True discussion MegaSTE vs MEGA with Pak68 et al

[DoG]

Yup. Would be nice indeed. Some of the components on there is rather difficult to get your hands on.

[exxos]

Terriblefire has some 030 boards with fast-ram.. no need to re-invent the pak, just go support his efforts.. his stuff if open source, so people can edit the design to whatever they want.

[Bikerbob]

SO where I was going is.. Yes MegaSTE potentially could be better.. but DIP to PCLL aint happening. MonSTer is not happening at least for now. People dont plan on boosters, upgrades etc for the MegaSTE - VME buss being the big plus.

Now that I have the mega4 - I could go PAK.. and I do have the oportunity to get them.. all the lot - built and ready to go. Its a bit of coin.. But then again I guess for one machine I am done.

Guess it comes down to how much do I want to do with this.. vs money. :)

James

[exxos]

There is MSTE booster in development...

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... f=71&t=555

TF is doing 030 stuff, I'm doing 68000 stuff.. lots of work is going on with boosters, just we also have lives and bills to pay so work is always slow.

[TheNameOfTheGame]

There's a discussion currently at the German forum about the mainboard boot roms needed for non-German TOS versions when using the PAK.

Can anyone comment on what they are using for the boot roms in their systems? Are you using them at all or does it just work with the existing mainboard roms?

Are you talking about the TOS ROMs or some of the other chips on the Pak board?

As far as TOS goes, I'm using a custom TOS v3.06 English version, given to me by
Pakman himself. :)

PS Using TOS v1.04 on the STacy's mainboard.

I have no idea lol :lol: I am just now getting around to installing my PAK.

I had always thought the manual was referring to mainboard ROMs with regards to the Boot ROMs, but I think I was in error with that line of thinking.

Although I don't think it's even an issue any more since it seems the v3.06 roms we have just work.

[Bikerbob]

There is MSTE booster in development...

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... f=71&t=555

TF is doing 030 stuff, I'm doing 68000 stuff.. lots of work is going on with boosters, just we also have lives and bills to pay so work is always slow.

Oh very true, I am not complaining Exxos, its a statement.. I talk to Rpineau every couple of months .. and I know work is slow.. I have my name in for a working board as soon as he feels he is comfortable to get a beta test on.

I have decided that I am going to go for it. I dont have a lot of vices, and I really enjoy this.. I talk to Amiga guys and they blow their brains out on mods boosters etc.. compared to us.. I am feeling good about it.

James

[tjam]

There is MSTE booster in development...

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... f=71&t=555

TF is doing 030 stuff, I'm doing 68000 stuff.. lots of work is going on with boosters, just we also have lives and bills to pay so work is always slow.

Interesting! I have only seen Amiga specific versions of TF at Vesalia website, but It's really great news if there is ST version in works. Should solve all upgrade problems that we have with our old ST's.

[exxos]

Interesting! I have only seen Amiga specific versions of TF at Vesalia website, but It's really great news if there is ST version in works. Should solve all upgrade problems that we have with our old ST's.

Yeah, look at TF's 534 forum.. A few Atari guys have it working. Though it is obsolete now and the 536 I think is the new board, though I am not sure if TF has had time to do wthe firmware for the ST for it yet.

[Darklord]

Hmm, have they improved the TF boards any? Don't want to come off here as knocking
anyone's hard work (because I *absolutely* am not!) but the TF boards always seemed
to come off second place when I compared them to the Pak boards (although, I agree
its hard to make a comparison if you can't even get a Pak board).

Pak goes up to 50mhz, with a FPU at 50mhz, alt-ram board available, TOS v3.06 on
board, don't need to already have it installed on another board, fallback mode so
you can switch completely back to a bog standard ST to run any stubborn apps or
games that won't work accelerated... 1st and 2nd level caches, stuff like that.

If the TF has been updated and covers all this, I apologize - I've not looked at it
lately....

[exxos]

The 534 is basically the first board for the ST. Its by no means a final product like the pak. So it would be unfair to compare basically a prototype to a finished board at this time. If enough Atari people bug TF for Atari support, I am sure he will work on it. Though like with everything, time is always limited :)

EDIT:

TF is mostly working on his 060 based board at the moment. So maybe best not to distract him to much ;)