exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Has anyone (other than GadgetUK) got SCSI cards to work with TF536 after the RC3 firmware update?

I have a A590 and I got it to work, albeit it is very slow.

I'm suspecting that the OS/driver are allocating the buffers on the TF536's memory, which disallows DMA.
Is there a way to set the BufMemType for the partitions in the RDB or is that only possible by manually mounting the partitions?
I checked HDToolBox, but it doesn't seem to have an option - apart from the Mask setting. I did not find a way to set the mask such that it would only allocate from the A590's internal (ZII) RAM.

Hints are very welcome, thanks!

matt020 wrote: 21 Apr 2021 02:22 Has anyone (other than GadgetUK) got SCSI cards to work with TF536 after the RC3 firmware update?

My GVP Impact A2000-HC+8 Series II SCSI Card isn't too happy playing with the TF536. I get it booting, but that is about it.

theq wrote: 29 Jun 2021 06:37 My GVP Impact A2000-HC+8 Series II SCSI Card isn't too happy playing with the TF536. I get it booting, but that is about it.

There isnt anything particularly special about the RC3 firmware that would affect anything except the INT2 behaviour.

I have tested the these cards with the GVP in the past on a 2000. Worked fine. I never tried to use the SCSI controller though.

pipper wrote: 29 Jun 2021 00:45 I have a A590 and I got it to work, albeit it is very slow.

I'm suspecting that the OS/driver are allocating the buffers on the TF536's memory, which disallows DMA.
Is there a way to set the BufMemType for the partitions in the RDB or is that only possible by manually mounting the partitions?
I checked HDToolBox, but it doesn't seem to have an option - apart from the Mask setting. I did not find a way to set the mask such that it would only allocate from the A590's internal (ZII) RAM.

Hints are very welcome, thanks!

This is what you're looking for: http://aminet.net/package/driver/media/vbak2091

terriblefire wrote: 29 Jun 2021 09:50 There isnt anything particularly special about the RC3 firmware that would affect anything except the INT2 behaviour.

I have tested the these cards with the GVP in the past on a 2000. Worked fine. I never tried to use the SCSI controller though.

To be fair, my pistorm is having the same issues, so other things are at play here. Will post my findings, if I find any.

theq wrote: 06 Jul 2021 19:15

terriblefire wrote: 29 Jun 2021 09:50 There isnt anything particularly special about the RC3 firmware that would affect anything except the INT2 behaviour.

I have tested the these cards with the GVP in the past on a 2000. Worked fine. I never tried to use the SCSI controller though.

To be fair, my pistorm is having the same issues, so other things are at play here. Will post my findings, if I find any.

Yes that seems to be a known issue and I am also having the same problem with PiStorm and A2091 (and GVP HC8+)

LIV2 wrote: 29 Jun 2021 17:33 This is what you're looking for: http://aminet.net/package/driver/media/vbak2091

An update:

I noticed that OS3.2’s HDToolBox now allows to set the per-partition BufMemType. Setting it to 24bit DMA didn’t help increase the speed, though. I’m getting around 112kb/s with the A590 (v7 ROMs) according to SysInfo.

I have received a TF536 with RC3, and I am happy with it.

I am able boot off the A2091 in to OS 3.1. I have installed files and load games with no issues and doesn't fell overly slow on loading.

I have an 6.4 rev A2000, Kickstart 3.1 v40.63, Agnus 318069-17 1MB version, and Super Denise, The six 74LS245N between the CPU slot and first ZII slot are 4 Motorola 74LS245 on each side and 2 Ti 74ALS245N in the middle. I have completed a recap on the board, All sockets replaced with milled dip sockets.


The A2091 has Cloanto 7.0 ROMs, Ti 74LS245N, AM33C93A-16PC SCSI, DMAC 390563-02, U5 (fifi chip) I have tried; 390685-02, 390685-01, 390333-03 , with working 2MB of 24bit ram. Memory shows up in Sysinfo and in OS 3.1. Board was also recapped.

Jumper settings; SCSI set to Auto, JP1 set to 2M, JP5 set to Option 2, JP201 set to 7Mhz (default if no jumpers are installed) ALSO system would not boot if set to 14Mhz, No jumpers installed on JP3.

Using a SCSI2SD 5.2v with a 8GB sandisk with two 1GB partitions, 6 and 5. 6 is the OS. It it slow with little over 112Kbp per Sysinfo.

Worth trying a long file copy (not related to the 536) but the A2091. eg. copy say 500Mb of files from one drive to another. That's where I found I needed ALS chips on my A2091, and at the databus end on the A2000. You might be lucky in that your A2000 has other differences somewhere. But no matter what I did, the A2091 always failed on large file copies on 3 x A2000 boards. That's no using the 536 - any other processor that problem occured with.

SCSI when using the 536 will however be dead slow - eg. 100KB/s or less. Whilst it might not feel slow, benchmark it with SysInfo and you should see it's pretty slow.