Sonnet 7200 PCI programming

[neocdtv2]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

At some point maybe someone should compile a fresh list of what is working on the A1200 with the PPC. I guess Amigenerator doesn't work, but has anyone tried DGen, since it uses AHI it might... work, maybe, not well on a K1 though.

Yes the biggest problem is the sound. Paula will stutter or crash your system, over AHI or directly used. I had some success with sound in Quake in the following config:
Radeon 9250, Killer K1, Terratec 512i
But stuff like Frogger.WOS with sound is stuttering and even tearing up the video, which is really smoth if run w/o sound. Do not even try MooVid for PPC this will do like 1FPS.
ZhaDoomPPC Runs, but it uses Paula i think, sometimes it crashes, sometimes not.

AmigaAmp2, configured properly is working.

[neocdtv2]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Yes always and still. For $40 you could buy a Killer NIC and replace the RAM with the correct type and like get 128MB. For $60 you could get an Apocalypse with 128MB or 256MB and upgrade it to 256MB or 512MB for another $20-$120. There are so many RAMs.

Do you maybe know, which memory chips are need to upgrade Killer K1 to 128MB?

[neocdtv2]

Originally Posted by neocdtv2

I've got a Killer K1 and Apocalypse, but only Killer K1 is working in my 1200 :/ so there is only 64MB on the PPC disposal. I've managed to get Warp3D working today, which was as simple as installing the 3000/4000 PPC Warp3D drivers from Mediator, this would be:
Libs:Warp3D/GFXDrivers/W3D_Picasso96_PPC.library
Libs:Warp3D/HWDrivers/W3D_AvengerBE_PPC.library
Libs:Warp3D/HWDrivers/W3D_AvengerLE_PPC.library

Gears for PPC is working, small, window and fullscreen version.
I can start Blitzquake_WOS, but only if I configure a dummy map for the beginning, as soon, as i start
a new game, i get can not alloc ~42MB chunk or similar error.

I've added a Terratec 512i, with AHI 4.18 and FM801 drivers.

Quake WOS runs ok with Sound. Tested just one timedemo.

Demo Encore Sulaco, which requires PPC and Warp3D and AHI - runs really nice.
Encore By Night is crashing at some point, but tried just 2xtimes. It also req. Warp3D.
Both demos need to be started with the screen option. The window option show just a black window content.

The window option run on my 4000TX, Prometheus PCI, Voodoo3, Apocalypse, Paula w/o problems.

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by neocdtv2

Do you maybe know, which memory chips are need to upgrade Killer K1 to 128MB?

I think I posted what I bought and it turned out I got the wrong kind I think, also I mangled it pretty good. I have not heard that people did that successfully, yet.

[neocdtv2]

A1200, TF1260 @100Mhz, Voodoo3 (Picasso2.1b, Warp3D), Terratec 512i, Killer K1 (powerpc.library 17.13b):
Qauke:
[ Show youtube player ]
Gears Demo:
[ Show youtube player ]
Encore Saluco:
[ Show youtube player ]

[Hedeon]

You can change the buffer of AHI i think. It will make the sound come later though so it will be out of sync with the video. But no crackling.

[neocdtv2]

Originally Posted by Hedeon

You can change the buffer of AHI i think. It will make the sound come later though so it will be out of sync with the video. But no crackling.

Very good info. Interesting observation, I had to refit the Voodoo3, because i was switching between TF1260 and BPPC, and at some point the sound was flawless, but the encore never got over the first scene, after refitting again the voodoo3, the crackling was back, but the demo is running most of the time over first scene. I've tested it like 20+ times to be sure that I didn't go mad.

I was also about searching if there is buffer.

Well I can change the StackSize for the AHI-Handler (AUDIO like described here https://wiki.amigaos.net/wiki/AmigaO...ga_Directories, but no change. I think one can change only the Buffer, if a ahi device is opened, this will be done by Encore itself i suppose.

[Hedeon]

I think I had AHIpaulaBufferLength on my mind, but that is obviously for Paula.

[neocdtv2]

I was just scouting the code of 17.14 and found a comment in libinit.c:
//Add ATI Radeon memory as extra memory for K1/M1
//Need to have Voodoo as primary VGA output

Is it beneficiery to have a Radeon installed with Voodoo3 when using K1/M1?

[Hedeon]

Cannot remember. Access to it is only like 166MB/s so don't expect miracles. If it works, not sure if I ever tested it.

[DarrenHD]

Elbox has released pci.library 13.14 as of March 18th, 2023. Anyone know what is new?

http://www.elbox.com/downloads_mediator.html

[Hedeon]

Dunno, PCIe bridge related? They have been claiming that for a while now.

[DarrenHD]

Well I installed it and everything appears to work...can't tell any difference. My Sonnet PPC still works at least

[neocdtv2]

Originally Posted by DarrenHD

Well I installed it and everything appears to work...can't tell any difference. My Sonnet PPC still works at least

Same here on 1200 + Mediator TX.

Have you spotted some release notes? I really can't find any :/

[grelbfarlk]

Somebody plug in a PCIe adapter and a Radeon, or something and post pciinfo output.

[robxbl69]

I recently purchased a Killer K1 from user Mokry on Amibay, but I'm starting to think it could be faulty and really need some help.

Morky said the reason for sale was because the A1200 with Mediator wasn't a supported combination, it kept crashing when he tried to run PPC software.

I have A4000D with Mediator Di Mk IV, Cyberstorm Mk II (Rev 5 060 @ 50Mhz) c/w SCSI adapter, Zulu SCSI etc. I do not have a Vodoo card, but have several Radeon 9200/9250 cards. The card I normally used is a 128Mb 9250.

I've followed the Wiki to the letter and have removed all other PCI/Zorro cards. With a minimal start-up, at first as soon as I ran InitPPC the A4000 would crash.

To try and prove if the Killer K1 worked I put it in an old Win7 x64 PC I have. After installing the latest/final drivers it automatically updated the firmware on the K1. I then used it for a while as a network card (all worked fine) before shutting it down and putting it back in the Mediator.

Booted with no start-up, run setpatch, created env directory/assign, copied from envarc, loadmondrvs etc and the when I ran InitPPC it immediately returned to the command prompt (no crash or message), so I then ran GetInfo and I saw all the info about the card. At that point I thought I'd cracked it, but sadly not...

Most the time I can get InitPPC and GetInfo to work when I boot from cold. After that it won't work, even if I switch off to 5 minutes. I probably need to switch off for 30 mins or more to get it to work again. Sometimes it just won't work no matter what I do. It will either crash the A4000 (most likely) or I'll get a pop-up saying PowerPC CPU not responding or PowerPC CPU possibly crashed during setup. Then if I try and do something (anything) I'll get a yellow guru.

If I take the card out and put it back in the PC it will work first time every time, but I'm now wondering if for basic network operation is the PPC chip used? I've tried searching for some of the FNA apps (torrent, ftp, firewall, console) written for the K1 PPC, but I cannot find any online. If anyone has any of these or can tell me where to find them, I'd be extremely grateful.

This weekend I've totally stripped the Mediator our and have cleaned all contacts etc, but no change.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Maybe there's someone on here in the UK with a working K1 set-up would be kind enough to test the card for me?

Sorry for the long post...

Rob

[grelbfarlk]

I had a difficult time getting the K1 working with a Mediator MK-IV, it turned out that it was quite sensitive to card order as is the Mediator MK-IV with other PPC cards. As I recall I had to add something to the top PCI slot to get it working, I want to say that was a sound card.
Usual advice, try reordering your cards. Make sure you have winsize set for 512MB. If Radeon or K1 being first doesn't help, try putting a NIC or something in the top slot, even if you don't intend on using it and see if that makes any difference.

I am well convinced that your card is not broken in some way, it's probably just the card order issue.

[neocdtv2]

Originally Posted by robxbl69

I recently purchased a Killer K1 from user Mokry on Amibay, but I'm starting to think it could be faulty and really need some help.

Morky said the reason for sale was because the A1200 with Mediator wasn't a supported combination, it kept crashing when he tried to run PPC software.

I have A4000D with Mediator Di Mk IV, Cyberstorm Mk II (Rev 5 060 @ 50Mhz) c/w SCSI adapter, Zulu SCSI etc. I do not have a Vodoo card, but have several Radeon 9200/9250 cards. The card I normally used is a 128Mb 9250.

I've followed the Wiki to the letter and have removed all other PCI/Zorro cards. With a minimal start-up, at first as soon as I ran InitPPC the A4000 would crash.

To try and prove if the Killer K1 worked I put it in an old Win7 x64 PC I have. After installing the latest/final drivers it automatically updated the firmware on the K1. I then used it for a while as a network card (all worked fine) before shutting it down and putting it back in the Mediator.

Booted with no start-up, run setpatch, created env directory/assign, copied from envarc, loadmondrvs etc and the when I ran InitPPC it immediately returned to the command prompt (no crash or message), so I then ran GetInfo and I saw all the info about the card. At that point I thought I'd cracked it, but sadly not...

Most the time I can get InitPPC and GetInfo to work when I boot from cold. After that it won't work, even if I switch off to 5 minutes. I probably need to switch off for 30 mins or more to get it to work again. Sometimes it just won't work no matter what I do. It will either crash the A4000 (most likely) or I'll get a pop-up saying PowerPC CPU not responding or PowerPC CPU possibly crashed during setup. Then if I try and do something (anything) I'll get a yellow guru.

If I take the card out and put it back in the PC it will work first time every time, but I'm now wondering if for basic network operation is the PPC chip used? I've tried searching for some of the FNA apps (torrent, ftp, firewall, console) written for the K1 PPC, but I cannot find any online. If anyone has any of these or can tell me where to find them, I'd be extremely grateful.

This weekend I've totally stripped the Mediator our and have cleaned all contacts etc, but no change.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Maybe there's someone on here in the UK with a working K1 set-up would be kind enough to test the card for me?

Sorry for the long post...

Rob

I've tried almost the same config i.e. 4000TX, Mediator 4000T MK4, Killer K1, Radeon and well it was rather not usable. The only combination, which K1 was initiated by sonnet lib, when the first slot was empty, the second slot was Radeon, the third slot was K1. Even then, the card was initialized just like 75% of the time, the only stuff that was running, where some WarpOS demo-programs included in the warpos installation. As soon some graphics came into play it always crashed. I had better results with a Apocalypse, but the card also crashed after like 10-15 of playing quake. I've switched then to Prometheus PCI and Apocalypse and it is working really good. The K1 is sitting now in a 1200 with Mediator TX and working pretty ok, like quake wos is running w/o crashing for hours, warp3d stuff works most of the time, no comparison to the behaviour in the 4000+Mediator.

[neocdtv2]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Somebody plug in a PCIe adapter and a Radeon, or something and post pciinfo output.

This feature should be available in the pci.library version 14, but who knows.

[AlphaAmiga]

What would perform better in a A1200 & Mediator TX, a Killer K1 or a Sonnet Crescendo? Or is there no appreciable difference?