A600 with 11.5mb RAM & PCMCIA

[PDrill]

I have a A600 with 3.1/40.63 kick, Furia and total RAM of 2mb CHIP + 9.5 FAST. The PCMCIA doesn't work with all that memory, but resetting the computer with CTRL+A+A for more than 4 seconds reduces the memory (it's a Furia function) so the PCMCIA things work.


More than once I have seen postings about some software solution for the PCMCIA not working with more memory, but now that I have my A600 on the table I can't find anything.

So how is it done?

EDIT: Eh, never mind. Once again right after asking, my searching finds me what I'm looking for: https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=106516

[alexh]

Some PCMCIA cards are I/O mapped and not memory mapped and so don't need the PCMCIA memory space.

Certainly wouldn't work with a PCMCIA RAM card.

I think that PCMCIA->IDE (cfd driver) and perhaps PCMCIA ethernet/wifi cards (3c589) are a possibility to work with memory enabled.

Neil Cafferkey would know for sure.

[Marce]

the problem of pcmcia not working beyond 4mb of fast ram is kickstart 3.1
there is a bug in card.resource from roms 3.1 , which do not exists in the roms 3.0 of the A1200

the problem is that roms 3.0 for the A600 do not exists,If it existed, you wouldn't have that problem.


I'm sure a french guy of this forum done a patch for kick 3.1 roms
I think is this

also you need the program loadmodule to load it in the startup-sequence

[Jope]

The change for 3.1 was deliberate. The releases before that are buggy.

It being a beneficial bug doesn't change the fact that it is not always stable to have the RAM <-> PCMCIA overlap.

So of course everyone can try the patched card.resource to see if it is stable for them, but I think people should be made aware of the caveat.

[Marce]

Originally Posted by Jope

The change for 3.1 was deliberate. The releases before that are buggy.

.

is buggy because stop all pcmcia devices working beyond 4mb ram

they done it on purpose to avoid conflict with some pcmcia ram cards which existed in the era which were slow

but pcmcia modems, lans,wifi,compact flash adapters > works perfect with 8mb or even more fast ram

[Daedalus]

Originally Posted by Marce

but pcmcia modems, lans,wifi,compact flash adapters > works perfect with 8mb or even more fast ram

Except when they don't. Some I/O cards initialise first as SRAM cards before switching to I/O mode, which causes the same issue as a plain SRAM card. So 3.1's feature to disable the port may have been overzealous, but it's not a bug.

[Marce]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

Except when they don't. Some I/O cards initialise first as SRAM cards before switching to I/O mode, which causes the same issue as a plain SRAM card. So 3.1's feature to disable the port may have been overzealous, but it's not a bug.

Yes I know is not a bug , was done on purpose but, disabling the whole port was a stupid decision by commodore which complicated the life of lot A1200 and A600 users which to this day are still confused by this

I have an A1200+tra1200 turboboard +8mb ram btw, I never had pcmcia problems with any device because I still have the originals roms 3.0

[thomas]

You should read the posts of ThoR about PCMCIA and why 3.1.4 is broken. IIRC he explained that *all* PCMCIA cards initialise as RAM first and then switch to I/O mode if applicable.

The stupid decision is the hardware design, to put the PCMCIA address range in the middle of the Zorro address space. To disable PCMCIA completely if the address range is occupied by Fast RAM is only a logical consequence.

[Marce]

The best roms are the 3.0 btw, 100% pcmcia friendly , even can run OS3.9 in a perfect way using a cracked workbench.library as the 45.132

I don't get out of those roms on my A1200 not even drunk

much less to run such new crap called workbench 3.2 yet I still don't understand what it is for or what advantage it has over 3.9