Flashy Clock - Yet another DEV board

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Re: Flashy Clock - Yet another DEV board

Post by exxos »

So IDE board running TOS206...

Will post about this "oddness" later.. im still trying to figure it out.. seems TOS doesn't like seeing alt-ram during boot up

:stars:

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Re: Flashy Clock - Yet another DEV board

Post by exxos »

I did a quick video to show this DTACK Weirdness...

The first boot is showing DTACK on the scope while not being connected to the motherboard... As expected it is high all the time..

Then I connect DTACK to the ST via a diode (to prevent the ST's DTACK showing on the scope) and now DTACK is pulsing intermittently... When that happens I do not get any video...

And yet if I let it get to desktop, then connect the wire, everything seems to work fine :stars: It is like the address bus gets messed up when DTACK is connected.. which I don't see how thats possible , as it only does it on boot as well..


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Re: Flashy Clock - Yet another DEV board

Post by exxos »

The odd thing is as well. If I leave DTACK off, and put it back when the ATARI logo appears in TOS206, it works fine. If I warm reset, it boots fine.. if I cold boot or power off with DTACK connected.. it does not.. its like TOS checks for something and screws up if it sees alt-ram :roll:

EDIT:

I removed MAD9 from my H4 to give it just 1MB RAM.. and now the DTACK problem has gone away.. So something doesn't like there being 4MB ST-RAM :roll:


EDIT2:

In the 206 sources there is this....
* The following configurations are valid for ST-RAM in a TT, listed as
* total RAM (motherboard RAM + optional daughterboard RAM):
* 2MB (2MB + 0MB), 4MB (2MB + 2MB), 10MB (2MB + 8MB)
* [According to the TT rev B MCU functional description, it is also
* possible to have 8MB (8MB + 0MB) and 10MB (8MB + 2MB) configurations,
* but I have not seen this.] When an 8MB board is present, it is always
* mapped to the first 8MB of memory.
*
* Systems with only 2MB boards require a memcntlr value of 0x05; systems
* with an 8MB board require a memcntlr value of 0x0a. We detect which
* size of board is in low memory by assuming an 8MB board, then checking
* for different memory addresses mapping to the same physical address.
*

So maybe 2MB is ST-RAM max :shrug:
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Re: Flashy Clock - Yet another DEV board

Post by exxos »

I think I have figured out this odd problem.. Will post more about it later, but I am currently talking to icky about doing some tweaks to the design to simplify a few things here and there..

Mostly I'm trying to figure out why the alt-ram installer I put in GB6 goes a bit wonky...TOS installs the RAM and reports it can allocate the RAM.. But when running the GB6 alt-ram test, the first time this seems to quit running the test and nothing happens.. Then run it a second time and it does work... But this does not seem to happen with the monster installer... I did not write the assembly routines for this, d.m.l did and he seemed to vanish over a year ago now :( but as far as I can tell, the assembly routine tries to allocate some RAM, it fails, and basically aborts the test, but it makes no sense why running the same code a second time then works.... So I am currently trying to figure out this problem today...
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Re: Flashy Clock - Yet another DEV board

Post by PhilC »

@exxos been a while since I did some ASM but do you want me to take a look?
If it ain't broke, test it to Destruction.
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Re: Flashy Clock - Yet another DEV board

Post by exxos »

PhilC wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 2:48 pm @exxos been a while since I did some ASM but do you want me to take a look?
You could, but I dont think it would help.. its pretty much self-explanatory I think...

Code: Select all

*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------*
* 	TT-RAM access speed test (read and write)
*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------*
ttram_rw_test
*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------*
	move.l		bas_params(pc),d2
	; Mxalloc
	; return block address in A0
	move.w		#ttram_mode,-(sp)
	move.l		#blksize+16,-(sp)
	move.w		#$44,-(sp)
	trap		#1
	addq.l		#8,sp
	; if there is no memory available, this return 0
	move.l		d0,a5
	tst.w		d0
	bne.s		.cont_ram_test
	rts

It be something to do with how I am setting up the RAM, I think the routine finds the RAM but cannot allocate it the first time around..
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Re: Flashy Clock - Yet another DEV board

Post by PhilC »

Yeah that does look fairly straight forward to be honest.
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Re: Flashy Clock - Yet another DEV board

Post by exxos »

Pretty annoying.. its like the asm code screws up.. I tried reloading the code after declaring alt-ram, but made no odds :( Having trouble concentrating on all this stuff has had a migraine the past few days :(

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EDIT:

I wonder if hisofts Maddalt is broken, like its not correcting the stack or something after its been called.. this would be hard to test without adding Maddalt into the ASM code.
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Re: Flashy Clock - Yet another DEV board

Post by exxos »

This has branched into this topic as well https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =39&t=1965

But I seem to get the same oddities with using ASM as in HISOFT.. So that can't be the problem...

It is also odd as sometimes I get bombs, sometimes it just seems to quit the test without doing anything, and other times I get back 1071% in the test, which should be 100%.

I don't think this is necessarily a problem with GB6 as it works when I use the monster installer.. but other than maddalt and the cookie, I don't think there is anything of any difference....

Again if anyone knows a dedicated program to install the FRB cookie... I can only assume the problems relating to the cookie missing, but I do not see why as GB6 doesn't care about cookies...

EDIT:
I also wonder if something is getting corrupted because GB6 is already loaded before installing the alt-ram... whereas I would run monster alt-ram installer THEN GB6 afterwards... So I guess I should code something up separately and then try that...

EDIT2:
I tried just running the line x& = Maddalt&(4194304,2097152) In its own programme in the auto folder... But it just crashes when the program exits :(
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Re: Flashy Clock - Yet another DEV board

Post by exxos »

So thanks to @qq1975b https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =13&t=2628 I tried the marpet drivers, but it can't find the marpet, so again drivers being "locked" to dedicated hardware only :roll:

I don't know why just using x& = Maddalt&(4194304,2097152) fails, or goes nuts. I'm not a software guy so the alt-ram will just have to be put on hold for a couple of weeks as taking a break next week anyway.
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