Zorro III memory card... now with Ethernet

[bubbob42]

"Sputnik" shall be the networking part, I guess?

@DarrenHD: Have you been "HammerD" on IRC back in the 90ies?

[tnt23]

Originally Posted by bubbob42

I think fancy names are good Amiga tradition.

Do you plan to do hardware mods or just update the sources of the fpga? I'm asking because I'd like to distinguish between prototype boards and later versions. If you want to keep ID 23/24, we could do achieve this through the Autoconfig serial number.

The plan was to only change FPGA firmware, for example, to add Zorro II support. I'd keep 23/24 IDs for now, as I am not sure I understand what is serial number in Autoconfig.

Originally Posted by DarrenHD

As long as it's system conforming, the 3.x driver should work. Several older Zorro ethernet cards (eg. the C= 2065) work fine on OS4.1 classic, with the 68k driver.

Well, chances are good then I am sure there's plenty of bugs in the driver, however.

Originally Posted by bubbob42

"Sputnik" shall be the networking part, I guess?

The networking part is not detachable, I was referring to the whole combo board. Otherwise it could be named 'Soyuz-Apollo'

[DarrenHD]

Originally Posted by bubbob42

"Sputnik" shall be the networking part, I guess?

@DarrenHD: Have you been "HammerD" on IRC back in the 90ies?

Yeah...now I sound old!! LOL :-)

Originally Posted by tnt23

Well, chances are good then I am sure there's plenty of bugs in the driver, however.

Bugs can be fixed ;-)

[bubbob42]

Originally Posted by DarrenHD

Yeah...now I sound old!! LOL :-)

Then we spent some time on #amigager together ("Logain") and also met at one of the last Amiga fairs at cologne. Yeah, "old"!

[bubbob42]

Originally Posted by tnt23

The plan was to only change FPGA firmware, for example, to add Zorro II support. I'd keep 23/24 IDs for now, as I am not sure I understand what is serial number in Autoconfig.

I've written a little tutorial here:

http://www.a1k.org/forum/showthread.php?t=40088

It's in German, but might be helpful. Be sure to correct the Verilog code - "=" means "<=". Tapatalk does not like "<="...

The networking part is not detachable, I was referring to the whole combo board. Otherwise it could be named 'Soyuz-Apollo'

It does not have to be detachable (most combos aren't). As long as each part has its own ID it'll need its own name.

[tnt23]

Originally Posted by bubbob42

I've written a little tutorial here:

http://www.a1k.org/forum/showthread.php?t=40088

It's in German, but might be helpful. Be sure to correct the Verilog code - "=" means "<=". Tapatalk does not like "<="...

Got it! It has been quite a while since I've looked into Zorro AUTOCONFIG docs, and since I was not going to use the er_SerialNumber registers I happily opted to not implement them

(Great tutorial BTW, as far as I can tell. Only was able to struggle through it till that serial number part, then rushed for the docs. Switching between a1k.org and Google Translate can be rather annoying )

[bubbob42]

Originally Posted by tnt23

(Great tutorial BTW, as far as I can tell. Only was able to struggle through it till that serial number part, then rushed for the docs. Switching between a1k.org and Google Translate can be rather annoying )

Absolutely - I did some development for a french internet device some time ago. Most of the community speak French, a language I once learned but never really used.

It was a nightmare until I found out that google translate performs much better transforming French->English than French->German.

Nice to hear the tutorial helped you to get started a bit. Please tell me about final names, IDs and prototype serials.

[tnt23]

Originally Posted by bubbob42

Nice to hear the tutorial helped you to get started a bit. Please tell me about final names, IDs and prototype serials.

For the prototypes, the IDs are the same (23 for the RAM, 24 for the network part). Serials are not supported yet, all zeroes are reported by default:

default: 	rdata = 4'b1111;

As these are the prototypes, I'd suggest using names 'z3sdram' and 'dm9k' if it is okay.

[tnt23]

Two more boards are ready, waiting for test and some cleaning. (Third one is my own devboard, thrown in to make the shot more dramatic).

[tnt23]

Boards tested OK, anyone interested in testing/development/debugging just let me know. (You'd better have a USB Blaster )
Will put them on AmiBay next week.

[jack-3d]

Does it require DMA and Buster? I could test it on Micronik Z-3i on A1200.

[tnt23]

Originally Posted by jack-3d

Does it require DMA and Buster? I could test it on Micronik Z-3i on A1200.

Neither DMA nor any special Buster revision are required. The card was tested on A3000 and A4000 in following configurations:

- A3000 and A4000: the only card in the system (Busters 7 and 9)
- A3000: with Buddha (Buster-11)
- A3000: with Buddha and DENEB in DMA mode (Buster-11)

The card only supports Zorro III bus. From what I have read about Micronic, its Zorro III mode is rather picky?

[hooverphonique]

Originally Posted by tnt23

Boards tested OK, anyone interested in testing/development/debugging just let me know. (You'd better have a USB Blaster )

I guess this is only relevant to people, who know "how to FPGA" ?

[tnt23]

Originally Posted by hooverphonique

I guess this is only relevant to people, who know "how to FPGA" ?

Well, not really. I'd describe the current state of firmware and software as 'okay it works'. The network part is not the fastest out there, yet the 200Kbytes/sec speed it delivers along with 64M of (also slow) Zorro memory make life of an otherwise unexpanded desktop fancier

There are lot of things that can be improved in FPGA firmware. So if you are willing to do a bit of HDL hacking, or to just try another FPGA firmware, you're welcome to, but you're not obliged to do this. Same for the device driver. It is, um, usable, but quite far from being perfect. It'd probably help the project to evolve if the user could help himself to some HDL or C programming if they want to; but it is perfectly OK otherwise. That's why 'power users' would be more preferrable

[arti040]

Hi @tnt23
Great work!
I see, you're trying to sell first batch on Amibay. I'm definitely interested, but first have few questions related:

- what about Zorro 2 and Kick 2.0 + Roadshow network stack? Will it gonna work?
- i know, someone asked already about it, but what about USB? There is a full documentation for Thylacine USB 1.1 card, which you could use - contact with @genny_flick from Amibay - he did (afair) more than 50 such cards, based on provided docs and sells it from time to time. It would be great to have all this on one card If you plan it, would be also really great to add a support for ANAIIS stack... yep, again Kick 2.0 - i'm in love with my standard A2000 and it's just only my suggestion

[T_hairy_bootson]

Wow, nice work, are you planning to produce these to sell?

For the name Sputnik or Laika imo.

[tnt23]

Originally Posted by arti040

- what about Zorro 2 and Kick 2.0 + Roadshow network stack? Will it gonna work?

Currently only Z3 is supported, however all the Z2 signals are also brought to the FPGA. So adding Z2 support will not require any hardware changes, only the FPGA firmware will have to be modified. I cannot tell when or how soon it could be done, however

For the Roadshow TCPIP stack, I have bought a copy of it with device driver development in mind, and it works with my setup just fine.

Will look Kick 2.0 up.

- i know, someone asked already about it, but what about USB? There is a full documentation for Thylacine USB 1.1 card, which you could use - contact with @genny_flick from Amibay - he did (afair) more than 50 such cards, based on provided docs and sells it from time to time. It would be great to have all this on one card If you plan it, would be also really great to add a support for ANAIIS stack... yep, again Kick 2.0 - i'm in love with my standard A2000 and it's just only my suggestion

Right, USB is screaming to be added. I have been contemplating Thylacine design to be incorporated, too, but SL811 chip seems to be slightly outdated. I'd go for a different USB host chip, and have already bought some samples for that matter.

Originally Posted by T_hairy_bootson

Wow, nice work, are you planning to produce these to sell?

For the name Sputnik or Laika imo.

Thanks! I like your 'Laika' proposal

Yes, I've put two cards for sale on AmiBay. Depending on the demand (and first users feedback), I'd arrange another microbatch.

[arti040]

[jbenam]

An affordable Zorro III memory expansion with ethernet AND usb on it?

My A4000 would KILL (if it had any arms) for one of these

I mean, paying a bit more than the price of a "simple" Thylacine for ALL this stuff? Count me in!

Compare that to a Thylacine that goes for ~100 and you understand that its pricing is a total theft for what it does

Anyway, add me in the "first-guys-to-buy-the-usb-version" list around the first place I'm itching to have one

[arti040]

Hi! What's the status of this project? Did you abandon it? (I hope, you didn't)