Decisions in MAC emulation...

[JimDrew]

FUSION is not the issue. The Mac OS itself can not process anything beyond 4GB.

[Pheonix]

What I was saying is, even after patching OS 3.1 with FFSTD64, Fusion will not accept a partition beyond the first 4GB. It won't even launch (so the MAC OS never comes into play.) It just tells me that TD64 is required to use that device. Everything else works fine. I can even mount the partition as a FFS drive & format it in OS 3.1. But Fusion still demands TD64 before it will let me use it.

About the only issue there, that I can come up with, is that none of the FFSTD64 archives or packages I could find would actually patch "C:info". I tried it on 3 different sources (2.1, 3.0, & 3.1.) They all are reported by "version c:info" as version 38.2 which is what the patch claims to need, but none of them will work. The only thing I didn't try (because I only just now thought of it,) was to use the one from 3.9.

All of this in emulation, not on my real system. Still trying to find my physical OS 3.1 disks.

[JimDrew]

The Mac controls the partition access and the Mac OS itself uses the partition information, and does not support >4GB partition sizes or locations. Hardfiles will work because they are a fake hard drive, not a real hard drive. You can patch it all you want on the Amiga side, it is never going work unless the Mac OS was patched to fix this issue.

[Pheonix]

OK. I create a 500 MB partition, but it comes after my 4 GB Amiga Boot partition, and 8 GB Amiga Data partition. I now load fusion, in devices I select MAC0: as the partition to mount for the MAC. I set everything else and click start emulation. Fusion tells me I need TD64 and won't launch the emulation. The emulation never starts, the floppy drive is never seized, the control panel never comes up, the configuration window never even closes. It just immediately says, you need TD64 installed.

On the other hand. I change the Amiga boot partition to 3GB, put the MAC0: partition next, then have the rest as the Amiga data partition and now it works just fine.

Moving on to OS 3.9 (don't have to install FFSTD64,) and the exact same partition setups. Both work just fine without any issues.

[Pheonix]

OK, got the replacement chip in (3rd chip.) The board now passes all test, but it also now lists itself as an Option-B board (SCSI no Serial.) So it never even tests that chip. Went through all 3 chips, and in all cases, it lists itself as an Option-B board. So, next question... Does anyone know how Emplant diagnostics detects which board is installed? There's a good chance that whatever is now not working so that the board detects as an Option-B board caused the problem in the first place.

I'm hoping it's an easy fix. Well, relatively easy fix. Not really much of an issue right now, as I don't have a need for the Mac serial access. But, if I ever get the Apple IIgs setup I plan to get, I believe I read somewhere that Apple Talk is compatible between the Apple II & the MAC systems. Would be nice to connect them together.

[JimDrew]

Originally Posted by Pheonix

OK. I create a 500 MB partition, but it comes after my 4 GB Amiga Boot partition, and 8 GB Amiga Data partition. I now load fusion, in devices I select MAC0: as the partition to mount for the MAC. I set everything else and click start emulation. Fusion tells me I need TD64 and won't launch the emulation.

Correct! Like I said, the Mac OS can NOT handle a partition that is larger than 4GB, *OR* located beyond the first 4GB of the partition. If you place the Mac partition within the first 4GB of the hard drive (and it's size does not extend into the next 4GB), it will work. The issue is the Mac side, not the Amiga side, and that is never going to change. You actually need the TD64 for anything larger than 2GB.

[JimDrew]

Originally Posted by Pheonix

Does anyone know how Emplant diagnostics detects which board is installed?

You do realize that I designed EMPLANT and wrote most all of the software for it, including the Diagnostic program?

I check for the various chips by looking for them. If one doesn't respond then the option is removed. So, it seems that your SCC chip (or crystal) is not working. Make sure all of the pins are there (not bent) and it's in the correct direction.

[Pheonix]

It detects the SCSI just fine, it's the Serial chip (SCC) it's not detecting at all now. It was just coming up as bad, but now it's acting like the chip & other HW isn't even there. It does seem, depending on how accurate the diagnostics image is, that I know know all the parts that are involved with the serial ports, I guess I could just start replacing every one of them. Would rather not do that If I can narrow it down any that would be appreciated.

Yes, whenever I change a chip, the first thing I do is check all pins with a magnifier. So, the SCC chip was properly seated in all cases. I have now switched the other chips (device a & b) around without effect, but not sure if that had any effect as it still doesn't detect the Serial ports at all now (so doesn't test them.)

[Pheonix]

Originally Posted by JimDrew

You do realize that I designed EMPLANT and wrote most all of the software for it, including the Diagnostic program?

Yes, but I didn't want to make assumptions on how much you remembered. So I made the question general to all.

[Pheonix]

Best I can determine, and please correct anything that's wrong, the parts on the Serial ports portion of the card are:

 1x Fox F1100E 4-Pin 3.6864 Mhz Crystal
 2x 270 Ohm 5% Axial Resistors
 4x 0.01µF 25VDC 20% Capacitors (?) Tiny 2-pin Blue marked 103 and M1E
14X 0.00027µf 100V Capacitors [3-Pin / 2 capacitors each?]
 2x AM26LS30PC chips
 2x SN75175N Chips
 1x Z85C3008PSC Chip
 2x Serial Connectors mini DIN-8

Now trying to determine which of these would have no effect on chip detection, I'm assuming you detect the serial option in the same way as the SCSI, that is you just look for the SCC chip?? Looking at the board, the most likely culprit is the crystal. So, I currently plan to get one of those next month (out of funds till then.)

[JimDrew]

Originally Posted by Pheonix

Yes, but I didn't want to make assumptions on how much you remembered. So I made the question general to all.

I have the source code to everything still.

[JimDrew]

The only things that can cause the SCC chip to not show up is the EMPLANT's P3-chip being the wrong type for a DELUXE board, the crystal, and the SCC chip itself. If anything else was wrong, the SCSI chip would not show up (same bus used for it, so the buffers and accompanying logic has to be working). Typically, this is a crystal issue... but it could be the SCC chip itself.

[Pheonix]

Well, I find it hard to believe that 3 chips (2 of which being NOS,) all failed. So, I'm going to keep my fingers crossed it's the crystal I have a couple of sources lined up for $3 or $4 but only have $0.35 left for the month (I hate having a fixed income, at least my meds, food, & bills are already covered.) I'll get it ordered on the 3rd (when I get my check,) and hope it works I'll let you know how it turns out.

While I'm waiting, I've pretty much finished everything I can do in emulation, so I've been spending my time cleaning up the mess of downloads & installs I've accumulated over this in preparation. Also re-building my install CD. Discovered that the main problem cropped up with BB2's ROM update. So, I'm leaving that out in this build. I've got the floppy issue handled by just switching to a different image writer (though I guess I could still test those a bit more.) I did use my Emplant card for a test run, and the speed difference in the emulation was extreme to say the least I really hope I can get it running fully.

[JimDrew]

DiskDup+ was the most common disk copier for the Mac. I have about 20 others that I tested when I wrote the .sony (floppy disk driver) code.

[Pheonix]

Sorry about the delay in responding. I have now ordered a replacement crystal. Well, 2 actually and they are a different brand (but electronically identical.) 5vdc, 3.6864 Mhz, .4 & 2.4 mA, +/- 100 ppm. Only difference is the Fox brand (the one I'm replacing,) is listed as having a 20ms startup where the Ecliptek has a 10ms startup. From what I'm reading, as long as it isn't slower, it's compatible (so the 10ms can replace the 20ms, but not the other way around.) It was either order 2 at $3 + shipping total, or order 10 @ $3.00 each + shipping of the Fox brand. They should arrive by the end of the week.

Once the board is up and running again, I'll be testing PCx on my physical system. I'm hoping the e586 enhanced Emplant will improve things considerably. Otherwise, I'll be dropping PC emulation again. The emulation speed doesn't even keep up with the 4Mhz baseline 8088 And, yes, I adjusted the cache & turbo settings. Hopefully this will fix the board.

Turns out I have a valid, though I'm not sure how "full" it is, copy of PCx. I have a stack of Amiga Format CD's and one of them has PCx 1.1 (the last officially released version I can find,) on it. Back in the day I purchased a ton of those magazines that had a CD with them. Though, back then, I had to copy files (piecemeal some times,) on to 720K disks to transfer to my Amiga. I only had a CD on my PC back then. I later used a null modem & term software to transfer them (faster than floppies.)

I am curious if there is a CGA driver available for PCx. I imagine the one that came with the Emplant e586 software isn't compatible (haven't tried it.) Though, even if there is one, I doubt it supports artifacting The majority of the games I would want to play are designed around artifacted CGA. Oh well, I can live without that. As long as I can get the timings accurate. I also wish I had a 5.25" drive, but finding one of the external 5.25" drives for the Amiga (all the internal bays are full,) is a bit difficult

[Pheonix]

While waiting for the crystals to arrive, I decided to check into the RAM options. Only, I can't seem to find the requirements for the RAM other than they are Static RAM of either 28-pin or 32-pin DIP, 512K each maximum. No details on any of the specs. are they 64k x 8, 32k x 16, 50ns, 70ns, etc... The manual mentions 128k x 8, but those are 1M chips, and the same manual also states that the max with all 5 slots is 2.5 M (if they are all 1M chips that would be 5M.)

[JimDrew]

e586DX and PCx are completely different emulations, with nothing compatible between them. PCx comes with PC drivers for SCSI, CD-ROM, and ANSI.

The RAMs for EMPLANT can be whatever you want to use that will fit in the sockets. The largest chip you can use a 512K. There are 5 sockets, so that is 2.5MB.

[Pheonix]

Again, sorry about the delay... Got addicted to a stupid FB game while waiting for the replacement crystal Catching up on my e-mails now, and realized I didn't post the response here I had planned too.

I had assumed that they weren't compatible. But I was holding out a mild hope, since you worked on both, that the drivers were compatible after all. I'll have to test my CGA games on e586DX when I get my Emplant installed back into the system.

I'm also hoping that having the Emplant will speed up the emulation of PCx as well (assuming I don't just go with e586DX for the CGA.) Can't test that until I re-install the card. If it has the same speed issues that PCx shows, I might just drop PC emulation all together. I hate having HW installed that I don't use, though. Which is the entire reason I started looking into that aspect of the Emplant, since mine has the e586 upgrade installed

Just to be complete, I'll probably give PC-Task a try as well. Didn't care for how Janus performed And when someone finally asked about buying my brigeboard, I had dropped PC emulation.

[Pheonix]

Forgot to ask...

So the IS61C512-15J chip (DIP-32 version,) is compatible?

[JimDrew]

Yes, that chip should work. The EMPLANT board is not required for PCx, and is actually not supported at all with it.