mikro wrote: 21 Nov 2024 23:32
Oh, so Mach64 really can't support 320x200? I have been wondering why there is no such resolution in the basic package (it makes it very hard for stuff like emulators as they have to use double pixels then...)
The hardware can but the driver cannot.
These cards are more or less two different cards in one.
A standard VGA compatible part which can do all the normal modes including 320x200, this one is completely unaccelerated.
Plus the more interesting one which is the register compatible clone of IBM 8514/a. This one has all the fancy accelerator stuff but cannot go below 640x480. Nova initialises it into the latter which makes perfect sense but unfortunately it has no provision to toggle back to VGA mode.
Since it defaults to VGA mode on startup I can make it go 320x200x8bpp when using no driver or EmuTOS's driver but haven't been able to switch it out of 8514/a successfully yet.
It was a while since I played around with that and once I got hold of the w32i which ticks all the boxes I kind of lost motivation.
Would be nice to find time to give it another go at some point though, these Mach cards are really nice and they come with some pretty interesting and fast acceleration besides just a blitter.
Then the second problem would become to restore everything back the way it was so Nova doesn't go bonkers when it regains control of things :)
Re: Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer
Posted: 22 Nov 2024 08:19
by frank.lukas
Hello agranlund, very nice ...
What costs should I expect for everything for the motherboard including the all pcb´s without a CPU?
Re: Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer
Posted: 24 Nov 2024 11:19
by agranlund
frank.lukas wrote: 22 Nov 2024 08:19
Hello agranlund, very nice ...
What costs should I expect for everything for the motherboard including the all pcb´s without a CPU?
It's really hard for me to say from looking at my order history.
It will vary quite a lot depending on what pcb options you go with and how many boards you order of each, and if you have use for the extra ones in a minium order or if you'll treat those as a complete write-off.
The static setup fee can end up being quite large compared to cost of each additional board, especially so for the simms depending on color and surface finish (you could manually panelize them and submit as a single order to avoid paying the "rare combo" penalty twice).
For the parts I don't have a single mouser order to get a quick picture of cost for one build, and the price for old parts is anyones guess (YM2149, MC68901, MC68150, MC68060, MC68060-socket)
Likewise for things like computer case, cables, psu, keyboard, mouse, graphics card and so on.
If you need to purchase tools for putting it together then that'll obviously add to the cost too.
Someone else who built one board might have a more accurate ballpark figure but I would treat it as something like a 1000+ eur toy.
Re: Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer
Posted: 24 Nov 2024 11:36
by agranlund
I have removed the "test" commands from the latest rom builds.
Instead there is small beginnings of a "selftest.s19" program in the "roms/srec" folder.
Just upload it with coolterm when you are at the monitor prompt and it should automatically run. (Connection -> Send Text/Binary file...)
If you have "rom_mon.bin" flashed you automatically end up at the monitor prompt as usual.
If you have a rom with TOS flashed then you get to the monitor prompt by pressing the NMI button.
> S00F000073656C66746573742E7331397B
S-record upload complete, jumping to 0x00600000...
Raven selftest
YM2149...
Byte writes (you should hear a bell sound)
Long writes (you should hear a bell sound)
OK
MFP1:R/W...
OK
MFP2:R/W...
OK
** Result: OK
Re: Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer
Posted: 24 Nov 2024 20:26
by agranlund
ATI Mach32, finally 320x200x8bpp! Much joy :)
Re: Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer
Posted: 24 Nov 2024 21:16
by Oldskool
:) :D
Cool
How did you do that? What kind of tricks can that Mach card do more I wonder.
Re: Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer
Posted: 24 Nov 2024 22:42
by agranlund
Oldskool wrote: 24 Nov 2024 21:16
:) :D
Cool
How did you do that?
Poking directly at the videocard like it's the 1990's.
It's not pretty going behind the drivers back but for fullscreen exclusive things I regret nothing :lol:
That videomode is a must-have for me :)
Still need to be able to get back to the mode we came from.
And also to figure out how to best integrate this into _something_ so things that need it can use it.
I'm not really sure what the best approach would be but I'm leaning on a small TSR extension to Nova..
Essentially hijack setmode calls, detect if the user wanted 320x200x8bpp and if so do the magic/hackery. Otherwise pass on the call onto the real Nova function. That TSR could be built into the existing Raven package and require no additional auto-executables.
Re: Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer
Posted: 25 Nov 2024 07:40
by Oldskool
Pretty cool indeed what you can do with a Mach card: