Sonnet 7200 PCI programming

[grelbfarlk]

Originally Posted by 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.

You really need RAM on the Sonnet.
It has to be 168-pin 5V. Known working is 64MB (or less) with 2k refresh FPM mode. But I have apparently been using 64MB 4k refresh modules for some time with no problem. EDO work fine (in FPM mode). So before you go out and buy modules which don't work check beforehand exactly what you're buying. Try to find 2k refresh. I now have about 6 different sticks that were sold to me as 2k or 4k refresh and turned out to be 4k and 8k refresh respectively. 8K Refresh does not work.

With the current version of the library I was able to boot my CSPPC in the system by just switching out PowerPC.libraries, switching from Sonnet powerpc.library to WarpOS powerpc.library.

As far as running out of memory with Quake 2, Cowcat might have some advice for you on that front. Maybe reduce stack as much as you can, possible reduce GL_Texturecache or MTexbuffer, both will probably reduce your performance. I have stackattack on auto, I recall you had some really high number there, that will probably reduce your RAM too.

[Cowcat]

With glhexen2 in my system 92 mg+ memory is reduced to +-15mg when a first level is loaded. I think Q2 memory is reduced to 30-40mg at first.

Max texture memory is hardcoded in Hexen2, Q2 don't remember & BlitzQ has "-max" value for texture (I give 128, to relieve some of the graphics problems my BVision Card has).

[kev]

no reason why this mem should be a issue tsi107 even supports sdram gonna have to chat with greg a bit more on the config just dont have a sonnet to test

[spudje]

Thanks a lot grelbfarlk, sounds promising! So I'll await RAM tests results from trixster before I order my RAM.

[trixster]

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

As far as running out of memory with Quake 2, Cowcat might have some advice for you on that front. Maybe reduce stack as much as you can, possible reduce GL_Texturecache or MTexbuffer, both will probably reduce your performance. I have stackattack on auto, I recall you had some really high number there, that will probably reduce your RAM too.

Good call on stackattack, I changed it when I was trying to sort out the mediator drama. I'll try going back to auto.

[strim]

The vasm and vlink tools were updated on the build server to latest development versions (from today).

Build 268 was done with these new versions.

Just a shot in the dark here, and I'm pretty sure I already know the answer, but is there any possibility of getting AmigaOS 4.1 FE Classic to boot?

[trixster]

I'm guessing no, as the sonnet needs the mediator and graphics card initialised first in order to start?

[strim]

Originally Posted by esc

Just a shot in the dark here, and I'm pretty sure I already know the answer, but is there any possibility of getting AmigaOS 4.1 FE Classic to boot?

Theoretical? Yes.

Practical? No.

I love impractical! That's why I spend thousands of dollars on Amiga hardware from the 90s.

[DarrenHD]

Originally Posted by esc

I love impractical! That's why I spend thousands of dollars on Amiga hardware from the 90s.

Strim is right, but it would require Hyperion to update the OS4 kernel to support the hardware and probably make a bunch of other changes...unfortunately based on the market size and target it is likely aliens will land on earth before that happens

Darren

Sure, understood. Unless...someone reverse engineers the card... :P

[jack-3d]

Originally Posted by strim

Theoretical? Yes.

Practical? No.

And would it be somehow helpful to use Deneb boot memory (I guess it has 4 MB boot flash rom space available) to initiate Mediator with Sonnet?

[strim]

Guys. This thread is dedicated to SonnetAmiga project, which is a WarpOS reimplementation only.

Any talk of running OS4 is at this moment a pipe dream. There is no work being done in this area. Knowing Hyperion's attitude towards independent developers (i.e. ones who didn't sign the ridiculous NDA), it's unlikely that anything will happen soon.

Initialising Mediator and Voodoo is a trivial problem (that could be implemented in many different ways - either a binary started from OS3, or a module loaded from Deneb). The real problems are modifications necessary to OS4 kernel and drivers - note that Sonnet CPU can not directly access the Amiga bus, unlike in Phase5 cards. _That_ would be a huge task.

[Hedeon]

Like Strim says, the Sonnet cannot access the Amiga bus. So if it would ever materialize, you would need some SATA/IDE card to boot from and to connect a mouse, keyboard HDD etc. to as none of the Amiga chipset can be reached.

Or maybe through some custom driver which actually accesses the 68K CPU like in WarpOS.

[grelbfarlk]

Sounds too hard for now. How about a nice compromise of Ifusion first.

[Hedeon]

I've stored all my classic stuff. I'm moving to NG now.

[kev]

if you ran os4 you just be using the amiga to power the mediator and treating the medator as just a simple backplane which then you would need the peripherals on the pci slots hdd/IO/sound/video etc you would also need to add a flash bios to the sonnet
sonnet is just a neutered SBC atm

[strim]

Originally Posted by Hedeon

I've stored all my classic stuff. I'm moving to NG now.

What happened, did your beloved A3000 crash one time too many, or are you captivated so much by that shiny X5000?

Hey guys, was just askin' about the AOS 4 stuff. Figured it couldn't hurt to at least ask. :P