REV 5 BOM and Build/Install procedure

[exxos]

Whilst that’s true, the integer division figure does seem high. Is normally around 1.8s for a 50MHz 030, IIRC. Suggests it’s running about half speed.

He is not running GB6 form Alt-Ram so the scores are half speed.

[Badwolf]

Whilst that’s true, the integer division figure does seem high. Is normally around 1.8s for a 50MHz 030, IIRC. Suggests it’s running about half speed.

He is not running GB6 form Alt-Ram so the scores are half speed.

Ah, of course. No cache on ST-RAM!

BW

[exxos]

Ah, of course. No cache on ST-RAM!

Well there is on the new firmware

What we really need is a proper ST-RAM cache. 1MB 50mhz be nice

[ottifant011]

I forgot to mention that I swapped all IMP ic's for other non-IMPs as a test, but the behavior hadn't changed.
Now another question is the TT-RAM there or not see picture, I have a few applications that say too little RAM.

WhatsApp Bild 2022-10-06 um 18.53.20_1.jpg (69.42 KiB) Viewed 4754 times

[Badwolf]

I forgot to mention that I swapped all IMP ic's for other non-IMPs as a test, but the behavior hadn't changed.
Now another question is the TT-RAM there or not see picture, I have a few applications that say too little RAM.

Yes. The TT-RAM is there (see the 'free' line). It's a quirk of that version of Sysinfo.

You're probably running out of ST-RAM as many programs a) need to be told to run in TT-RAM (search for 'SetFlags') or b) can't run in TT-RAM.

GemBench managed to measure your TT-RAM speed, so it's there. If you change GemBench (via SetFlags) to run in TT-RAM, you'll see the proper speeds I was referring to, above, as instruction caching becomes available on the 536.

BW

[Badwolf]

What we really need is a proper ST-RAM cache. 1MB 50mhz be nice

Should be able to use the Instruction and Data caches with EmuTOS. It flushes at all the appropriate places.

BW

[exxos]

Should be able to use the Instruction and Data caches with EmuTOS. It flushes at all the appropriate places.

EMUTOS doesn't seem to like the ST-RAM cache being enabled for some reason. It was fine until that stuff was added. But I found EMUTOS kept crashing since. No idea why. But some say it works and others not. But with various versions of hardware/software/firmware and not many users, it's hard to keep track of it all. I don't think EMUTOS likes some of anders software patches either. EMUTOS has floppy issues even on a stock machine which does not help matters. In part it's why I gave up and patched TOS206 as it basically worked anyway. TOS206 is compiled with the 030 and all the cache stuff and TTram stuff is enabled now. It can work "out of the box" fine. Anders patches also check for this updated TOS version so it doesn't go nuts trying to install alt-ram when its already installed by TOS etc.

So at this point I would advise not using EMUTOS with the ST536. If TOS206 original has to be used, then Anders patches take care of most stuff now anyway. Or use my TOS206 build intended for the ST536 which is preferred as its compiled for the 030 to start with.

[Badwolf]

Should be able to use the Instruction and Data caches with EmuTOS. It flushes at all the appropriate places.

EMUTOS doesn't seem to like the ST-RAM cache being enabled for some reason.

I'm not sure if you're talking about the experimental external ST-RAM cache there or the regular 030 instruction and data caches?

EmuTOS (512k version, at least) is perfectly happy with instruction and data caches enabled for ST-RAM (ie. not asserting CDIS during ST-RAM accesses). I use it all the time on the Falcon in lieu of TOS4, which is obviously also happy with cache flushing.

Patching TOS2.06 to flush as appropriate (it's a variant of TOS3, AIUI which presumably flushes correctly, so the patching process ought to be as straightforward as not excluding some TOS3 blocks?) should also work. I'm mildly surprised it isn't 100% already.

I'm very suspicious of claims EmuTOS doesn't like caching as it's been built from the ground up since 030s running TOS were standard. Possible there's an odd corner case, but I'd be minded to apply Occam's Razor to the situation.

It wouldn't surprise me if some patches clash with it, but unless you really want to map ROM to RAM, I don't think any patches or drivers are actually needed with ETOS.

BW

[exxos]

I'm not sure if you're talking about the experimental external ST-RAM cache there or the regular 030 instruction and data caches?

030 caches.

Patching TOS2.06 to flush as appropriate (it's a variant of TOS3, AIUI which presumably flushes correctly, so the patching process ought to be as straightforward as not excluding some TOS3 blocks?) should also work. I'm mildly surprised it isn't 100% already.

It pulls the 030 stuff from TOS306 yes. But its not a 306 build, it's still 206.

I'm very suspicious of claims EmuTOS doesn't like caching as it's been built from the ground up since 030s running TOS were standard. Possible there's an odd corner case, but I'd be minded to apply Occam's Razor to the situation.

I didn't look into it much and don't remember much about it all now. There has been so many issues with that many different things during development it is hard to remember it all. But during testing I was flicking back and forth between TOS206 and EMUTOS and just kept running into issues with EMUTOS. Some others reported the same issues. Tracing software issues is unfortunately not in my skill set. so I gave up in the end and just muddled through enough to get 206 working properly.

It wouldn't surprise me if some patches clash with it, but unless you really want to map ROM to RAM, I don't think any patches or drivers are actually needed with ETOS.

EMUTOS should work "as is" with the 030. But there has not been enough people testing to figure out what is exactly causing what problems.

The last notes I made on my site were "Cache enabled firmware causes EMUTOS to reset and screen corrupt in TOS206. Caches must be off if using original TOS206."

[LarryL]

Hi,

I am just actually building the TF536 ST edition Rev 5
Xilinx programmed successfully already

Just wondering, if a standard TOS 2.06 in the TF ROM socket would work for a first start?
I am having a TOS 1.04/2.06 ROM (27C4096) from the Exxos Shop at hand: https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/#0053

I have ordered some AT27C4096 and HN27C4096 (coming in in a few weeks) to flash the adapted TOS versions from here
https://exxosforum.co.uk/atari/last/TF536/index.htm
, but would the Atari boot with a standard TOS?

regards
Michael