Kickit/Rekick native support?

[LocalH]

Hi,

Amongst my Kickstart ROM images, I have some prerelease 1.4/2.0 ROMs that are linked at $200000 instead of the standard $F80000. Currently, they can be used with WinUAE, but one must boot with a 1.3 ROM and use Kickit or Rekick, as you would on a real Amiga. Would it be possible for Toni to add support for loading these images natively, without Kickit?

Also, and this is a very minor request, I would also like to see MMU emulation at some point in the future - although this would be a *very* low-priority request. The reason I ask, is because I have recently acquired a copy of the A3000's 1.4 boot ROM (used only with SuperKickstart A3000s), but it does not boot under WinUAE, with any combination of settings. The ROM was dumped with a standard Kickstart dumper, thus I'm fairly sure that it is meant to reside at $F80000. It's a solid 512K, but I don't know if there is any bonus code (since the ROM includes the code to load the SuperKickstart images, it's possible that the bonus code does not make the ROM larger, as it does with 2.0 and later revisions). I'm not 100% sure that it's choking due to the lack of MMU emulation, hence the reason I stated that this is a very low-priority request. I only get various behaviors - sometimes the emulated Amiga gives me a solid dark grey screen, sometimes it gives me a flashing dark grey screen, once with 040 it gave me a flashing white screen, and one time it even crashed WinUAE. I'm sure it's not choking due to the lack of WB_1.3: and WB_2.x: partitions, as I tried creating hardfiles and naming them correctly. Plus, it would be interesting to be able to try setting up AMIX with WinUAE, as my A3000 is having some problems with its fast RAM. And yes, I realize that it would be slow, and incompatible with JIT. Nonetheless, I feel this would help me in my quest to research all the prototype Kickstart images floating around - the only one I haven't been able to boot in WinUAE is this A3000 1.4 ROM.

[derSammler]

I think WinUAE should not support these alpha/beta versions or pre-releases directly. They are interesting, of course but not very usefull. Besides, these ROMs are part of beta sets of the Workbench and if you have the unmodified set, you don't even need to boot 1.3 first.

The ROM was dumped with a standard Kickstart dumper, thus I'm fairly sure that it is meant to reside at $F80000.

I dumped it with an eprom reader some time ago. I think it is located at $FF0000 so your dump might be corrupt.

[LocalH]

Originally Posted by WindowsKiller

Besides, these ROMs are part of beta sets of the Workbench and if you have the unmodified set, you don't even need to boot 1.3 first.

I think you misunderstood me. I don't have to boot with a 1.3 WB disk (although in an ideal actual situation, you'd be booting from an HD with 1.3 installed, and softkicking from there) - I just have to boot with a 1.3 ROM setup in WinUAE (which is accurate to actual use - you still have to boot with the hardware 1.3 ROM in order to load Kickit). I can boot from the 1.4 disk to the CLI, and run Kickit from there. I'm sure I could set up an actual 1.3 hard drive and set it up to load 1.4 the preferred way (which is given on the 1.4 disks).

Originally Posted by WindowsKiller

I dumped it with an eprom reader some time ago. I think it is located at $FF0000 so your dump might be corrupt.

That can't be true, as that would make it 64K, wouldn't it?

Anyway, I don't see why WinUAE shouldn't support these type Kickstarts natively, while they are indeed prerelease (and thus technically illegal), so are a large number of the release Kickstart images that are used with WinUAE. I feel that having WinUAE support Kickit/Rekick style images would help preserve the history of the Amiga, by making the images directly usable. I know it wouldn't be in line with the goal of total emulation accuracy, but nonetheless it would be a handy feature (perhaps have a global option to enable/disable such images?).

Besides, your position at least supports the goal of being able to use the A3000's 1.4 ROM, since it was publically released, and all A3000s with such ROMs have legal copies of 1.4. Of course, I'd imagine it would take quite a bit of work to support that ROM, so I wouldn't expect it anytime soon, but it would be nice one day to check the newest WinUAE and find out "hey, the ROM works now!".

[derSammler]

That can't be true, as that would make it 64K, wouldn't it?

Not really. As far as I know the MMU is used to map the ROM to another place. As I said, I have a verified dump of it and its initial base address is $FF0000.

I feel that having WinUAE support Kickit/Rekick style images would help preserve the history of the Amiga, by making the images directly usable.

While I think it's more "real" if you have to load these versions as it was intended to.

Besides, your position at least supports the goal of being able to use the A3000's 1.4 ROM

Yes, of course. Being able to use this ROM to emulate an A3000 would be indeed a nice feature.

[Toni Wilen]

Implementing automatic support for KS ROMs located at 0x200000 is easy (but maybe slightly pointless..)

Most A3000 roms require MMU (usually causes yellow screen at boot, check log for "B-Trap 0xf201" or "0xf017" or similar messages)

68040/68060 MMU support is possible (but emulation will be very slow).

Unfortunately 68030's MMU is very different and _MUCH_ more complex than 68040's MMU. 100% not worth the trouble.

[LocalH]

Originally Posted by WindowsKiller

While I think it's more "real" if you have to load these versions as it was intended to.

Hence why it should be an option, perhaps below MapROM support 'Enable 0x200000 Kickstart'. Or perhaps on the Misc page. Or perhaps even a hidden function that's not normally even visible. Whatever would float your boat.

However, I don't think the non-accuracy argument is very compelling, personally, simply because there are already functions within the emulator that supercede what hardware is capable of. I'm not talking about things like P96 and AHI (since they replace the functions of graphics and sound boards, it's just as real as using an actual one), I'm talking turbo floppy emulation, automatic centering, the capability to use 8MB chip RAM, and probably a few other things I'm missing. These things are mostly impossible to do on hardware, or at least extremely difficult and non-trivial. And I fully support the inclusion of these features, as it makes my emulation enjoyment greater. But they are all options, and you can disable them and go for the fully authentic route if you want.

If I ever hit the lottery, I'm funding the development of a PCI board that has all the custom chips on it, and can configure itself as anything from a bogstandard 256K A1000, to a high-end PPC machine with P96 and AHI support and 512MB of Z3 RAM. Including a breakout box with all the real Amiga ports on it, for full authenticity and compatiblity with special video applications. But that all depends on me hitting the lottery in the first place. One can dream though...

[Fackamato]

Originally Posted by LocalH

If I ever hit the lottery, I'm funding the development of a PCI board that has all the custom chips on it, and can configure itself as anything from a bogstandard 256K A1000, to a high-end PPC machine with P96 and AHI support and 512MB of Z3 RAM. Including a breakout box with all the real Amiga ports on it, for full authenticity and compatiblity with special video applications. But that all depends on me hitting the lottery in the first place. One can dream though...

I am SO with you on that one (but let's make it PCI-E, shall we :P) .

[LocalH]

Originally Posted by Fackamato

I am SO with you on that one (but let's make it PCI-E, shall we :P) .

Yeah, that's probably best, make both a PCI-E and PCI versions (since it would especially be good for turning slower PCs into full Amigas).