exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Prefixing this with the fact I know the TF530 is long "dead" support-wise, but I had left-over parts (i.e. 4 SRAM chips) and thought "what the hell" :) This is more to document bits of info I've found about the place and my experience testing.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, firmware "status" is as follows:

• "RC2" firmware is stable, however does not contain the workarounds for Zorro-II expansion boards in the A2000 or hanging off an A500 Zorro expander.

• "2018_11_4_beta aimed at 33...50MHz users, and adds compatibility for the Zorro-II compliant expansion devices (e.g. RAM).

• "2018_11_17_beta" firmware is aimed at 25MHz users. Similar to "2018_11_4_beta" but adds a RAM wait-state (I did not test this because 25Mhz meh).

I have IDE issues with 2018_11_4_beta - everything "seems" to work fine but on large? reads like when loading a WHDLoad game, there are IDE read failures (indicated by a error referencing (in my case) a read from DH0: failed). I have previously built a board with this firmware that worked fine!!

I suspect most people are still running RC2 firwmare, and the IDE issue doesn't affect all boards, which is why there isn't much info about issues with the later beta firmwares.

What also works (as referenced here (thanks CRP!) is to run the RC2 BUS firmware with the 2018_11_4_beta RAM firmware. This is what I am currently doing, everything seems to work but haven't thoroughly tested yet.

In all cases I've left my IDE resistors at 1k so there may be differences in trying larger values.

Just thought I'd post here for the current state of things in case any one else is feeling nostalgic for the old TF530!

The TF530 has new firmware built into the TF534 sources.

Whenever there is a TF534 build there is a 530/520 backport built at the same time.

Cool - yep I remember a while ago running your make file and it worked well. I'll give it another test (wasn't sure if it was still maintained)!

dalek wrote: 17 Oct 2019 12:56 Cool - yep I remember a while ago running your make file and it worked well. I'll give it another test (wasn't sure if it was still maintained)!

There hasnt been any changes yet. There maybe a time when i'll bring all the fixes back from the 330.

terriblefire wrote: 17 Oct 2019 08:34 The TF530 has new firmware built into the TF534 sources.

Whenever there is a TF534 build there is a 530/520 backport built at the same time.

Good morning TF. Quick question relating to TF530's. I have two started with the CPLD's and regulators populated awaiting programing. I realize that building these for an Atari is akin to ordering fish at a steak house but never the less I was wondering what is the best firmware is for use for an Atari. Also what clock affords the best chance of success? Thanks.. PaulJ

Best option is to get the Atari TF534 sources and compile them for a TF530 (the make files already exist there).

Please be aware that TF530 should be rev 3 if You plan to use it on Atari! Rev 2 is missing A18 address line, so it will not work...

I'll have to check but pretty sure they were rev3. Thx 8 Bit Dreams. :)