AtariGeezer Posted April 13, 2014 Share Posted April 13, 2014 Not a discussion I recall being involved in, but to reiterate the obvious: the flashing methods required for devices which use the same family of chips are virtually identical. It's the banking methods which present a given bank of RAM at the required address which are different, not to mention Sic! using interleaved banks, IDE Plus 2.0 using separate ROMs for SDX and PBI and mapping them at different addresses using different banking registers... all this becomes apparent once something has actually been written. Actually, you started the discussion on Dec 2, 2013, entitled "U1MB / Incognito Flasher" where I pointed out how similar the flashers were and that it wouldn't take much to incorporate them as I recognized that only a couple changes would be needed. It became apparent after I disassembled all the various flashers... But yeah, should be easy... I'll find out just how easy it'll be after I get further into the development of the Universal Flasher... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 14, 2014 Author Share Posted April 14, 2014 (edited) Four months ago, then. Found it. Unfortunately I'd completely forgotten about it, since at the time I didn't imagine I'd need to write anything myself and consequently wasn't that worried about how flash algorithms worked. Had to move the screen down to $3C00 since Sic! requires ROM to be momentarily banked in at $8000 and $A000 to get at the flash control registers. Edited April 14, 2014 by flashjazzcat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 17, 2014 Author Share Posted April 17, 2014 Sic! flashing is working, and with the help of Altirra's flash logging, MyIDE and IDE Plus should pose few problems: A neat feature of SDX is that you can (as of version 4.43) get the hardware ID of the equipment DOS booted from. What this means is that you don't have to boot from the device you want to flash. You can boot Ultimate's SDX, change Ultimate slots, etc, then switch to Sic! and flash that. Whichever SDX you booted from is automatically re-enabled prior to any DOS operations. Of course, when running the flasher from the XEX loader (once the new version is out [strong hint]) or some other DOS, the SDX banking stuff is ignored, since DOS isn't needed anyway. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 24, 2014 Author Share Posted April 24, 2014 Sic!, MaxFlash 128KB, SIDE, SIDE2 and IDE Plus 2.0 are now handled by UFLASH. Another day or two and Test 2 should be ready to let loose. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenixdownita Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 You're on a roll. From flashjazzcat to flashmaster-jazzcat 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted April 25, 2014 Author Share Posted April 25, 2014 That's kind... and rather good. MyIDE II flashing works now (although I haven't worked out how to disable the ROM at $A000-$BFFF yet), but this is all taking too long for want of proper documentation for the relevant carts. In any case, only the old MyIDE+Flash cart to add now, once I figure out where the banking register for that is. I already know the IDE registers are at $D500-$D507. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enito Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 HI some newbie question, now i have finally some time for play with ultimate. I own a old one first batch, is necessary update using Xilinx or this .xex package do all the things? is necessary made some jump connection in board for do upgrade in ultimate? Greets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 3, 2014 Author Share Posted May 3, 2014 If the board is a first-gen Ultimate, you may lack the necessary CPLD code for PBI hard disk operation. The best way to tell is by upgrading the BIOS and testing it with a SIDE cart. I don't recall if a CPLD upgrade is required for flashing from within the XEX loader, although it's certainly necessary for Incognito. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enito Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 Thx for reply. I dont own side cart, but i tryied upgrading using xex (using sio2sd fat32 sd) and i get error sdx required. I try upgrading using your tool bur the board is not detected. I think i need first upgrade cpld with jed using xilinx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 3, 2014 Author Share Posted May 3, 2014 Use Device->Open to manually select Ultimate. Most likely you have an old Ultimate BIOS which lacks the magic bytes required for auto-detection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enito Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 (edited) And with this i can update without the need of xilix?? And no need tu update using .jed? Thx Edited May 3, 2014 by enito Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 3, 2014 Author Share Posted May 3, 2014 (edited) Early Ultimate boards will probably lack the CPLD code necessary for PBI operation, which is unimportant if you don't have a SIDE cart. So if you just want to use UFlash to update the BIOS or ROM slots, it should work as-is. Update to the latest Ultimate BIOS and the tool will auto-detect your hardware thereafter. Edited May 3, 2014 by flashjazzcat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enito Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 Got it , now if in case i want too upgrade the CPLD code .jed v2, is need to be powered atari when is done the flashupgrade? i think i want a updated bios in case if late i have SIDE cart greets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 3, 2014 Author Share Posted May 3, 2014 Yes: the Atari should be powered on with the JTAG cable attached for programming. Then you click "disconnect cable" in the Xilinx Tools software (Impact), then powercycle the Atari and the process is complete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enito Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 Right, when i use your tool i select rom? and..i tryed to use a SD SIO , but dont recognize the .rom file. I can see .rom but when i try to update, apprently cant read. I think is better made update using sio via pc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 3, 2014 Author Share Posted May 3, 2014 What ROM? In which slot? Is the file the correct size? What kind of read error? File too short, file too long...??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enito Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 (edited) I show you via photo the procedure, thx! Edited May 3, 2014 by enito Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 3, 2014 Author Share Posted May 3, 2014 (edited) You can't flash the PBI BIOS (which is only 8KB long) to the whole chip. The flash ROM is 512KB in size, and this entire space is selected in your photos ("Entire ROM"). The idea is that you cursor down to the bit you want to change (i.e. "PBI BIOS"), then press enter and navigate to the file. You should also update the main Ultimate BIOS as well, since the slot descriptions are currently filled with nonsense. Edited May 3, 2014 by flashjazzcat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enito Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 (edited) Ritght , for test i take pbi option, take .rom file , and nothing same error , cant open :/ not sure if can do the trouble cause im using sio2sd with a older sdx or something.. Edited May 4, 2014 by enito Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 4, 2014 Author Share Posted May 4, 2014 (edited) U1MBBIOS.zip Edited May 4, 2014 by flashjazzcat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enito Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 Thx a lot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enito Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 Now i tested some demos, but i get some hangs... or the board was with some buggies or need to re checkek all connector...greets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enito Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 I get artifact in demos ( i tested 3 ones and all hang) . Artifacts and hang :/ here i take some photo: I checked traces of socket removed for install U1mb and dont see any wrong (tested with multimeter). greets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 4, 2014 Author Share Posted May 4, 2014 Candle: over to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enito Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 I see hope candle can guide me .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts