Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer

[agranlund]

Oh that's really cool!
I'll update pgusinit with latest from upstream when I get a chance.

Now it would be really cool if someone made a TOS cd-rom driver that can talk to x86 cd-rom interfaces

[agranlund]

Updated the release package.
https://github.com/agranlund/raven/rele ... .A1.latest

Changes mainly comes from my pursuit of using HDDriver for MagiC but the changes are useful outside of that niche use-case too.

EmuTOS:
* re-enabled detection of both Intel and Motorola IDE interfaces to support adapters like this:
https://github.com/agranlund/raven/tree ... es/ideswap

Release dist software:
* Added ymodem serial file transfer program to release package (software/raven/)

And some updates mainly for early Raven setup:

* A ramdisk of 2MB will be created as drive M when no hdd partition exist
This can be useful for transferring and running programs even when no HDD or partition exists.
Perhaps to be able to run an Atari partitioning tool or some other software.

* Added a few utilities to the built-in romdisk
ymodem.tos : serial file transfer program
parserve.tos : parcp file transfer
parrun.tos : parcp file execute
mon.tos : interact with Raven debug monitor from inside TOS



And as a side note, the byteswap adapter that can transform Ravens Intel IDE interface into a Motorola interface works fine.
With that, programs that talks IDE on a hardware level will now work (HDDriver and utils, Pperas hdd speed tester, etc).
I think in general there's absolutely no need for most to use that adapter. EmuTOS own driver supports the Intel interface on Raven just fine and it should in theory be the most optimal when dealing with cards that were set up on a pc with ms-dos partitions.
Though the performance penalty of using ms-dos partitions on Motorola interface was too small to meaningfully measure on my 96mhz 68060.

[PhilC]

That's another great update, thanks @agranlund. I've only just updated it to the previous one.

[Darklord]

Oh that's really cool!
I'll update pgusinit with latest from upstream when I get a chance.

Now it would be really cool if someone made a TOS cd-rom driver that can talk to x86 cd-rom interfaces

Anodyne Software's CD-ROM stuff will work with the Falcon's IDE interface (even DVD's) but
x86... Not confident in that.

All of their software is freely available now. Not sure about source code though.

Roger Burrows is the author and he's very helpful - maybe contact him and present it as a
challenge?

He recently sold a 7 pack Nakamichi CD-ROM changer to me for next to nothing (cost of
shipping). It was in pristine shape and now is happily hooked up to my BBS (DarkForce!).

http://www.anodynesoftware.com/

[mikro]

Now it would be really cool if someone made a TOS cd-rom driver that can talk to x86 cd-rom interfaces

Is that really needed? My understanding was that this is a SCSIDRV's job, e.g. HD Driver would take care of all the communication. So as long as HD Driver detects your CD ROM, it should work out of the box, same as x86 HDDs do (without the ability to boot on unmodified TOS, of course)

[agranlund]

@mikro Ah, you are probably right!
My understanding of how Atari disk drivers work in general, and how disk vs filesystem drivers tie together, is extremely limited at best

[agranlund]

Updated Nessi firmware with a fix for certain types ISA-RAM reads.

This should make 16-color VGA modes work.
Now, these planar modes are a _lot_ slower than 8bit+ modes so the usefulness is limited. However I can see some cases where I'd like them so it's nice to have them working properly.

nessi_250627.jed can be gotten from here:
https://github.com/agranlund/raven/tree ... w/a1/Nessi
or from inside the release package.

[Oldskool]

Now listening to the EsFM music.
Didn't now about this native mode at all. Really nice indeed.
Seems I have some firmware flashing to do with all these updates on the Raven.
On the CDRom... Probably not very useful on a Atari Clone. I however thought it was very impressive that could get in the Pico + SB + MPU..

[agranlund]

Success!

MagiC 6.2 just booted on Raven.

No input yet since IKBD comms isn't going through an ACIA on Raven, and I'm sure there'll be some messing about for the graphics modes.
But still, it feels like the hard part is done.

IMG_4899.jpg (41.03 KiB) Viewed 76 times

[PhilC]

@agranlund did you need to use the IDE byte swapper?

I've never used MagiC, do you think it'll be worthwhile me trying to get it loaded? I have no idea what the benefits would be. It looks to be an alternative to Tos?