Figuring out the causes of slow disk access on the TF536

[terriblefire]

We had a user on the forum complaining (i think he was a troll for another user but thats a different story) that he had a slow IDE interface a few days ago. He's been banned and told to GTFO but i thought I would collate all the useful bits into a single thread.

1. I wrote some tools to help check the INT2 emulation path works.

Its a special firmware that tests the IDE INT path works ... there are three tests testint2, testideint and testipl... these individually unit test the 3 parts of the INT2 path and report all and any issues.

tf536r2_main_top_AMIGA_TEST.zip

tfdisk.zip

2. Check your disk speed with Sysinfo. it should be about 1.4Mb/s with an EC CPU and 2-4Mb/s with a full CPU and CPU FASTROM set.

3. Check you havent got a stupid max transfer / block size. (i use 1FF00 for max transfer and 4096 for block size. Do not use a block size less than 4096 ).

4. Replace your IDE cabling...

5. finally try with Caches disabled... if disabling caches fixes things its an indication TCI is not being set correctly by the CPLD (short/bad cpld etc).

[weav]

TF..

Thanks so much for the support! Look forward to building my 536 this weekend. Just remember that others will benefit from the silliness you went through and gives us another tool to hopefully not bother you with trivial things! Time you have taken is appreciated.

Best,
weav

[CrashMidnick]

I just bought a TF536 to AlenPPC over Amibay.

First I had some problems with my Ide cables, all brand new = 2 out of 4 are working. Very strange behaviour.
I checked my Disk Speed today and it is about 640kb without fastrom which is damn slow.

My config : A500+ rev 8A with 2mb chipram + ROM 3.1.4 + WB 3.1.4 + TF536 + Ide to SD (tried FFS, SFS and PFS3, same happens, tried CF to IDE, same problem)

Tried disabling cache at SS menu : again 640kb.

Any news about a fix ?
Thanks.

[arkadiusz.makarenko]

I just bought a TF536 to AlenPPC over Amibay.

First I had some problems with my Ide cables, all brand new = 2 out of 4 are working. Very strange behaviour.
I checked my Disk Speed today and it is about 640kb without fastrom which is damn slow.

My config : A500+ rev 8A with 2mb chipram + ROM 3.1.4 + WB 3.1.4 + TF536 + Ide to SD (tried FFS, SFS and PFS3, same happens, tried CF to IDE, same problem)

Tried disabling cache at SS menu : again 640kb.

Any news about a fix ?
Thanks.

I have noticed on my Amiga 500 that 3.1.4 gives ide speed slowdown. On both sd and CF. I would recommend moving to kick 3.1 (TF536 was tested/developed on 3.1) for now.

[alenppc]

I sent you a link to my CF card image. Give it a try. I have no issues with IDE speed. It will boot on 3.1 and 3.1.4.

[PaulJ_2.0]

I have noticed on my Amiga 500 that 3.1.4 gives ide speed slowdown. On both sd and CF. I would recommend moving to kick 3.1 (TF536 was tested/developed on 3.1) for now.

I have noticed 3.1.4 to be fine with ide speed and get over 3Mb/s

[terriblefire]

Only 3.1 is supported. I don’t own 3.1.4.

640kb/sec is roughly expected without fastram.

[CrashMidnick]

I sent you a link to my CF card image. Give it a try. I have no issues with IDE speed. It will boot on 3.1 and 3.1.4.

Thanks mate, I'll try that. If it works I will try to compare my SS/c/libs to yours to see what can be responsible of that.

I was suspecting scsi.device but if it works with 3.1.4 it should not be that.

[8 Bit Dreams]

As explained before - long booting is affected because of some things:
1. Because of setpatch feature (may be skipped by adding following string in SS:

2020-07-13 22.15.31.jpg

2.by changing block size to bigger one - this is critical to large disks & partitions!
Default block size is 512, just change it to 4096 and You'll be surprised how fast it becomes...
And use full CPU & MMULibs of course..
Cheers,

- 8 Bit Dreams

[CrashMidnick]

I tried pretty everything with KS 3.1.4 = no go
I even put my full 030 CPU from blizzard 1230 and installed mmulib with mufastrom = 250kb/s !!!!

@AlenPPC = your CD32 WB does not solve the problem, still 640kb/s
@ 8 Bit Dreams = already done before, does not help

Remove my A2000 KS3.1 and put it in the 500+ then mount my good old WB3.1 = 1.8mb/s (with EC CPU so without fastrom)

On my board, I can comfirm that KS 3.1.4 is not possible.