Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer

[agranlund]

I've started actually using Raven as a proper computer, as opposed to before it was mostly short tests for things worked on and cross-compiled on the Mac

I learned that GCC is a bit of a gimmick on it. It works and I don't mind a little bit slow, but it's just too slow to make sense - and maybe since it's the same as what I have on the Mac it just makes me wish I had cross compiled instead of waiting for no reason.
Perhaps it's more usable with help from a RAM disk, it looks like it is spending a lot of time with disk activity.

But then I found and tried PureC and that thing is fast!
The GUI it comes with is a bit dated but QED is a great substitue.

I'll keep cross-compiling with GCC for a lot of things; big stuff, ports where it's usually too cumbersome to convert to an ancient C standard etc.
But most Raven system stuff, tools, drivers and such can/will be converted to PureC.

Now it really feels like I've built myself a computer.
It is super rewarding to actually use the computer proper to develop some of the system code for it.

IMG_2947.jpg (161.5 KiB) Viewed 354 times

I may have to get myself a 1440p monitor to get proper integer scaling for the 1280x720 resolution I'm running.
It's looks alright on the 1080p screen but nowhere near as sharp as integer-scaled 960x540.

[mikro]

Nice! It reminds me my old coding times.

And you are right, anything later than gcc4 (maybe even gcc2) is PITA to use on native hardware, even on a fast one. RAM disk will help but not much.

[Badwolf]

I've started actually using Raven as a proper computer, as opposed to before it was mostly short tests for things worked on and cross-compiled on the Mac

That's a proper threshold crossed, in my opinion. Well done!

I learned that GCC is a bit of a gimmick on it. It works and I don't mind a little bit slow, but it's just too slow to make sense - and maybe since it's the same as what I have on the Mac it just makes me wish I had cross compiled instead of waiting for no reason.

I used to compile EmuTOS on DFB1 running from /u/ram as a soak test.

It took over six hours if memory serves!

It takes a couple of seconds on my Macbook.

BW

[stephen_usher]

People don't realise the speed increase even over the 10 years from the early 90s to the early noughties.

I'm guessing that the Raven's 68060 is roughly equivalent to a 486DX2-66, the DFB2 would be something like a 386DX-33 at most. So, even by 2000 CPUs were more than 20 times this speed, with a memory bandwidth increase in addition, so probably more likely 40 times in reality. Now we're looking at probably another order of magnitude per core, with multiple core off-load to parallise the compilation.

Taking the 6 hours and dividing by 1200 (for the DFB1) gives 18 seconds for that EmuTOS build, which seems about right.

[agranlund]

Nice! It reminds me my old coding times.

And you are right, anything later than gcc4 (maybe even gcc2) is PITA to use on native hardware, even on a fast one. RAM disk will help but not much.

Apparently PureC was made by Borland and is pretty much the same as TurboC (?)
That makes this alternate-reality retro experiment even cooler; TurboC was my weapon of choice on MS-DOS way back when something like Raven would have been current

[medmed]

Nice! It reminds me my old coding times.

And you are right, anything later than gcc4 (maybe even gcc2) is PITA to use on native hardware, even on a fast one. RAM disk will help but not much.

Hi,

I remember I was using gcc3.3 on my Milan 25mhz without any problem, but it have 128mo of ram.

[agranlund]

Recycling is good for the planet they say!
Implemented enough of CT60 xbios extensions to be able to reuse its solution for XControl on 68060.

I'm actually not particularly fond of XControl but if it's supposed to be an Atari it has to be able to run the official Atari control panel

xcontrol.png (434.19 KiB) Viewed 226 times

And the RTC is working fine and can be set with either XControl or any other kind of time/date setter.
I found 'Synctime' to be excellent for auto-syncing the clock from internet when running Mint.

At some point I need to work out how to deal with some kind of very minimal binary "distribution" of useful things and utils, again similar to the stuff that comes with CT60.

[agranlund]

That's a proper threshold crossed, in my opinion. Well done!

Thanks! It really does feel like that

[agranlund]

ROM is now built with 512kb multi-language EmuTOS.
Some of these old nvram programs checks the _MCH cookie and refuse to run on unknown hardware but "nvram.cpx" does work:

IMG_2952.jpg (87.49 KiB) Viewed 132 times

Best would probably be to make a new CPX specifically for localisation settings.
EmuTOS supports a bunch more languages and keyboards than those old TT/Falcon nvram programs know about and it would be nice to be able to pick these too.

[agranlund]

Received two 68150's from Aliexpress.
The FN33 version was Freescale branded, I thought that was pretty cool!

IMG_2956.jpg (53.6 KiB) Viewed 98 times

The collection:

Code: Select all

ZKAA0401 / ZKAAEA / FN33 - 48Mhz not ok
ZKAA9738 / ZKAARL / FN33 - 48Mhz ok (1)
ZKAB2135 / ZKADRA / FN33 - untested (Freescale)
ZKAC9536 / NJACZK / FN40 - untested (2)
ZKAC9921 / ZKACUU / FN40 - 48Mhz ok

(1) not _very_ tested. as in, it boots to desktop but no idea if stable in actual use.
(2) wonder what's up with the different bottom marking?