Custom Flashrom design for Amigas

[Mr.Flibble]

BTW those are eeproms and not true flash memory, so they have limited rewrite cycles (100 according to the datasheet) - probably not an issue for most people, but worth remembering

[NorthWay]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

It's not intended to be a Kickstart replacement

As I suspected, and not what I want. "Shut up and take my money" to anyone who can make some :-)

I started a thread recently about the feasibility of making some kind of kickstart replacement, and didn't receive much fanfare. There was a bit of "nobody wants that" but that was it.

I'd love to see something with multiple boot possibilities, the capability of adding components on the fly (either from the host Amiga or from, say, a flash card or something like that). It'd be great. I used my old Deneb USB card more for custom booting than I did for USB.

[nogginthenog]

Originally Posted by ross

Hi Red, I could not find TOP3000 in Europe..
There is only chinese import (infinite time to arrive, if arrive, custom duties and VAT price added).
I do not want to buy a professional EEPROM programmer for just some KS experiments

Alternative?
Does anyone know an European seller?

Thanks,
ross

I use this for burning Amiga EPROMs. £110 is a bit more expensive but I use it for other things too.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[nogginthenog]

BTW, does nobody use Amitools (Linux) for creating ROMs? I find it much easier than Remus. https://github.com/cnvogelg/amitools

e.g. romtool -L output.txt build -o kickstart.rom -t kick -s 512 kickstart.txt

Where kickstart.txt is a list of modules.

exec_45.20(A4000)
audio.device_37.10
battclock.resource_39.3
<etc>

Especially after I bugged Christian to support Blizkick modules :-)

[ross]

Originally Posted by nogginthenog

I use this for burning Amiga EPROMs. £110 is a bit more expensive but I use it for other things too.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hi and thanks for the tip.
But I wanted to avoid the use of adapters.. I've read that are unreliable.
However, if there are no alternatives, it might be fine.

Thanks
ross

[gulliver]

Amitools look great, but unfortunately are not user friendly and require an alien platform (they do not work on Amigas).

I find the romdisk solution amazingly great, but unfortunately it seems I need to be a coder to get the bloody thing working. It is such a pitty, I would love to take advantage of it.

[emufan]

Originally Posted by nogginthenog

Especially after I bugged Christian to support Blizkick modules :-)

can you ask him to support 2mb roms?

[nogginthenog]

Originally Posted by emufan

can you ask him to support 2mb roms?

Ask him, he's a friendly chap! I have no need for a 2mb ROM as I have an A4000 and no ROMY.

[alexh]

The 2mb romy mod isn't nice either but cosmos has done it

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by NorthWay

As I suspected, and not what I want. "Shut up and take my money" to anyone who can make some :-)

*Makes a note*

No promises though...

[NorthWay]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

No promises though...

No problem. I'd suggest having sockets for the real ROMs as a default and safeguard.

[Daedalus]

Indeed, have been thinking about this a bit more recently, and a multi-Kickstart device with one position corresponding to the original Kickstart and other positions corresponding to other images would be a nice way of doing it. I'd also like to have it fully software controlled, but that level of software is not something I've done (on Amigas at least).

I've a couple of projects on the go at the moment, but when they're under control I'll have a look at such a board for the A1200 to start with...

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

Indeed, have been thinking about this a bit more recently, and a multi-Kickstart device with one position corresponding to the original Kickstart and other positions corresponding to other images would be a nice way of doing it.

It is the only correct way!

Preferably with option to map any 512k flash "bank" to any possible Amiga ROM "bank" (a8, b0, e0, f0 and f8). Sort of IOMMU.

This enables nice bonus feature: ability to select "base rom" from multiple choices with optional way to add non-KS specific extra modules just by mapping "extra modules rom" to e0 or f0, for example.

EDIT: Even better would be to have RAM on board that boot code can load with data and other stuff from flash. Before booting RAM is configured as read-only. But I think this is getting far too complex..

I'd also like to have it fully software controlled, but that level of software is not something I've done (on Amigas at least).

I said I'll volunteer if hardware is good enough (ACA500/plus firmware source has nearly all the pieces needed and I can use it for other projects too)

[ross]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Preferably with option to map any 512k flash "bank" to any possible Amiga ROM "bank" (a8, b0, e0, f0 and f8). Sort of IOMMU.

Hi Toni, f0?
I just thought only e0, a8/b0, f8 was possible through ROM socket.

Or your idea was something clipped over Gayle?

Cheers,
ross

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by ross

Hi Toni, f0?
I just thought only e0, a8/b0, f8 was possible through ROM socket.

I forgot that F0 needs extra hardware. Anyway, 4 "banks" is fine too

[Daedalus]

Well, again, no promises But we'll see what I can come up with. A hand with the software would be most welcome if and when it gets to that stage Toni, thanks!

[NorthWay]

What is needed for F0? I'd _really_ like to have that.

[kolla]

Originally Posted by gulliver

Amitools look great, but unfortunately are not user friendly and require an alien platform (they do not work on Amigas).

My idea would be to build a web service around it, where people can edit, store and share kickstart profiles, upload kickstarts, have them split, add third party rom modules, customise, assemble, store away, download etc.

But oh no, copyrights.

[fordav1]

if NAND flash was used you can change just some parts of the data. you don't have to re-write everything. so one region can be kept 'factory' with KS3.1 running (or whatever) and the other banks changed to whatever you want, whenever you want using the on-board 5 volts. NAND does not need anything other than 5V and can re-write any bank immediately. so for example you can run on the factory setting and re-program the 2nd bank, then switch to it after reboot. it's a pity kipper has dropped off the planet and this project seems dead.