Sonnet 7200 PCI programming

[DarrenHD]

Hey guys, long time no post. Has anyone had trouble with AmigaAmp 2.25 not being able to load the WarpUP external engine? It says failed to load engine. I am frequently getting this recently. I've updated to the latest nightly build. Other PPC programs are working fine, so I'm not sure what is going on.

A4000, sonnet PPC, cyberstorm MK2-060 thor MMU libs, OS 3.9, Voodoo 4.

Thanks

[Hedeon]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Don't worry about a case yet, that's three-months-later-guy's problem.

I have been looking for an A3000T case now for 4 years....

[Hedeon]

Originally Posted by DarrenHD

Hey guys, long time no post. Has anyone had trouble with AmigaAmp 2.25 not being able to load the WarpUP external engine? It says failed to load engine. I am frequently getting this recently. I've updated to the latest nightly build. Other PPC programs are working fine, so I'm not sure what is going on.

A4000, sonnet PPC, cyberstorm MK2-060 thor MMU libs, OS 3.9, Voodoo 4.

Thanks

You could try a few builds back. There have been patches added to make AmigaAMP 3 run (which frequently accesses CHIP RAM which V2 does not. sure why). Otherwise try V3 with mpega.library with current build.

[fitzsteve]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

That's old school thinking, nowadays you just build your own A4000. So instead of just looking for one thing (an A4000), you just have to track down a set of custom chips and place a large mouser order, then you have the fun of putting it together. Don't worry about a case yet, that's three-months-later-guy's problem.

Yeah I'm considering all options, I'd quite like to do an acrylic case build or something.

[DarrenHD]

Originally Posted by Hedeon

You could try a few builds back. There have been patches added to make AmigaAMP 3 run (which frequently accesses CHIP RAM which V2 does not. sure why). Otherwise try V3 with mpega.library with current build.

I will try that. I noticed that when AmigaAmp is configured to use an External engine (WarpUP) that it tries to run a shell process to start it. One time I had a "run" command fail. I tried to increase the stack size in my shell but it didn't help. I also do have stackattack in my s-s. For fun I tried the PowerUP option but it just crashed.


I did try AmigaAmp3 (version 3.21 to be specific) and it does work with mpega.library, although it's pretty slow and the music stutters IF you use visualizations. Without visualizations AmigaAmp3 worked pretty well. With AmigaAmp 2.25 that typically wasn't the case, Visualizations worked pretty well and didn't take up most of the 68k cpu time.

Is there a recommended version of mpega.library? I think there are several variants out there. Also, with AHI I had to set Unit 1 to a ++ mode otherwise AmigaAmp complains. I have the Music Unit set to Paula 8-bit DMA, which I believe is correct. I'm using AHI.library 4.18.

BTW I tried turning on Debug setting 3 and it used almost all my 68k cpu Does the output from that go to the serial port? Is there a way to route it to an output window on the workbench?

thanks
Darren

[Hedeon]

Originally Posted by DarrenHD

Visualizations worked pretty well and didn't take up most of the 68k cpu time.

AmigaAMP3 is doing all kinds of unnecessary stuff that you do not notice if everything is 68K, but if you use any PPC components like the external engine or the mpega.library, you start noticing it. One of the things is that it reads from some 68K structure over and over again (i think rastport or something). the value does not change EVER, but as it is in FAST RAM somewhere the library does a context switch every time the value is being read (like 2k per s or so = 2.000 x 250 microseconds per second.

The patch just stores the value and every time the read is made the library just reads from a cache in PPC memory.

BTW I tried turning on Debug setting 3 and it used almost all my 68k cpu Does the output from that go to the serial port? Is there a way to route it to an output window on the workbench?

thanks
Darren

Same as above. The data is send to the 68K to be able to access the serial output. Almost every powerpc library function then adds 250 microseconds to execution time. It will hog the 68K. It is there for completeness, not usability. Real men use wosdb.

You can use sashimi to get it in a window on your desktop,

[grelbfarlk]

Using SB128 for MP3 playing, I've not been able to get AmigaAMP3 work without skipping on Apocalypse whether with mpega.library or External. AmigaAMP2 works ok with External. Frogger works better but isn't really good for playing multiple songs. In the beforetime in the long long ago, at one point the Sonnet was playing web radio stations with SB128 out with AmigaAMP2.

[trixster]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

That's old school thinking, nowadays you just build your own A4000. So instead of just looking for one thing (an A4000), you just have to track down a set of custom chips and place a large mouser order, then you have the fun of putting it together. Don't worry about a case yet, that's three-months-later-guy's problem.

It’s what all the cool kids are doing

[DarrenHD]

Has anyone got Sonnet working with AmigaOS 3.1.4? I just bought it yesterday and am in the process of setting it up on a new partition. I got Picasso96 installed and installed the Sonnet archive from Aminet, but I keep getting the message that there is no pcdma memory (VGA memory) so InitSonnet doesn't start. Can someone remind me how I set this up (I guess on the Mediator)? I can't seem to remember. I copied over all my envarc:Mediator settings from my working OS 3.9 installation but that didn't fix it.

Thanks
Darren

[Hedeon]

You need a running V3 or Radeon card.

[DarrenHD]

Originally Posted by Hedeon

You need a running V3 or Radeon card.

I've got the Voodoo 4 installed, same physical installation, I've just setup a different partition that boots OS 3.1.4. Right now it is very basic, it just has OS 3.1.4, the (latest iComp) Picasso96, Mediator minimal install with pci.library 13.9, and the sonnet package from aminet (not latest build). I thought there was something you had to do to enable the dma memory on the mediator side, I can't remember.

[Hedeon]

Do you mean with installed that you are actually running the card? Like it is activated by LoadMonDrvs?

If you installed the mediator drivers through the installer then it should have set up ENVARC:mediator/voodoomem

[DarrenHD]

Originally Posted by Hedeon

Do you mean with installed that you are actually running the card? Like it is activated by LoadMonDrvs?

If you installed the mediator drivers through the installer then it should have set up ENVARC:mediator/voodoomem

Yes the Voodoo 4 w/Mediator/Picasso96 is working. I've got a 1024x768x16-bit workbench running.

I've got VoodooMem, it was set to 16, I set it to 14 but that didn't help. VoodooInt is there as well, I believe it is set to Yes.

[Hedeon]

Would try latest library version first.

Maybe VoodooMemOS = yes

[DarrenHD]

Originally Posted by Hedeon

Would try latest library version first.

Maybe VoodooMemOS = yes

ok, have to wait until I'm home later. thanks.

[fitzsteve]

Anyone able to comment if the performance gain from the Killer K1 to the M1 is a worth while upgrade?

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Anyone able to comment if the performance gain from the Killer K1 to the M1 is a worth while upgrade?

Not having first hand experience with an M1, but loads of ability to speculate, makes me feel totally qualified to answer this. No.



Though, I recall someone mentioning the M1 actually operates at a higher bus clock than the K1, in real life 66MHz isn't really going to be very noticeable of a difference. For purely CPU bound applications, it should only be some 20% faster in theory. From what we can tell most of the older Warp3D programs aren't actually CPU limited, they seem to be GPU limited, or possibly bus limited.
So for something like Dosbox (totally CPU bound), which barely runs on the K1-if at all, the M1 isn't suddenly going to be usable or grant you a much larger library of stuff you can run.
But Quake1, Quake2, Wipeout, you should seem some small but significant gain in FPS.
A far better option is the Apocalypse rather than the M1.

[Timtheloon]

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Anyone able to comment if the performance gain from the Killer K1 to the M1 is a worth while upgrade?

I could lend you my one has long has I get the M1 back and not a K1

[fitzsteve]

Hey Tim, if I could try it that would be helpful, I'll do benchmarks to compare such as quake timedemos.

@grelbfarlk I have an apocalypse but I'm saving it for an A4000 since it wont work in my A1200. To be fair theres really only a few applications that run with stability so probably not worth the upgrade to an M1 at the moment. I've not tried Dosbox yet tho.

So far I have working (software rendering only)

QuakeWOS (fully stable inc AHI 16bit audio through F801) 320x240 flies, 640x480 playable
AdoomWOS fully stable and smooth up to 640x480
AmigaAmp, seems to work fine
prBoom runs but crashes randomly
Duke3D (wrangler) crashes in startup 75% of the time but when it does run it's stable but has micro stutter
MAME seems to run but without a GUI I haven't tested it further

[grelbfarlk]

I mean the K1 was nice since you could get generally far superior performance than a CSPPC for $20 or so, then the gold rush happened. The day that the K1/M1 is stable in an A1200 it's likely that the Apocalypse will work as well, so just buy another one of those. Or stop messing about with the A1200 and make that your WHDLoad machine while reading the A1200 sucks thread that's been going on forever.
But if you borrow an M1, just move that fancy heatsink over to a K1 and send it back.