Terrible Fire Accelerators

[plasmab]

Originally Posted by patrik

Also note that it is actually slower downloading to RAM: than to disk using the DMA controller. Thats because when writes are done asyncronously, there is no benefit that the RAM-handler finishes writes much faster than the disk (given the disk is faster than the network), but the fact that the RAM-handler uses quite some cpu time to copy data around steals cpu time - just like a PIO disk controller.

Couple of things to try here.

Turn on CPU FASTROM and retry this.

With the ROM in cacheable FASTRAM it means the drivers run entirely inside cache..

I agree you can get better out and out disk performance but the CPU is stalled anyway if the ram is contended so you dont really get better system performance.

Actually surprised at how slow your RAM access is.

[patrik]

Originally Posted by plasmab

Couple of things to try here.

Turn on CPU FASTROM and retry this.

With the ROM in cacheable FASTRAM it means the drivers run entirely inside cache..

I agree you can get better out and out disk performance but the CPU is stalled anyway if the ram is contended so you dont really get better system performance.

Actually surprised at how slow your RAM access is.

ROM is in fast, execbase is in fast, VBR is in fast via BlizKick.

The Blizzard 1260 cannot be accused for having very fast memory. However, the ram-handler is quite a cpu hog in 3.1 atleast. If you LoadModule the ram-handler from 3.9, you will get better figures for RAM:.

Blizzard1260 ram speed plus verification that rom is in fast:

9.Ram Disk:> bustest fast rom
BusSpeedTest 0.19 (mlelstv)   Buffer:     262144 Bytes, Alignment: 32768
========================================================================
memtype   addr       op         cycle     calib         bandwidth
fast      $60310000  readw      66.5 ns   normal      30.1 * 10^6 byte/s
fast      $60310000  readl     112.1 ns   normal      35.7 * 10^6 byte/s
fast      $60310000  readm     111.1 ns   normal      36.0 * 10^6 byte/s
fast      $60310000  writew     81.4 ns   normal      24.6 * 10^6 byte/s
fast      $60310000  writel    163.8 ns   normal      24.4 * 10^6 byte/s
fast      $60310000  writem    163.7 ns   normal      24.4 * 10^6 byte/s
rom       $00F80000  readw      66.4 ns   normal      30.1 * 10^6 byte/s
rom       $00F80000  readl     111.0 ns   normal      36.0 * 10^6 byte/s
rom       $00F80000  readm     111.3 ns   normal      35.9 * 10^6 byte/s

And yes, the dma controller will steal memory cycles from the cpu. But every cycle used by the dma controller where the cpu is busy internally with an instruction or running from cache is a win.

Not implying that dma controllers helps with raw disk transfer speed, just wanted to show that they can be fun when the system is under load .

[Black68]

Originally Posted by alenppc

The best I could do was 36 Mhz but I haven't played around with resistors.

On what Rev of the Amiga mainboard are you running the TF530?

[alenppc]

Originally Posted by Black68

On what Rev of the Amiga mainboard are you running the TF530?

NTSC 6A, that's the only one I have.

[8 Bit Dreams]

Originally Posted by alenppc

NTSC 6A, that's the only one I have.

Do You have pullups installed on this board?

[alenppc]

No but it runs fine at 25 & 36 MHz, so I don't think I need them.

[plasmab]

Originally Posted by alenppc

No but it runs fine at 25 & 36 MHz, so I don't think I need them.

You may hit RC transient limits without pull ups.

[8 Bit Dreams]

@ aalenppc & Black68:
i am starting to suspect Your CPU's guy's. i have same type CPU's Steve uses in his streams, he and also me have no probs running TF's on 50Mhz, even more, i am pretty sure, ceramic CPU will also run @60Mhz without heatsink (without FPU), however, i can't test it as i haven't 60Mhz oscillators here.

@alenppc:
i am not wondering Your CPU fails if You try to overclock it:
http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php...0-board-25-Mhz
this is 25Mhz CPU, it will do it's job nice @25 or even @36Mhz, if You push it higher - it will go hot and fail, so just try different CPU's and You will be surprised
regards,

-Viktor

[alenppc]

I have 33 and 50 MHz cpus for testing, but I could not get them to run reliably at anything above 36, but to be honest I need more time to play with it, change the R3 value, etc.

R3 at 10k seems to work better for higher frequencies but maybe I need to go lower.

[Black68]

Originally Posted by 8 Bit Dreams

@ aalenppc & Black68:
i am starting to suspect Your CPU's guy's. i have same type CPU's Steve uses in his streams, he and also me have no probs running TF's on 50Mhz, even more, i am pretty sure, ceramic CPU will also run @60Mhz without heatsink (without FPU), however, i can't test it as i haven't 60Mhz oscillators here.

I have a 50mhz ceramic (gold) like this one:
http://www.ebay.es/itm/1PC-MOTOROLA-...72.m2749.l2649

As I said before, with last firmware I can go up to 48mhz but without FPU. With FPU WHDLoad gives many "Illegal Instruction" errors.

I've changed R3 to 1k but doesnt make any difference as far as I can notice. I'll try 10k.

Bought an Amiga Rev5 mainboard to do more tests, as I only have a couple of Rev.6 boards now. Waiting for it to arrive.

[8 Bit Dreams]

Originally Posted by Black68

I have a 50mhz ceramic (gold) like this one:
http://www.ebay.es/itm/1PC-MOTOROLA-...72.m2749.l2649

As I said before, with last firmware I can go up to 48mhz but without FPU. With FPU WHDLoad gives many "Illegal Instruction" errors.

I've changed R3 to 1k but doesnt make any difference as far as I can notice. I'll try 10k.

Bought an Amiga Rev5 mainboard to do more tests, as I only have a couple of Rev.6 boards now. Waiting for it to arrive.

It is the same seller i used, so our CPU's are from same batch.
I have also "illegal Instruction" with last firmware (i am using 50Mhz rev.2 firmware, my cards are working fine on it)
will try to remove FPU and test without it on last firmware.

[dalek]

My guess on the "illegal instruction" (I get it too @50MHz in diagrom) is that the pullup resistor for the FPU is not large enough leading to inconsistent detection of the FPU. I'm going to play around with some values as suggested above - glad it's not just me!

[alenppc]

OK, I had some time tonight so I was able to get the rev2 to run at 50 mhz at last! It only works with the beta 50m firmware though (the one that requires the FPU), the new firmware just yellow-screens to hell and back. Still, pretty neat... The IDE now does 6.6 mb/sec :P

I experimented with various R3 values, and 47k is still the most stable. The lower you go the less stable it is. In fact, with lower values the new firmware doesn't even do anything but perm-yellowscreen, while with 47k it changes colours a bit and even occasionally clicks the floppy drive.

Ok, now time to pull out the old ISSI RAM experimental card and see what it does with this firmware...

[8 Bit Dreams]

Originally Posted by dalek

My guess on the "illegal instruction" (I get it too @50MHz in diagrom) is that the pullup resistor for the FPU is not large enough leading to inconsistent detection of the FPU. I'm going to play around with some values as suggested above - glad it's not just me!

dalek, we are getting "illegal instruction" while trying to start game thru WDHLoad, not diagROM...

[amigadude]

[ Show youtube player ]

Modern Vintage Gamer fitting his TF530

[alenppc]

Hey, I know that card

Brilliant video!

[EzdineG]

Originally Posted by alenppc

Hey, I know that card

Brilliant video!

What was the final solution to the issue you were seeing with compact flash cards drawing power from the same supply as the 500?

Which firmware specifically allows you to hit 50mhz? There were many betas.

Thanks.

[alenppc]

Originally Posted by EzdineG

What was the final solution to the issue you were seeing with compact flash cards drawing power from the same supply as the 500?

All CF card issues were solved by using either very short cables or adapters that plug directly into the TF530 like on that video. Long cables are just no go.

Which firmware specifically allows you to hit 50mhz? There were many betas.

It was a very early firmware... 'll check the date later when I get home.

[8 Bit Dreams]

Originally Posted by alenppc

All CF card issues were solved by using either very short cables or adapters that plug directly into the TF530 like on that video. Long cables are just no go.



It was a very early firmware... 'll check the date later when I get home.

my power splitter is about 25-30cm long, same is for the ribbon cable ( i moved my CF adapter to the trapdoor, to be able to swap different cards) no issues at all, however, i use 3A and 4.5A recapped power supply's.
i use 50Mhz firmware dated with 14.05.2017 it works really nice

[alenppc]

Originally Posted by 8 Bit Dreams

my power splitter is about 25-30cm long, same is for the ribbon cable ( i moved my CF adapter to the trapdoor, to be able to swap different cards) no issues at all, however, i use 3A and 4.5A recapped power supply's.
i use 50Mhz firmware dated with 14.05.2017 it works really nice

Max I can do is 10 cm. Anything beyond goes from unreliable to no connection at all.