Agranlunds TF534 Build

TF534 - 68030 + More RAM Board (More compatible with amiga hardware)

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agranlund
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Re: Agranlunds TF534 Build

Post by agranlund »

will this FW be uploaded somewhere? Would like to test it.. :P
Hope it's ok if I just attach it here? If not I will remove the post.

It's built from TF534r2c sources on github. Needless to say, this one is for Atari only.
The only change from the official source is where the onboard ram is mapped to.
Not sure if IDE works or not, haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I think it might be mapped for the Amiga.
My separate IDE board is only stable when the TF is running on the ST clock, so for benchmarks I need to use actual floppy disks, on a 30+ year old disk drive that sounds like it's in serious pain :shock:
(Time for a gotek drive I think...)
tf534r2c_Atari_TTRam.zip
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8 Bit Dreams
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Re: Agranlunds TF534 Build

Post by 8 Bit Dreams »

Excellent!
will dig out my STf and try...
As about IDE - im not sure, if i remember correctly - exxos wasnt able to get it work..
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Re: Agranlunds TF534 Build

Post by Cyprian »

agranlund wrote:Also, the readme advices to use Mono mode but I only have a homemade vga cable for colour display so I ran it in medium resolution.
"Use ST-high resolution monochrome (640x400x2) when running the tests, as this reduces the detrimental impact the video hardware can have on the bus when trying to display lots of pixels and colours."

If I understood it correctly, these numbers are in comparison to a stock 16Mhz Falcon.
Yep,
Regarding screen resolution it doesn't matter in case of TT and ST.
agranlund wrote: Image
http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 70#p211591
Your ST-Ram access figures are better than PAK 68/3 (68030 32Mhz) (below), but still lower than reached by the BLiTTER - 4Mb/s for both operations - write and read, and 2MB/s for copy.

Code: Select all

Linear 32bit read (ST-Ram) -> 2.622 MByte/sec (~49%)
Linear 32bit write (ST-Ram) -> 3.573 MByte/sec (~55%)
Linear 32bit copy (ST-Ram) -> 1.575 MByte/sec (~48%)
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agranlund
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Re: Agranlunds TF534 Build

Post by agranlund »

Your ST-Ram access figures are better than PAK 68/3 (68030 32Mhz) (below), but still lower than reached by the BLiTTER - 4Mb/s for both operations - write and read, and 2MB/s for copy.
Ideally, you want as little as possible to live in ST-Ram as it will be restricted by the 8Mhz system bus.
And speaking of which.. here is EmuTOS running in FastRAM:
DSC_3099.JPG
DSC_3099.JPG (79.21 KiB) Viewed 4726 times
I imagine also loading up NVDI (in FastRAM) would make for some pretty crazy numbers..

At the moment I am mainly using EmuTOS, but I believe it will be possible to get TOS2.06 running from FastRAM as well by using SELTOS.PRG (source is available in case we need to modify the relocation destination)

Unfortunately everything is a little cumbersome and limiting at the moment until I can get the IDE stuff working.. I am limited to using 360Kb floppies on a dying single-sided drive..
Planning on at least ordering a Gotek drive. And I am contemplating buying an Ultrasatan if that could give me working HDD until I can get the IDE stuff sorted out - I really don't want to spend money on a device I'm not going to use in the long run though, also I don't know if it even works together with the TF534.


And yes, the TF534 fits beautifully inside the original ST model :)
DSC_3100.JPG
DSC_3100.JPG (50.85 KiB) Viewed 4724 times
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Re: Agranlunds TF534 Build

Post by PhilC »

That fits better than in the STFM I tried. Usually either the psu or keyboard get in the way.

Please keep us updated about your IDE efforts too.
If it ain't broke, test it to Destruction.
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Re: Agranlunds TF534 Build

Post by agranlund »

That fits better than in the STFM I tried. Usually either the psu or keyboard get in the way.
Yeah it's almost like it was made to go into the original ST :)

I think we've seen enough of Elite Frontier running on TF equipped Amigas, so here it is finally running really quite well on the Atari ST :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bHiThFE05I

(No sound, and washed out colours.. I'm using a temporary quickly hacked together VGA cable)
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Re: Agranlunds TF534 Build

Post by PhilC »

Yeah that's always my test of choice.

I use it as a regular burn in test, leaving it looking fit hours.
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Re: Agranlunds TF534 Build

Post by stephen_usher »

Nice and smooth. :-)
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Re: Agranlunds TF534 Build

Post by exxos »

:bravo:

It must be different firmware than I was trying as even at 50MHz with caches on it barely got to a stock 8MHz machine (aside from int-div test). So not really sure what's going on with it all now. https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =30#p23161
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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Re: Agranlunds TF534 Build

Post by agranlund »

It must be different firmware than I was trying as even at 50MHz with caches on it barely got to a stock 8MHz machine
Yes, it's a locally modified firmware where I remapped the onboard ram to appear as TT-RAM.
This makes running applications from FastRam very easy (including EmuTos itself, which makes for a very snappy TOS experience).

If I launch Frontier from ST-Ram it is barely any faster than a stock ST. Stuff really needs to be in FastRam in order to go fast, else it's held back by the 8Mhz system bus.

I suggested to Stephen to map the FastRam as TT-Ram in the official firmwares (for Atari). That would also allow us to use the full 64MB memory on the TF536 or future cards.
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