Sonnet 7200 PCI programming

[SnkBitten]

Originally Posted by nexus

Amithlon 1.3GHz Athlon TB, GF2 MX-200, 640x480, P96 -> 140fps (130-170fps)
Amithlon 1.3GHz Athlon TB, GF2 MX-200, 1280x1024, P96 -> 31fps (20- 35fps)

http://www.amigahistory.plus.com/emu...hlonbench.html

Referencing a more current Amithlon setup.

Amithlon 4.0 GHz e8600, nVidia FX5200, 640x480, P96 -> 260fps (bounces too quickly but 26x.x is readable).
Amithlon 4.0 GHz e8600, nVidia FX5200, 1280x1024, P96 -> 66fps (bounces too quickly but 6x.x is readable).

I'm still curious if one of these Sonnet boards or such could work in Amithlon on it's PCI interface.

[Hedeon]

Ok, I was not totally clear. I want the following:

1) It has to be native WarpOS. So on a Classic Amiga (not some emulation which doesn't have context switches like MorphOS, AmigaOS4 or UAE in any form).
2) It has to be RTG over Zorro (so anything but Cybervision).

Otherwise it is comparing apples with bananas.

Remember, the drivers of the various PCI cards are driven over Zorro, not directly over PCI (so through P96 or CGX emulation).

[nexus]

i was just showing interesting comparisons with both real and emulated

[nexus]

"39 fps maximum when displayed on a CV64/3D 320 x 240 x 8-bit screen, switching to the same CVPPC screen instantly ups that maximum rate to over 100 fps
https://web.archive.org/web/20030128...com/cvppc.html
That screenshot was before overclocking all three CS-PPC clocks,
its around 130fps now"
found on google

[jack-3d]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Sonnet memhack version for Jack3d, don't know if it works.

Reminds me in your article:

There is a resistor difference at R62, at one point I figured out what signal this was, but yeah they should be replaceable.

Also replaceable with 7410-in theory, which would allow 2MB of L2 cache, the extra address lines appear to be connected on the Sonnet.

So if you upgrade to 7410 and it still works, which would be good as the 7410 uses less power than the 7400 on the Sonnet G4, you could then maybe probably then replace the two 512KB cache chips with 1MB for 2MB total-at 250MHz, which since you bought the fastest 500MHz 7410, should be able to actually run at 250MHz-in theory. Let me know how this works out.

Also you mention Altivec cannot be used, this is not correct. At a minimum it requires a recompile. Attached is Hedeon's Dnetc that he prepared.

Hedenos dnetc works well on G4, but freezes on G3

Tested your powerpc.library 333 and yes gearsppc jump by 5 fps up and Quake about 2-3 fps up. Syspeed memory shows that increasement clearly. I will check how much it bootst G4 tomorrow. Now its bed time.

Anyway guys good job all.

Now provide me please one Rapture so I can do Sonnet G4 against Rapture G4 ;o)

[nexus]

Originally Posted by jack-3d

Hedenos dnetc works well on G4, but freezes on G3

Tested your powerpc.library 333 and yes gearsppc jump by 5 fps up and Quake about 2-3 fps up. Syspeed memory shows that increasement clearly. I will check how much it bootst G4 tomorrow. Now its bed time.

Anyway guys good job all.

Now provide me please one Rapture so I can do Sonnet G4 against Rapture G4 ;o)

well im guessing that is the altivec enabled and G3 has no altivec

[grelbfarlk]

320x240x8bit@39fps doesn't even saturate the bus on Zorro-III. The larger bandwidth of the CVPPC is certainly helping here but it's not explaining everything.

With the CSPPC w/PPC@200MHz and Voodoo-3 (over Zorro-3) I get about 65FPS @320x240 (~55FPS while turning) on Voxelspace with T G M options. Same as W. With just T G it's closer to 70FPS.
With Rapture @320x240 T G M it's about 115FPS. With just T G options it's about 120FPS.

At 640x480:
CSPPC@200MHz 22fps
Rapture@450MHz 38fps

Originally Posted by SnkBitten

I'm still curious if one of these Sonnet boards or such could work in Amithlon on it's PCI interface.

I've never used an Amithlon but from what little I know I thought the PCI driver was based on OpenPCI. The Sonnet driver only works with Mediator pci.device right now, but there's probably no hardware reason it couldn't work but the driver would have to be modified significantly.

[nexus]

yeah dont know just i found that doing a google search

[grelbfarlk]

Since Wrangler has a system just as fast I decided I must do something. How about some overclocking?



Until I replace the cache things are a little bit lower than I'd like.

Before:

[Wrangler]

Time for the LN2?!

So you bumped the clock to 500MHz. Same volts? How did you do that by the way? In hardware or software?

[nexus]

Originally Posted by Wrangler

Time for the LN2?!

So you bumped the clock to 500MHz. Same volts? How did you do that by the way? In hardware or software?

time for a better heatsink and 1 that has been mounted better and flush

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by Wrangler

Time for the LN2?!

So you bumped the clock to 500MHz. Same volts? How did you do that by the way? In hardware or software?

In hardware, same volts. I'm not sure how to modify the 1.8V VRM to output more, somebody like Stedy would probably figure that out in about 5 minutes. It did get crashy after 10-15 minutes so extra cooling could make it stable, maybe. It was stable enough to run Q1, Q2 and Sysspeed and Bogomips.

550MHz boots, able to run sysspeed and bogomips but system freezes shortly thereafter, and the PPC and VRM are bbbblazing. Was not able to run Dnetc_wos.

After switching PMC carriers with one that has a small fan, it seems to work ok at 550MHz.
Q2 went up to 62.2FPS@640x480 and Q1 to 34.4FPS@800x480.
The hottest spot on the CPU/heatsink I could find with an IR thermometer was 130F or 54.4C while it was running Q2 demos. Take this with a brick of salt since it's not very precise in aiming, not measurements.

It's not 100% stable, Amigenerator freezes after a few seconds which is heavily dependent on the L2 cache, and it already runs fine in simple mode at normal clocks anyway. Says to me that the 166MHz L2 cache chips are failing at 183MHz-which don't normally tolerate any overclocking.
Actually having problems with Amigenerator at standard clocks on this system.

[nexus]

with faster cache and better cooling 600MHz+ is obtainable
mac guys with faster rated cache are hitting 650MHz on 7410 with cache at around ~320MHz
sawtooth and yikes macs

anyone who has a rapture and are trying this should get a big copper based low profile heatsink if you use shims on the cpu/cache/ram/bridge then you could get a really big one though it would be cooling everything but i would also makes sure air goes in 1 way and out 1 way

and remember that epoxy TIM softens with alcohol if you soak for a day the heatsink will fall right off also makes it easy to clean what is left on the cpu as its just globed on and is in between capacitors on top the cpu which you dont want coming off by accident

some links to mac guys overclocking and benches:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/D..._CPU_mods.html
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/D...rclocking.html

[nexus]

found this little interesting comparison vs x86 not sure how accurate it is but i do know G4 was clock for clock faster than x86 at that time

Comparing Apples and Oranges
http://www.infohq.com/Computer/apple...down.htm#start

[BULI]

[QUOTE=Hedeon;1235802]Guys, how fast is a 200MHz 604e with Voxelspace on a 320x240 RTG screen?[/QUOT]

I have Sonnet Crescendo G3400Mhz L2 1MB, and on PowerPC.library ver 17.7 I have about 103-106 FPS.

On new PowerPC.library rev 17.8 and with changed ENV: variables, I have better performance, about 116-118 FPS in VoxelSpace.

In Gears (in Fullscreen) demo from Warp3d, I have better results too.
FPS incrase from 75 to 78 (num key 1)

[grelbfarlk]

Update about 550MHz, the freezing I was getting with Amigenerator was just because I switched back to Phase5's 060 library instead of Thor's. Now it runs without stuttering in 'slow' mode as opposed to 'fast' mode which Sonnet/Raptures normally have to use to avoid stutters. Not 100% stable but pretty close. After an hour hottest temperature I could find was 141F/60.5C. Then it crashed loading Q2.

Oh and new stuff coming too, someday when it's more better. You might ask yourself "Self, why would you want another Genesis emulator that's inferior to Amidog's?" Well in theory this version has SegaCD support, maybe I'll try that when I get a chance.

[grelbfarlk]

L2 replaced, I only had 200MHz chips around and uh, I should have just ordered 250MHz chips and waited. Oh well.

[Wrangler]

600MHz Cool work!

Now if only I had the skill to do that...

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by Wrangler

600MHz Cool work!

Now if only I had the skill to do that...

It's easy... you just need a tank of liquid nitrogen, some unicorn horn powder (for the thermal interface material) some platinum for the heatsink (or mithril if you have it) and an arctic glacial runoff fed river for the cold water pump.

Actually all I did is replace the L2 chips which cost about $20 for the pair. Pulled off the heatsink, scraped the CPU clean, applied thermal paste and moved a resistor. Not much to it. And set SetCMemDiv to 5.

[nexus]

or you can use a TEC