Let's build a CTPCI!

[foft]

Isn't it a question of firmware ?

I think only the last firmware lets you make use of the CTPCI IDE, but doesn't allow you to use the Radeon...

It does seem to be a firmware thing. I think others than 1.05 support it though, that was just a partial CTPCI code backport I think (just the IDE part).

2.01 works with the CTPCI IDE, however I had to reduce my CPU speed form 94MHz otherwise I had a lot of IDE errors. I reduced it to 66MHz, but perhaps something higher works. I found the system will not power up properly with IRQ connected in 'falcon IDE' mode with this version.

2.02 beta 10 will not boot with CTPCI IDE. It kind of sort of doesn't quite work, but hangs all the time. It also seems to have support for using both internal and CTPCI IDE at once.

I noticed 2.02 beta 10 has drivers 1.02 vs the released 1.01. I don't know the different but perhaps they can be extracted and used with 2.01.

So these all seem a bit of a mess... Not sure if there is a 2.02 beta that actually works with IDE?

Additionally my compact flash setup on 2.01 gives an exception immediately after it starts booting. So I set up a new disk using icd pro. Without NVDI yet so plenty of corruption. Can't switch back to 030 mode to set it up because CTPCI IDE does not work with that. Any I got icd pro to partition my new hdd and it boots up. I get an exception installing NVDI though so can't get that on yet. I was hoping to mount the hdd on linux to copy all this on, but via my USB-> IDE adaptor on my PC it doesn't work for some reason - arg!

[HigashiJun]

2.01 works with the CTPCI IDE, however I had to reduce my CPU speed form 94MHz otherwise I had a lot of IDE errors. I reduced it to 66MHz, but perhaps something higher works. I found the system will not power up properly with IRQ connected in 'falcon IDE' mode with this version.

Yes, that's what I've heard.

2.01 seems to be the only viable firmware, but you have to reduce the CPU speed in order to have the IDE working.

[markus0321]

PCI is overclocked then 94/2=47MHz !!! wow. The standard is 33MHz for most devices.
To check if CTPCI is working, you would first need to set the CPU clock in the CT60/63 to 66MHz.

[foft]

PCI is overclocked then 94/2=47MHz !!! wow. The standard is 33MHz for most devices.
To check if CTPCI is working, you would first need to set the CPU clock in the CT60/63 to 66MHz.

The CTPCI has a 33MHz oscillator on-board. I guess it uses that rather than half the CT60/63 clock?

[foft]

A couple of exciting updates, that I think will allow us to take this project further.

@mikro just posted the CT60 TOS 2.02 beta 11 source code!
https://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.p ... 77#p447477
So we can finally diff 2.01 to 2.02 to see what Didier was working on...

In other news I decided to buy a second hand ProcSpark II PCI board (PCI-X fits in "normal" PCI too), which will allow me to snoop the PCI bus (I hope!). https://dsp-tdi.com/Gidel/ProcSpark_II_ ... _Brief.pdf. Which should help for working out whatever the DMA issues Didier and Rodolph were working on. Now if only I could find the pins file or data book for this PCI board, figuring them out is going to be painful.

I just wish those Xilinx CPLDs on CT60 and CTPCI were a nice Intel FPGA, which has SignalTapII to allow snooping a bunch of stuff!

c2461329-688d-4784-ad5f-a481f5fcd508.jpg

[HigashiJun]

Good luck and thank you for your involvement.

:cheers:

[markus0321]

PCI is overclocked then 94/2=47MHz !!! wow. The standard is 33MHz for most devices.
To check if CTPCI is working, you would first need to set the CPU clock in the CT60/63 to 66MHz.

The CTPCI has a 33MHz oscillator on-board. I guess it uses that rather than half the CT60/63 clock?

So the PCI bus is always clocked asynchronously?
I have to finally assemble one piece of CTPCI at home, then I will know more about this project... :lol:

[foft]

I finally got around to testing the RTL8139 cards (Cs and Ds). They all seem to work just fine in freemint with 2.02 beta 10, even transferring many MB of files. Getting about 300KB/s with scp.

I guess the failing DMA case is disabled in the drivers? Or requires using USB and RTL to reproduce?

I just ordered a USB card so I can try the full setup.

Now I just need to work out some newbie mint stuff, then I can do some more interesting stuff!
i) How to start in another resolution. The obvious of changing video settings from the menu then 'save settings' doesn't work.
ii) Why does TOSWin2 crash the system if I access /? e.g. ls /. It fortunately works in bash
iii) What terminal type I need to set in TERM for nano to run.

[marss]

Evening,
Just received and installed my CTPCI from FOFT ;)
I would like to thank him for his dedication.

IMG_20230609_174654.jpg

IMG_20230609_174758.jpg

[mikro]

i) How to start in another resolution. The obvious of changing video settings from the menu then 'save settings' doesn't work.
ii) Why does TOSWin2 crash the system if I access /? e.g. ls /. It fortunately works in bash
iii) What terminal type I need to set in TERM for nano to run.

i) edit xaaes.cnf
ii) it doesn't, maybe a CTPCI IDE bug? However I'm a bit confused what do you mean that it works with bash... how do you use Toswin2 without bash? :)
iii) tw100 should be fine but I don't use nano that much... what is more important is to have the termcap files installed so nano actually knows how to process tw100's code. See https://freemint.github.io/sparemint/sp ... rmcap.html for instance.