Doubt about Chipset type

[Sasuke]

A500 with 512 slow ram expansion, installed in the hatch.

When I load AmigaTestKit, it reports OCS/PAL.
Instead SysTest tells me ECS/PAL.

How come?

[jotd]

OCS / ECS can be differentiated by DENISEID. Garbage on OCS, $F8 on ECS IIRC. So it's easy to check if you have a software monitor or even a small asm program to read 0xDFF07C value. I can't imagine how diag programs can make such a mistake.

http://amiga-dev.wikidot.com/hardware:deniseid

[Toni Wilen]

ECS usually means having ECS Agnus and ECS Denise is separate option (ECS Agnus + OCS Denise is very common combination)

But if it does check ECS Denise, it might not do it right because if you read non-existing register (DENISEID without ECS Denise), you get whatever was in bus in previous access and without doing multiple reads carefully, you can get false positive.

[Sasuke]

Sorry, I didn't understand. Maybe it's the translator's fault.
So would I have an OCS or ECS chipset?

How can I understand this?

[derSammler]

You have OCS chipset if both Denise and Agnus are OCS.

You have ECS chipset if both Denise and Agnus are ECS.

Given the result, you probably have a mix between OCS Agnus with ECS Denise or ECS Agnus with OCS Denise.

Best way to tell: open the A500 and look at both chips.

[Galahad/FLT]

Out of interest, what Kickstart is your machine 1.2 or 1.3

And what colour is your power light?

[Matt_H]

As Toni said, ECS Agnus with OCS Denise is very common. One program could be checking ECS via the Denise value, another could be checking it via the Agnus value.

Good ol' ShowConfig will tell you specifically whether Agnus and Denise are OCS or ECS, but you'll need Kickstart 2 or above for that.

[admiral]

Maybe try good old (latest version is not that old actually) sysinfo.

Most likely, you have a rev6 Amiga 500 with ECS Agnus and OCS Denise.

[Sasuke]

SysInfo tells me ECS Agnus.

In fact I encountered several defects with some Demos, probably OCS.

As is happening with the Demo-Rolling Treasure Trap.
Sometimes it loads correctly, and sometimes it doesn't.

[paul1981]

Originally Posted by Matt_H

As Toni said, ECS Agnus with OCS Denise is very common. One program could be checking ECS via the Denise value, another could be checking it via the Agnus value.

Good ol' ShowConfig will tell you specifically whether Agnus and Denise are OCS or ECS, but you'll need Kickstart 2 or above for that.

Last time I checked, ShowConfig (from Workbench 3.0/3.1) worked fine with 1.3, although I haven't checked with 1.2.

[ross]

I just noticed this thread.

Perhaps it may be of interest::
https://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p...6&postcount=69

In the vast majority of cases what is of interest is the type of Agnus inside low-end machines, so even that test may be enough (and very simple to use, just insert the disk and immediate result).

[stx2199]

Originally Posted by Sasuke

A500 with 512 slow ram expansion, installed in the hatch.

When I load AmigaTestKit, it reports OCS/PAL.
Instead SysTest tells me ECS/PAL.

How come?

to simplify

if ur A500 which is pal can boot also in ntsc mode u have ECS
otherwise if only boot in PAL u have OCS

[ross]

Originally Posted by stx2199

to simplify

A bit too simplified
You can also have an A500 with KS1.3 and ECS Agnus and not be able to boot to NTSC, even though you can actually use it with an 'external' utility.