro card out there, that's impossible given the time and cost restraints. The 534 was (from my understanding) never really meant to be sold to the masses - it was made clear where its limitations were when Stephen pushed it out to some people to test. Whilst it might seem unfair that is is officially no longer supported - it could be supported by the community. It is open source and any of us (or all of us) could work on tweaking it to work better with some other Zorro cards.

I don't claim to know what I am doing with the verilog stuff yet, but I can see that it's probably not out of the realms of possibility of having a version of the firmware where the IDE is disabled / removed. That might then allow things like the Buddha to work OK, but then again there might be further issues that need a change to the bus side of things - not sure until we try.

And, you never know - it might get a revisit one rainy day when Stephen has nothing better to do. In the mean time, the community should start looking at the source for these cards and see what we can do ourselves.

Thanks for the info on the SD card adapter - 8bit dreams mentioned that the SD cards run a lot better and are more stable with the 534. I get around 1.1Mb/s on benchmarks with CF cards - I might try and SD adapter. I have yet to install the mmu libs too - just not sure what is required there.

When I've got the money I will buy a buddha interface and have a go at disabling the onboard IDE - worst that can happen is it either doesn't work, or I kill one of my chips lol.

23 August 2019, 12:02	#11
GadgetUK Registered User Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: Manchester Posts: 189	I thought I would share my experiences here, and perhaps at the same time post some comments about the TF534 in general. I recently was gifted a 534 from 8bit dreams (which was MUCH appreciated), and initially had some issues trying to get it working but after updating the firmware it became rock solid (even at 50Mhz with 3 or so different CPUs - I see no issues whatsoever related to the speed of the CPU of my boards here). I can run the system for hours and hours without any issue whatsoever. That said, I found that the new ZRAM board doesn't play ball with the 534 - maybe it has something to do with that DMA issue someone mentioned above? It does work with Supra boards though. I've also ordered another 4MB board (and old one that uses SIPS) to see how that gets on regards compatibility. I am using it in a rev 6 (or rev 4) A2000 with a Kipper CPU slot relocator and it does run perfectly. I understand that it doesnt play ball with some other Zorro cards - that is to be expected as there is so much variation out there. This hasn't been tested with every Zorro card out there, that's impossible given the time and cost restraints. The 534 was (from my understanding) never really meant to be sold to the masses - it was made clear where its limitations were when Stephen pushed it out to some people to test. Whilst it might seem unfair that is is officially no longer supported - it could be supported by the community. It is open source and any of us (or all of us) could work on tweaking it to work better with some other Zorro cards. I don't claim to know what I am doing with the verilog stuff yet, but I can see that it's probably not out of the realms of possibility of having a version of the firmware where the IDE is disabled / removed. That might then allow things like the Buddha to work OK, but then again there might be further issues that need a change to the bus side of things - not sure until we try. And, you never know - it might get a revisit one rainy day when Stephen has nothing better to do. In the mean time, the community should start looking at the source for these cards and see what we can do ourselves. Thanks for the info on the SD card adapter - 8bit dreams mentioned that the SD cards run a lot better and are more stable with the 534. I get around 1.1Mb/s on benchmarks with CF cards - I might try and SD adapter. I have yet to install the mmu libs too - just not sure what is required there. When I've got the money I will buy a buddha interface and have a go at disabling the onboard IDE - worst that can happen is it either doesn't work, or I kill one of my chips lol.