Sonnet 7200 PCI programming

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by mousehouse

It's all there... and there are 2 running boards... the PPC core boots from the micro-sd and is accessible on serial. 040+memory still to be done. After that, still a ton of work to be done and then you'll have an incompatible PPC core. I've been amazed beyond belief at what you've done with the PPC on the Amigas but not sure if this is a doable thing! If you're up for it, I can check with Gideon.

Oh you're that guy! Did you ever get Linux (lets say) booting on it?

Not to speak for Hedeon but I think Hedeon would love to get into that FPU emulation code.
The other thing what I was getting at, which is nice about Hedeon's project is we get fast-ish PCI to PCI transfers. What would be even better would be a faster 68k to PCI bus.

[mousehouse]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Oh you're that guy! Did you ever get Linux (lets say) booting on it?

Unfortunately, no. After we designed, routed and built the prototype cards we both ran into difficulties in our personal life (not related to the card) which halted our project. Then we had big pushback from the community on our choices for PPC chip or 040 versus 060, etc. After that I didn't really have any time, energy or motivation to continue working on it.

The design is awesome thanks to the hardware guy that designed it. The PPC chip has all the embedded elements such as USB, network, etc. which are on a PCI-E bus that is glued to the central CLPD. But the CLPD tying the Amiga bus with state machine and all, 68040 and PCI-express link to the PPC side also still needed to be done.

But yeah, getting something to boot on the PPC side would be pretty amazing, maybe I'll give that a go at some point. Doesn't even require an Amiga, just external power...

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by mousehouse

Unfortunately, no. After we designed, routed and built the prototype cards we both ran into difficulties in our personal life (not related to the card) which halted our project. Then we had big pushback from the community on our choices for PPC chip or 040 versus 060, etc. After that I didn't really have any time, energy or motivation to continue working on it.

The design is awesome thanks to the hardware guy that designed it. The PPC chip has all the embedded elements such as USB, network, etc. which are on a PCI-E bus that is glued to the central CLPD. But the CLPD tying the Amiga bus with state machine and all, 68040 and PCI-express link to the PPC side also still needed to be done.

But yeah, getting something to boot on the PPC side would be pretty amazing, maybe I'll give that a go at some point. Doesn't even require an Amiga, just external power...

Who was the hardware guy and is he busy? there's a certain PCI card I'd like built and doesn't require fancy glue logic other than what's there.

Just like this much of the Ultimate PPC board and a PCIe to PCI bridge (and a different PPC).

[spudje]

Gideon of Ultimate64 fame.

[grelbfarlk]

Wrangler if you've got a moment while building that powerpc.library version of AHI can you build up this one real quick during your downtime?
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=1561589

[Wrangler]

I'll add it to the pile, mate! :

[BULI]

BTW
There is MilkyTracker for Amiga 68k and Vampire.
https://github.com/AmigaPorts/MilkyTracker/releases
This version is far faster on 060 compared to earlier version with SDL, but has not support AHI- yet (probably AHI will be again in future).

There is earlier version with SDL for WarpOs system.
https://dl.amigadev.com/nightly/milk...lkytracker.wos
This version don't work for me on my A4000 and Ragnarok, could anybody try this one on your hardware?

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by BULI

BTW
There is MilkyTracker for Amiga 68k and Vampire.
https://github.com/AmigaPorts/MilkyTracker/releases
This version is far faster on 060 compared to earlier version with SDL, but has not support AHI- yet (probably AHI will be again in future).

There is earlier version with SDL for WarpOs system.
https://dl.amigadev.com/nightly/milk...lkytracker.wos
This version don't work for me on my A4000 and Ragnarok, could anybody try this one on your hardware?

Toni wants to know what didn't work? I see a couple problems, it copied over as a project type file, converted it to tool but it throws up an exception.
I had some earlier builds of it that pretty much worked, not super great but they played mods. I'll try to test this one. Don't know, it doesn't work.
Attached a build I had knocking around that kind of works, it complains that every file type is wrong but it loads it anyway.

[BULI]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Toni wants to know what didn't work? I see a couple problems, it copied over as a project type file, converted it to tool but it throws up an exception.
I had some earlier builds of it that pretty much worked, not super great but they played mods. I'll try to test this one. Don't know, it doesn't work.
Attached a build I had knocking around that kind of works, it complains that every file type is wrong but it loads it anyway.

Yes, this version works well and is very fast.
For perfect playing my favorite mod (from PC demo DOPE- 28 chanelles), I set in AHI/MilkyTracker frequency 22050.
Big thank YOU- that is great stuff

[Hedeon]

I think the autobuild from the milkytracker gang hasn't worked in a while for WOS.

[Marlon_]

Originally Posted by Hedeon

I think the autobuild from the milkytracker gang hasn't worked in a while for WOS.

Yeah, that link is from 2020. It was the last ever auto-built WOS binary.

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by BULI

Yes, this version works well and is very fast.
For perfect playing my favorite mod (from PC demo DOPE- 28 chanelles), I set in AHI/MilkyTracker frequency 22050.
Big thank YOU- that is great stuff

I should add I don't think I was the one who built this, that was mostly Marlon with Hedeon helping. I remember there were some BE/LE bugs that Hedeon fixed and something with the file requester Marlon fixed, which might have been in a thread here somewhere, I want to say Hedeon built this one.

[BULI]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

I should add I don't think I was the one who built this, that was mostly Marlon with Hedeon helping. I remember there were some BE/LE bugs that Hedeon fixed and something with the file requester Marlon fixed, which might have been in a thread here somewhere, I want to say Hedeon built this one.

So, big THANK YOU to ALL

[Wrangler]

Trixster suggested I share my findings on voltages because they're quite unexpected but may help other users. I'm also looking for some suggestions on fixes!

This post relates to the Apocalypse and Rapture cards (maybe Ragnarok too - I haven't tested) ie PPC cards that use the Ramix carrier card.

TL;DR version: the voltage on the 5v power line to the Ramix being too high makes the cards unreliable/non-functional. This is the opposite to what I thought - I had thought that they needed a nice clean 5v on the 5v line but that is not the case. If your PPC is unreliable you might want to try removing any power injector to the Zorro slots if you have one. Or even stick some extra Zorro/PCI cards in to soak up some current!

Background

(Note: all voltage measurements are from a CPLDICY card that is either measuring 5v at the sensor on the card - ie the Zorro bus voltage - or direct from the 060 CPU card itself so are about as accurate as you can get)

I was trying out the BFG9060 in combination with the PPC. Obvs I wanted the '060 at 100MHz. To do that, you need at least about 4.8v to the CPU card whereas the card was getting about 4.72v, so I upped the voltage. That gets the '060 nice and stable. But the PPC wouldn't work at all.

After a lot of faffing about with hardware and software , I discovered that the PPC won't operate properly if its voltage is above about 4.7v. Below that (within reason), it works absolutely fine and reliably. Above that, it will either hang quickly or not even be found by InitPPC.

The result is for my combo I need high 060 volts and low PPC volts. Basically, there is no overlap in those two on my set up - it's one or the other.

Questions
1. I thought the Apocalypse and Rapture cards only ran off 3.3v as supplied and regulated by the Ramix. So they shouldn't care whether the 5v input is 4.7v or 4.9v or whatever. Right? Clearly not. Can anyone identify where 5v is actually used by the Ramix/PPC card pair?

2. Any creative ideas on how to try to create that sweetspot of high 060 volts, low PPC volts? I imagine it would mean hacking the Ramix somehow to drop 5v to 4.7v but PCI has many 5v lines so that's a lot of hacking. Any other ideas?

[trixster]

Similar to what you have experienced, Wrangler, I have found that my Mediator/Ragnarok A4000 has become less ppc-friendly since I replaced the old ATX adapter with a new one with 2x 5v lines. Previously my 5V measured at the ICY v2 was 4.6V and when measured at on the BFG9060 around 4.7v. With the new atx adapter voltages were 4.85 and 4.95V respectively.

Prior to the atx adapter change over the Ragnarok would initialise immediately on boot with no issue and I could run any ppc app/game without any warm-up time whatsoever. Now with the replacement atx adapter I have to wait approximately 10 minutes before I can get the Ragnarok to run stably - if I try to initppc right from boot the machine will either hardlock or reboot instantly. If (after waiting a while) initppc goes ok then a significant warmup time is needed before ppc programs won’t crash the system. If I put the old crap atx adapter back into the system, the issues go away.

If I put the Ragnarok into the AA3000+ (which has slightly lower 5v readings) then it works straight away, same as an apocalypse. If I put an apocalypse into the A4000 with the new atx adapter in place then it works immediately, so for me this high/low 5v thing seems to be Ragnarok only. I’ve tried two different ramix to try and rule carrier board out.

[grelbfarlk]

That's a tricky one. How about an alternative approach, maybe the BFG9060 has an adjustable 5V-3.3V regulator, and you could boost the 3.3V to something higher?

I could take some measurements of the Ramix if that would somehow help.

[BULI]

I thought about BFG9060 with 060 on 100 mhz for my A4000 and Ragnarok, but now I'm confused

[Wrangler]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

That's a tricky one. How about an alternative approach, maybe the BFG9060 has an adjustable 5V-3.3V regulator, and you could boost the 3.3V to something higher?

The CPU on the BFG gets a steady 3.3v regardless of what the "5v" line actually is, so the min voltage problem isn't an issue on 3.3v. I am guessing it's either the level shifters or the CPLDs that are needing the right 5v juice.

I could take some measurements of the Ramix if that would somehow help.

I'm more curious, gribble, with your knowledge of the PMC cards where they are using 5v? I thought they were 3.3v only??

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by Wrangler

The CPU on the BFG gets a steady 3.3v regardless of what the "5v" line actually is, so the min voltage problem isn't an issue on 3.3v. I am guessing it's either the level shifters or the CPLDs that are needing the right 5v juice.





I'm more curious, gribble, with your knowledge of the PMC cards where they are using 5v? I thought they were 3.3v only??

The PMC239/F has an LT1530(33 (or 3.3V)) to provide 3.3V to the PMC slots from the PCI 5V supply. Aside from that, just the fan header on the PMC239/F is 5V.
The PMC board itself is some mix of 3.3V sometimes for the L2 cache (as I recall) maybe for the NIC transceiver then the CPU gets 1.8V or 2.5V.



The PMC connectors on the PMC239/F provides -12V, 5V and 3.3V. So mostly nothing that I recall on the PPC Processor card uses 5V directly, but there might be some exceptions.

[Wrangler]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

The PMC239/F has an LT1530(33 (or 3.3V)) to provide 3.3V to the PMC slots from the PCI 5V supply. Aside from that, just the fan header on the PMC239/F is 5V.
The PMC board itself is some mix of 3.3V sometimes for the L2 cache (as I recall) maybe for the NIC transceiver then the CPU gets 1.8V or 2.5V.

The PMC connectors on the PMC239/F provides -12V, 5V and 3.3V. So mostly nothing that I recall on the PPC Processor card uses 5V directly, but there might be some exceptions.

Thanks, that's good info but I'm still mystified why the actual voltage on 5v is so critical to the PMC card operating