Sonnet 7200 PCI programming

[kev]

thats only for os4

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by trixster

It is now! And the screenmode requester now appears!

Managed to get cowcat's Quake 2 WOS working this morning and ScummVM WOS. COMI loads ok but the intro video is choppy (streaming from the sd card is slow) and the audio runs ahead of the game which lags a little. But it's better than ScummVM AGA that's for sure!

I'd love to see an os4 conversion of Quake 3, that would be something.

And whilst I'm wishing, I can dream of playing Unreal too.

Any hint on where to place a neogeo bios in neomame? In the games /Roms directory? Zipped or in-zipped? Any particular bios file or naming convention?

Should just be neogeo.zip in the ROMS directory.

[trixster]

Grelbfarlk, in a post last month you said you found one mmu.library version less stable than another. Are you finding this is still the case? What mmu.library version do you recommend?

Also, is it necessary to cache inhibit the voodoo mem which goes to become system ram? I thought I read somewhere that it helps?

Does the Amiga always allocate the same memory window to the sonnet ram on each reboot? I ask this because on one occasion the memory address of my Simm changed and as such I had to modify the cacheinhibt line in Mmu-configuration. I had thought the sonnet had died because on all subsequent cold reboots no PPC apps would run. I had made zero changes to the amigas software or config. Upon investigation pciinfo and showconfig no longer matched Mmu-configuration for some strange reason and had to be set to the new address range.

Im finding that if I play a session of say quake or wipeout, if I quit back to workbench I can't then load another game. The sonnet appears to hang. I suspect the ram is not being handed back correctly even workbench appears to free it up. A reboot is required to play a different game. Is this normal? Somewhat similarly, if I play wipeout, quit, then load wipeout again it loads ok but the game seems to lag badly. Again a reboot is necessary. Normal?

A couple of random hardware questions:

I am not planning to try this (!), but has anyone been succesful in overclocking a G3 400 to 500mhz by changing the pll configuration? Or any succes in upping L2 cache 512 to 1024?
https://github.com/Sakura-IT/SonnetA...ardware-Clocks

Is it possible to upgrade a G3 with a G4 cpu?

[strim]

Originally Posted by trixster

Also, is it necessary to cache inhibit the voodoo mem which goes to become system ram? I thought I read somewhere that it helps?

I'd say it is recommended, since both PPC and 68k can write to Voodoo memory.

Does the Amiga always allocate the same memory window to the sonnet ram on each reboot?

It should if you didn't change hardware configuration in any way.

I ask this because on one occasion the memory address of my Simm changed and as such I had to modify the cacheinhibt line in Mmu-configuration. I had thought the sonnet had died because on all subsequent cold reboots no PPC apps would run. I had made zero changes to the amigas software or config. Upon investigation pciinfo and showconfig no longer matched Mmu-configuration for some strange reason and had to be set to the new address range.

Normally, AmigaOS AutoConfig mechanism which is used to assign addresses to boards is deterministic.

If the effects of using AutoConfig changes while you didn't touch the hardware, this might suggest some hardware problem in your setup, esp. in Mediator - where unfortunately problems are common due to low quality of assembly, extremely low quality of CPLD sockets, refurbished CPLD chips from the 90s.

Im finding that if I play a session of say quake or wipeout, if I quit back to workbench I can't then load another game. The sonnet appears to hang. I suspect the ram is not being handed back correctly even workbench appears to free it up. A reboot is required to play a different game. Is this normal? Somewhat similarly, if I play wipeout, quit, then load wipeout again it loads ok but the game seems to lag badly. Again a reboot is necessary. Normal?

Not normal, but there was a bug like that (fixed in build 258 from May 25). As far as I remember, latest release avilable on Aminet contains this fix.

Nevertheless, please test the latest development build. See whether your problem persist.

A couple of random hardware questions:

I am not planning to try this (!), but has anyone been succesful in overclocking a G3 400 to 500mhz by changing the pll configuration? Or any succes in upping L2 cache 512 to 1024?
https://github.com/Sakura-IT/SonnetA...ardware-Clocks

Is it possible to upgrade a G3 with a G4 cpu?

In theory all of this is possible, as it seems all versions used the same PCB.

However, it is a terrible idea considering rarity and price of Sonnet today. Surely you realise that most common cause of death of Amiga accelerators is user attempting to upgrade it.

[trixster]

Of course I realise that. I did state I had no intention of modifying my sonnet. I am merely curious.

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by trixster

Grelbfarlk, in a post last month you said you found one mmu.library version less stable than another. Are you finding this is still the case? What mmu.library version do you recommend?

Also, is it necessary to cache inhibit the voodoo mem which goes to become system ram? I thought I read somewhere that it helps?

Does the Amiga always allocate the same memory window to the sonnet ram on each reboot? I ask this because on one occasion the memory address of my Simm changed and as such I had to modify the cacheinhibt line in Mmu-configuration. I had thought the sonnet had died because on all subsequent cold reboots no PPC apps would run. I had made zero changes to the amigas software or config. Upon investigation pciinfo and showconfig no longer matched Mmu-configuration for some strange reason and had to be set to the new address range.

Im finding that if I play a session of say quake or wipeout, if I quit back to workbench I can't then load another game. The sonnet appears to hang. I suspect the ram is not being handed back correctly even workbench appears to free it up. A reboot is required to play a different game. Is this normal? Somewhat similarly, if I play wipeout, quit, then load wipeout again it loads ok but the game seems to lag badly. Again a reboot is necessary. Normal?

A couple of random hardware questions:

I am not planning to try this (!), but has anyone been succesful in overclocking a G3 400 to 500mhz by changing the pll configuration? Or any succes in upping L2 cache 512 to 1024?
https://github.com/Sakura-IT/SonnetA...ardware-Clocks

Is it possible to upgrade a G3 with a G4 cpu?

I replaced the L2 cache on my 512KB card to 1MB also went from 166MHz cache chips to 250MHz, but running them faster than stock was not possible at 400MHz CPU clock, I mentioned this pages back, which is why I made that page on the wiki.

Overclocking the 400MHz version IS NOT A GOOD IDEA! If you look at the pictures of my card with the heatsink removed, it is already a 350MHz part that Sonnet clocked at 400MHz. They say that some were marked incorrectly and that some of the 350MHz marked PPCs are actually 400MHz. Then they say the 350MHz parts are qualified for 400MHz and work fine-which they do. However when I tried this it took a massive amount of cooling to come close to running stable at only 433MHz. 466MHz I only tried very briefly as it was too unstable and I got nervous about how hot it was running.

The idea has been kicking around to replace the G3 PPC750 with a G4 PPC7410. This gives two benefits to the PPC750 board:
+1) You could get a 7410 at 500MHz, the 7410 requires less power than the 7400, which might make it stable at 500MHz-maybe. Sonnet only shipped the G4 version at 400MHz as the power and cooling demands were too high.
+2) The 7410 supports 2MB of L2 cache. Which I checked my board and the extra cache line appears to be connected to support it.

There are problems with this though:
-1) There are signal differences, and it appears the Core Voltage for the G3 is 2.1-2.2V. The 7410 in it's most common package is 1.8V-this could be a problem as it might run too hot, or it might be good in that it would tolerate higher clocks. I found at least one changed resistor between the G4 and G3 cards, I'm assuming there are others but it might be that one.
-2) No one has actually put 2MB of L2 cache on it and reported that it worked.

Ideally, someone would ship the board and a G4 to someone capable of replacing the PPC, and if the G4 upgrade was successful, then maybe slap the L2 2MB cache on it-again verify. Maybe it will just run at 1MB instead of 2MB-that would be fine. Or if it doesn't work or it is now unstable-remove the 2MB and install 1MB too. But then you are paying for two sets of L2 cache, which is a HIGH cost of like $30-$40 USD. Plus the cost of whoever is doing the work.

Seems like a lot of risk for not too much reward. In my opinion upgrading the L2 cache was worth it to me. I found that Amigenerator was not running at full speed @640x480 w/512KB cache.

Also to make a long-winded post longer, I did cache inhibit the Voodoo system memory.

[kev]

1 option is to replace the heatsink with copper try that

guy/girl who just paid $500 for that sonnet on ebay gonna want to add more cache to his considering its 512k ver

[trixster]

Interesting, thanks for the info.

[kev]

full copper heatsink not a copper core 1
Copper has about between 50% and double the thermal conductivity of aluminum depending on alloy, so for a given performance a copper heatsink can be 'half' the size of an aluminum one

Originally Posted by kev

1 option is to replace the heatsink with copper try that

guy/girl who just paid $500 for that sonnet on ebay gonna want to add more cache to his considering its 512k ver

Yep. Just gotta find someone who has the technical skills to do it for me


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[trixster]

Ah, you have another one now after you donated your first one to ratte?!

[kev]

1 way if you have basic solder skills is to use a xacto knife cut the pins then desolder each pin after the chip is removed
pro tip never cut down towards pcb

[Hedeon]

Originally Posted by trixster

Also, is it necessary to cache inhibit the voodoo mem which goes to become system ram? I thought I read somewhere that it helps?

Does the Amiga always allocate the same memory window to the sonnet ram on each reboot? I ask this because on one occasion the memory address of my Simm changed and as such I had to modify the cacheinhibt line in Mmu-configuration. I had thought the sonnet had died because on all subsequent cold reboots no PPC apps would run. I had made zero changes to the amigas software or config. Upon investigation pciinfo and showconfig no longer matched Mmu-configuration for some strange reason and had to be set to the new address range.

Im finding that if I play a session of say quake or wipeout, if I quit back to workbench I can't then load another game. The sonnet appears to hang. I suspect the ram is not being handed back correctly even workbench appears to free it up. A reboot is required to play a different game. Is this normal? Somewhat similarly, if I play wipeout, quit, then load wipeout again it loads ok but the game seems to lag badly. Again a reboot is necessary. Normal?

Any PPC stuff which ends up in the memory of the voodoo (mostly 2-3 MB) is not supported.

1) It means you have used up all the Sonnet memory and out of memory is imminent.
2) An endian change of the memory of the voodoo will mess up the code that is there.

It should ALWAYS be the same memory range. Except when cards are (re)moved.

It is NOT normal that you cannot start anything after closing a PPC program.

The lag indeed happens here with me too, sometimes. When I ever have the time I'll look into it.

First thing I want to try next is to remove the need of cache inhibited PCI memory.

Originally Posted by trixster

Ah, you have another one now after you donated your first one to ratte?!

Yeah. Got the itch to use one again


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by esc

Yeah. Got the itch to use one again


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Well you'll be able to get back to working on those WarpOS ports, compiling on the Sonnet is really fast.

I did find out that Fishy_Fiz over at Amiga.org at one point did have a DosBox WarpOS version that he sent to some people, never hit Aminet and he lost the source and binary.

Haha yes I forgot about this. Though I wonder if compiling in UAE is faster...not sure.

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by esc

Haha yes I forgot about this. Though I wonder if compiling in UAE is faster...not sure.

Yeah compiling on UAE is probably a lot faster, when I compiled those WarpOS Quake 2 mods I did it on UAE and I want to say they were maybe 15 minutes or so. Of course testing them meant shuttling them off to the real machine so... sausages.

[spudje]

OK, since hopefully I will get back a repaired and finally fully working Mediator 4000Di MKiii (3v) and a lot has happened (no more sonnet.library but powerpc.liberary) since DarrenHD, Jack-3d and Hedeon were talking about how to run with both Sonnet & CSPPC in the machine I was wondering whether any of you now got this working:

- OS3.9 Partition that used only the 060 of the CSPPC and the PPC of the Sonnet
- Other OS3.9 partition that only uses CSPPC and not the Sonnet (Not really required)
- OS4.1 partition using CSPPC (Having OS4.1 use the Sonnet is probably never gonna happen)

BTW can I run without RAM on the Sonnet or do I really need some RAM there? I still haven't ordered any since discussions on what exact RAM is supported were also still going on here.

[trixster]

Originally Posted by Hedeon

It is NOT normal that you cannot start anything after closing a PPC program.

The lag indeed happens here with me too, sometimes. When I ever have the time I'll look into it.

I tried the most recent build #267 and it seems to have mostly resolved this issue. For example, I can now load and play quake, quit, load and play wipeout, quit, reload and play quake, quit, load and play quake2 etc..

However quake2 is still prone to either crashing to workbench with an Alloc or hunk failure, or locking up completely when loading a level after a while - so for instance I can play through the opening level fine but when it starts to load level two it crashes. I still have just a 64mb stick (58.5mb showing in showconfig).

Hexen 2 will load to the menus but will lockup when loading the first level. I suspect a lack of ram.

Here's a good one for you: the getinfo from #267 doesn't seem to work for me from a CLI, it only works by double-clicking and executing from workbench. It just locks up the CLI. No idea why.

[indigolemon]

Originally Posted by trixster

Here's a good one for you: the getinfo from #267 doesn't seem to work for me from a CLI, it only works by double-clicking and executing from workbench. It just locks up the CLI. No idea why.

Complete guess, but stack size maybe? What is the Icon setting it to?