CyberStorm vs Blizzard

mritter0 · 24 October 2015, 21:36

OS4.1FE. I have been using CyberStorm PPC since it became available for WinUAE. Does Blizzard PPC really allow for 258MB RAM vs 128MB for CyberStorm? I could use the extra RAM for my programming; every little bit helps.

I tried switching to Blizzard but it does not boot. Do I have to remake my VHD partitions? Using 44_71 ROM.

Toni Wilen · 24 October 2015, 22:04

Blizzard does support 256M. But Blizzard PPC SCSI is not supported by OS4. You have to use A1200 IDE which is much slower than DMA SCSI. (PIO IDE emulation: data is transferred word by word using emulated CPU. DMA: Whole transfer is quick memory copy in host side)

Also for some unknown reason BPPC PPC CPU model is slower in QEMU. Using ppc_model=604e command line forces CSPPC PPC model which may fix the CPU speed problem.

(AFAIK there is buggy BPPC SCSI driver but it was never fixed because no developer had BPPC. It should be easy to fix it in under emulation, debugging is so much easier in emulation vs real hardware, especially when debugging hardware drivers but I am quite sure nothing will happen as usual..)

Locutus · 25 October 2015, 08:10

Just out of curiosity, is it possible to have the Cyberstorm's SCSI controller to appear at its original location but while emulating a BPPC board without SCSI? A perverse non-existing hybrid.

Probably that still requires one to move some modules around inside of the boot image, no idea of its layout but one would guess thats doable.

Toni Wilen · 25 October 2015, 10:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Locutus

Just out of curiosity, is it possible to have the Cyberstorm's SCSI controller to appear at its original location but while emulating a BPPC board without SCSI? A perverse non-existing hybrid.

Probably that still requires one to move some modules around inside of the boot image, no idea of its layout but one would guess thats doable.

CSPPC and BPPC SCSI is located in same address range (0xf4xxxx), swapping them would be very easy.

But does the module do any validation checks first? It is not going to work if it does any non-SCSI related checks like "Is this CSPPC board?"

EDIT: But BPPC boot ROM would hang/crash, you would need to remove BPPC SCSI driver from boot ROM, boot from IDE.. It is not going to be very useful..

Locutus · 25 October 2015, 12:21

Ah yes, i see the issue. I overlooked that the boot ROM on the card itself ofcourse has a cybscsi.device (or whatever) in ROM which wouldn't be easy to modify.

All seems like a lot of effort for very little

Toni Wilen · 25 October 2015, 14:34

It could work if someone (not me) replaces BPPC boot ROM SCSI driver with CSPPC boot ROM driver

Locutus · 25 October 2015, 20:06

Sounds like some project for Cosmos, i think i read he was working on some custom boot rom's and a flashtool for them.

Probably crazy enough too

24 October 2015, 21:36	#1
mritter0 Registered User Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Bettendorf, IA, USA Age: 52 Posts: 204	CyberStorm vs Blizzard OS4.1FE. I have been using CyberStorm PPC since it became available for WinUAE. Does Blizzard PPC really allow for 258MB RAM vs 128MB for CyberStorm? I could use the extra RAM for my programming; every little bit helps. I tried switching to Blizzard but it does not boot. Do I have to remake my VHD partitions? Using 44_71 ROM.

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24 October 2015, 22:04	#2
Toni Wilen WinUAE developer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Hämeenlinna/Finland Age: 49 Posts: 26,505	Blizzard does support 256M. But Blizzard PPC SCSI is not supported by OS4. You have to use A1200 IDE which is much slower than DMA SCSI. (PIO IDE emulation: data is transferred word by word using emulated CPU. DMA: Whole transfer is quick memory copy in host side) Also for some unknown reason BPPC PPC CPU model is slower in QEMU. Using ppc_model=604e command line forces CSPPC PPC model which may fix the CPU speed problem. (AFAIK there is buggy BPPC SCSI driver but it was never fixed because no developer had BPPC. It should be easy to fix it in under emulation, debugging is so much easier in emulation vs real hardware, especially when debugging hardware drivers but I am quite sure nothing will happen as usual..)

25 October 2015, 08:10	#3
Locutus Registered User Join Date: Jul 2014 Location: Finland Posts: 1,176	Just out of curiosity, is it possible to have the Cyberstorm's SCSI controller to appear at its original location but while emulating a BPPC board without SCSI? A perverse non-existing hybrid. Probably that still requires one to move some modules around inside of the boot image, no idea of its layout but one would guess thats doable.

25 October 2015, 12:21	#5
Locutus Registered User Join Date: Jul 2014 Location: Finland Posts: 1,176	Ah yes, i see the issue. I overlooked that the boot ROM on the card itself ofcourse has a cybscsi.device (or whatever) in ROM which wouldn't be easy to modify. All seems like a lot of effort for very little

25 October 2015, 14:34	#6
Toni Wilen WinUAE developer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Hämeenlinna/Finland Age: 49 Posts: 26,505	It could work if someone (not me) replaces BPPC boot ROM SCSI driver with CSPPC boot ROM driver

25 October 2015, 20:06	#7
Locutus Registered User Join Date: Jul 2014 Location: Finland Posts: 1,176	Sounds like some project for Cosmos, i think i read he was working on some custom boot rom's and a flashtool for them. Probably crazy enough too

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