Custom Flashrom design for Amigas

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Spacemonkey

Did these ever get made and are they still available to buy

i think these projects are all on hold - since kipper2k is part of the Apollo/Vampire team.

[Amiga1992]

Which is really the saddest thing that the Vampire project has brought unto us. kipper has made fantastic expansions for years and thanks to Vampire-starving jerks burning him out we don't get any updates on these, at least for now

[crazyc]

Being able to flash custom roms without removal from the miggy would have been cool......

@Kipper2k

I'm guessing you are using the jumper on the address line to select the upper and and lower portion of the chip to boot separate ROMs.

Has this been tested and do you have the eagle files so I can make one?

[Mr.Flibble]

Or perhaps a dirtyPCB's link?

[Kalamatee]

Is there any similar thing available for the a1200? I would love something like this that has either a clock port or usb interface so that the rom(s) can be easily programmed, since it would make testing AROS, as a ROM replacement on real hardware, a far simpler process.

[Mr.Flibble]

I'm not aware of any others which had the in-amiga flashing which were up to the same place as Kipper's design, although if anyone knows better...

I'm still hoping that Kipper will be able to either produce the boards or release the designs as his one looked about the best...

[Kalamatee]

Originally Posted by Mr.Flibble

I'm not aware of any others which had the in-amiga flashing which were up to the same place as Kipper's design, although if anyone knows better...

I'm still hoping that Kipper will be able to either produce the boards or release the designs as his one looked about the best...

I cant understand why something like it doesn't exist - I would've thought it would be a highly popular/demanded item.

I've seen plenty of old rom switchers and the like that could detect keyboard input - how feasible would it be to have such a FlashROM device work in a similar fashion with one caveat ..

Instead of just switching between 2 roms .. have it boot a special rom which could list the available "real" rom images, and allow choosing which to use?

[edit] .. And couple it with a readily available USB Flash microcontroller so it can be easily programmed from practically anywhere by anyone ..

[Toni Wilen]

I requested one for A1200 with similar features in 2010 (post linked in the beginning of this thread) and still nothing, not even close (except ACA500plus but it is much more than a flashrom)

Updated feature list:

- must be in-circuit programmable
- rom bank selection must be software controllable (multiple 512k/1M choices). Software bank selection (register?) access and write-enable disable in software until next power cycle.
- boot up bank with rom selection menu (I also volunteered to do this in 2010..)
- one bank that is writable only if jumper set/removed (backup bank if boot menu bank gets messed up), another jumper to select this bank.
- must be reprogrammable without removal using external programmer (preferably via USB), even when all banks are empty/corrupted.
- at least 4M flash

[kolla]

Originally Posted by Kalamatee

I cant understand why something like it doesn't exist - I would've thought it would be a highly popular/demanded item.

Rumours have it that certain Amiga retailers were contacted by certain Amiga copyright rights holders, and were essentially told to not pursue any such product. Maybe the situation today is different.

[Kalamatee]

Originally Posted by kolla

Rumours have it that certain Amiga retailers were contacted by certain Amiga copyright rights holders, and were essentially told to not pursue any such product. Maybe the situation today is different.

Don't supply it with any ROM, or with AROS/the "special" menu rom (*) only. As long as there is some easy way to program it, leave the programing to the user.

(*) - Such a thing could easily be pieced together from the AROS roms.

[Kalamatee]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

I requested one for A1200 with similar features in 2010 (post linked in the beginning of this thread) and still nothing, not even close (except ACA500plus but it is much more than a flashrom)

Updated feature list:

- must be in-circuit programmable
- rom bank selection must be software controllable (multiple 512k/1M choices). Software bank selection (register?) access and write-enable disable in software until next power cycle.
- boot up bank with rom selection menu (I also volunteered to do this in 2010..)
- one bank that is writable only if jumper set/removed (backup bank if boot menu bank gets messed up), another jumper to select this bank.
- must be reprogrammable without removal using external programmer (preferably via USB), even when all banks are empty/corrupted.
- at least 4M flash

That's pretty much what I would love to see/have.

[NorthWay]

I would _love_ to have a 1M flash-rom for my 3000 and 4000. No, in fact I'd simply buy them if available.

Writable and selectable as mentioned. This also so there is no nonsense need for a pre-programmed unit. (I understand the need to cover your back, but none of us wants that so something that defaults to machine rom sockets and can be changed while running should fix that.)

[matthey]

Originally Posted by NorthWay

I would _love_ to have a 1M flash-rom for my 3000 and 4000. No, in fact I'd simply buy them if available.

http://www.elbox.com/products/eflash_4000.html

It looks like it is still available. The software which comes with it is not very good though.

[NorthWay]

Originally Posted by matthey

http://www.elbox.com/products/eflash_4000.html

It looks like it is still available. The software which comes with it is not very good though.

That can't possibly be a Kickstart substitute. I see no cabling nor sockets to indicate a motherboard connection, and neither have I have heard that it is possible for a Z3 device to address itself at $F00000/$F80000. (Is it?)

[matthey]

Originally Posted by NorthWay

That can't possibly be a Kickstart substitute. I see no cabling nor sockets to indicate a motherboard connection, and neither have I have heard that it is possible for a Z3 device to address itself at $F00000/$F80000. (Is it?)

It doesn't hold a physical ROM. You transfer a kickstart and/or modules through the Zorro II/III bus into the flash memory which can then be booted. The flash memory in the newest version is 1MB so should be able to hold a 1MB kickstart (AROS or CD32). It works similar to the Amiga USB hardware which had a flash memory (name?) except it had nice GUI software for management and this just has basic CLI utilities with poor documentation. I don't know how the hardware is mapped or configured.

[alexh]

I dunno if anyone else has seen this but former board contributor COSMOS has recently been testing 2Mbyte ROMs on A600/A1200 with no HW hacks. (And the CD32 with a jumper change)

http://leblogdecosmos.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/

[RedskullDC]

Hi alexh, et al.

Originally Posted by alexh

I dunno if anyone else has seen this but former board contributor COSMOS has recently been testing 2Mbyte ROMs on A600/A1200 with no HW hacks. (And the CD32 with a jumper change)

http://leblogdecosmos.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/

MX29F1615 is probably the easiest way to experiment with 2MB kickstarts on the Amiga.

They even come in a DIP42 package which plugs straight in:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/172284390655

The "Top" 3000/3001 universal programmers can handle these chips.

Cheers,
Red

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by NorthWay

That can't possibly be a Kickstart substitute. I see no cabling nor sockets to indicate a motherboard connection, and neither have I have heard that it is possible for a Z3 device to address itself at $F00000/$F80000. (Is it?)

No, Zorro-III doesn't normally map to Kickstart space by itself (though I don't see why it wouldn't be possible) - but it doesn't have to. It's not intended to be a Kickstart replacement, but an alternative. Think of it as a softkicked ROM that's available from cold boot - that's more or less what these Zorro-based flash cards are. They replace whatever modules you like before the OS starts booting, so you can have things like OS 3.9 from cold.

[ross]

Originally Posted by RedskullDC

The "Top" 3000/3001 universal programmers can handle these chips.

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