Sonnet 7200 PCI programming

[jack-3d]

Review of Killer M1

[BULI]

Great work, and very interesting test Thanks

Originally Posted by jack-3d

Review of Killer M1

[Wrangler]

Originally Posted by jack-3d

Your Duke port works very good on Killer M1, I just tested it and it runs smoothly at 640x480.

Thanks! Good to know as I don't have an M1 to test it on.

[Hedeon]

With the current sdl library, a slow ppc in combination with a slow 68k processor gives sound artifacts.

I also tested K1 vs Apocalyps (or whatever people called that card) and the latter is 3x as fast in duke despite 333 vs 450 MHz.

[TheMrKocour]

I have weird problem with my Sonnet G3 400/1. I cant add same pairs of RAM. When i installed 64 + 64 + 32 i will get 96 MB. When i have two same 32 and 16 i get 48. But when i have two different 32 and 16 i get 96 MB.

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by TheMrKocour

I have weird problem with my Sonnet G3 400/1. I cant add same pairs of RAM. When i installed 64 + 64 + 32 i will get 96 MB. When i have two same 32 and 16 i get 48. But when i have two different 32 and 16 i get 96 MB.

As I recall the slot at the top of the board is the first slot and the third is closest to the middle. See if it seems to be related to a specific slot. There are also some resistors soldered between pins on the DIMM connector, these were done by hand and I've seen two boards where one of them was screwed up, verify they are soldered correctly with a multimeter.



Other than that I've not had much experience mixing DIMM sizes as my couple Sonnets have 3x64MB and the two batches are all matching, though one set has a mix of Visiontek and Micron chips on it.

[jack-3d]

Ragnarok review ...

[BULI]

I love your review/ investigations.

In Q3 and RTCW use GL_LINEAR for filtering textures.

Originally Posted by jack-3d

Ragnarok review ...

[k0x]

When you compare - what is the best sound output option for Sonnetized Amiga?

1) classic onboard PAULA
2) PCI FM801 based sound card
3) Zorro audio card (Toccata, Prelude, Repulse, Delfina)

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by k0x

When you compare - what is the best sound output option for Sonnetized Amiga?

1) classic onboard PAULA
2) PCI FM801 based sound card
3) Zorro audio card (Toccata, Prelude, Repulse, Delfina)

1) Paula wins everything except in sound quality.


FM801 and SB128 are more or less the same with a fast enough PPC they work well.


Zorro sound cards really haven't been tested all that much, someone did try a Sonnet with a Delfina with the Delfina doing HW decoding and the result was really not much better.


I guess it's a question of doing what specifically? Games? Playing MP3s? Playing Videos? The answer is a little different for each scenario.

[k0x]

One guy just reported, that he succesfuly tried Killer K1 first in PC with Win10 64bit via Dell 64bit drivers - just to be sure the card is working. And while installing the driver, the card was automaticaly updated with firmware.

Is there a way how to check firmware version from Amiga?
Is there recommended firmware version of Killer for use in Amiga?

[k0x]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

1) Paula wins everything except in sound quality.


FM801 and SB128 are more or less the same with a fast enough PPC they work well.


Zorro sound cards really haven't been tested all that much, someone did try a Sonnet with a Delfina with the Delfina doing HW decoding and the result was really not much better.


I guess it's a question of doing what specifically? Games? Playing MP3s? Playing Videos? The answer is a little different for each scenario.

I was thinking if communication from PPC side to onboard or Zorro isnt slower than PCI what (if I understand correctly) is not leaving the PCI area.

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by k0x

I was thinking if communication from PPC side to onboard or Zorro isnt slower than PCI what (if I understand correctly) is not leaving the PCI area.

Yeah right except AHI is 68k based. But a stereo 16-bit 44100 audio stream is only some 150KB/s, which is among the reasons a clock port is fast enough for good sounding audio. I don't think anyone is really sure whether PPC code dumps an audio stream straight to the PCI card, but I'm pretty sure it does not. Audio must make a leisurely trip from the PPC memory back over the Zorro bus and into 68k memory and then travel seeing all of the sights back over the Mediator to the PCI sound card-that's my guess.

[Hedeon]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Yeah right except AHI is 68k based. But a stereo 16-bit 44100 audio stream is only some 150KB/s, which is among the reasons a clock port is fast enough for good sounding audio. I don't think anyone is really sure whether PPC code dumps an audio stream straight to the PCI card, but I'm pretty sure it does not. Audio must make a leisurely trip from the PPC memory back over the Zorro bus and into 68k memory and then travel seeing all of the sights back over the Mediator to the PCI sound card-that's my guess.

Yes. The PPC mixes the buffer and it gets send to 68k AHI which sends it again to 68k PCI driver. A ppc driver would be better.

And regarding Firmware: it is by-passed so it does not matter. The reset vector gets diverted and then the PPC is soft-reset so the CPU is taken over by my own code.

And if I understand your question correctly, No: Zorro space is not accessible by the PPC. The PPC memory is shadowed in PCI memory so the 68k can access it. PCI memory and config is shadowed in PPC memory space so the PPC can access PCI devices.

[k0x]

Originally Posted by Hedeon

Yes. The PPC mixes the buffer and it gets send to 68k AHI which sends it again to 68k PCI driver. A ppc driver would be better.

And regarding Firmware: it is by-passed so it does not matter. The reset vector gets diverted and then the PPC is soft-reset so the CPU is taken over by my own code.

And if I understand your question correctly, No: Zorro space is not accessible by the PPC. The PPC memory is shadowed in PCI memory so the 68k can access it. PCI memory and config is shadowed in PPC memory space so the PPC can access PCI devices.

So in general Zorro audio card should work but pricewise is PCI probably the best option if you want 16bit sound. Maybe we will try it with jack-3d.



And thanks for the info regarding Killer firmware.

[Hedeon]

I noticed from the videos that a 040 doesn't really cut it regarding keeping up with AHI and the PPC.

[k0x]

Does Ragnarok works with Voodoo 4?

Is it possible to limit somehow available memory of Ragnarok lower than 512MB to get V4 working?

[Hedeon]

With V3, available memory is automatically limited to 128+256mb. In case of Radeon or V4 it is limited to 128MB.

Or should be.

[k0x]

Manual to Ramix says:

The PMC239/F accepts both 3.3V and 5V
signaling PMC cards. It can be plugged into
both 3.3V and 5V signaling PCI slots. However,
if a 3.3V-only signaling PMC is installed
on the PMC239/F, the adapter can not be
installed in a 5V-only PCI slot. This also holds
true for the converse

Is there a way to get Ramix 239/F + Ragnarok working on Green Mediator 4000D (5V)?

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by k0x

Manual to Ramix says:

The PMC239/F accepts both 3.3V and 5V
signaling PMC cards. It can be plugged into
both 3.3V and 5V signaling PCI slots. However,
if a 3.3V-only signaling PMC is installed
on the PMC239/F, the adapter can not be
installed in a 5V-only PCI slot. This also holds
true for the converse

Is there a way to get Ramix 239/F + Ragnarok working on Green Mediator 4000D (5V)?

The Ramix 239/F with Ragnarok works in 5V only Mediators just fine, I have two of them, A4000 Mirage Tower 5V only and a Mediator MK-II A4000Di 5V only and they work in both. The Ramix 239/F also works with the Rapture G4 just fine as well, though it takes a little bit of warm up time in the A4000 Desktop.