Flashing IntSDX 4-in-1 OS EPROM

[flashjazzcat]

I just got me 1 x blank 512Kbit EPROM for the purpose of flashing a custom IntSDX 4-in-1 OS ROM. I'm using a TOP853 EPROM programmer (don't yet have an eraser).

 

I want the following 4 OS's on the EPROM:

 

1. Stock XL/XE OS

2. Stock XL/XE OS with haissoft high speed SIO patch

3. MyIDE external cart OS

4. MyIDE external cart OS with hiassoft high speed SIO patch

 

(Suggestions for a better selection welcome, BTW).

 

Naturally all combinations will be used with SpartaDOS X (latest version). The aim is a flexible testing platform for high speed SIO (using SIO2SD) and the MyIDE cart.

 

It's patching, saving, and assembling the patched OS's which I'm a little unclear about. Also, once I have the four binaries, I don't want to make a mess of putting them together in the 64K BIN file.

 

Is there any way, for example, of patching the "offline" ROM images via hiassoft's installer? Or do they have to be patched "in situ" as soft OS's, then saved to disk?

[Rybags]

Can't you just create each patched OS then append them together?

 

For a bloke of your capabilities, shouldn't be any great task.

 

Personally, if doing a custom OS, I'd probably change a few other things. Default key repeat rate would be top of the list. Also would seriously think about getting rid of the attract mode. Would probably want to make the cycle count remain the same though, for those 3 or 4 programs in existence that might be affected by the change.

[flashjazzcat]

Can't you just create each patched OS then append them together?

 

For a bloke of your capabilities, shouldn't be any great task.

 

Personally, if doing a custom OS, I'd probably change a few other things. Default key repeat rate would be top of the list. Also would seriously think about getting rid of the attract mode. Would probably want to make the cycle count remain the same though, for those 3 or 4 programs in existence that might be affected by the change.

I'm susceptible to the occasional glaring oversight!

 

Patching the stock OS and saving it shouldn't be a great strain. But since I don't have the MyIDE OS on ROM, I'll have to boot a soft-OS, then patch with hiassoft's installer (not sure if that's going to work out without modifications???). Certainly appending them together shouldn't present problems.

 

I take it one can simply use an emulator and dump the modified $C000-$FFFF region to the hard disk?

 

I can see the wisdom and fun in making other judicious alterations...

[flashjazzcat]

OK - reading the manual helped.

 

I tried patching the XL OS and intalling it in Atari800WinPlus. DOS 2.5 won't boot. Is this a limitation of DOS 2.5, or is this thing not supposed to run in emulation? I was hoping to fine-tune the ROMs under emulation before committing them to EPROM.

 

...Altirra boots with the patched ROM, but I/O is (perhaps naturally) slow under DOS 2.5. I guess the problem is that the emulator doesn't allow control of the baud rate of the attached drive.

 

Fast NMI handler appears to cause problems with the word processor's VBI even in emulation, so perhaps I should just plump for normal NMI and no keyboard interrupt?

Edited July 16, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[Rybags]

Is this a high-speed SIO thing?

 

Maybe it's an emulation issue - does other stuff work?

 

I don't think straight DOS 2.5 does anything tricky, and even RAMDisk and the patched versions that use RAM under the OS shouldn't be a worry.

 

With the OS patching - does your stuff fix the checksum? Although again that shouldn't be a worry for DOS.

[flashjazzcat]

Is this a high-speed SIO thing?

 

Maybe it's an emulation issue - does other stuff work?

 

I don't think straight DOS 2.5 does anything tricky, and even RAMDisk and the patched versions that use RAM under the OS shouldn't be a worry.

 

With the OS patching - does your stuff fix the checksum? Although again that shouldn't be a worry for DOS.

"In place" patching didn't appear to fix the checksum, and the Windows command line patcher doesn't give any feedback about checksums. Atari800Win threw up a message about non-matching checksums with the patched ROM, and although the system would boot, disk I/O was impossible. Altirra fared better. Boots up and reads disks, but very slowly: I don't think it's able to emulate the high speed SIO.

 

The whole point is that I want to test the various "flavours" of Hias's SIO patch with The Last Word, to gauge the effect of the fast VBI/NMI on the word processor's behaviour. Of course, LW runs in the Shadow RAM so soft OS testing using real hardware is impossible. I was hoping emulation would provide a recommendation but it looks like I'll have to pick something and burn it. This won't be an issue when I have an EPROM eraser.

 

Of course, in the meantime I could opt to burn (on the 4-in-1 OS EPROM) two flavours of high-speed SIO patch (with and without fast NMI) on the stock OS, plus one unpatched XL OS and a stock MyIDE OS for testing purposes.

[+Roydea6]

Atari800Win threw up a message about non-matching checksums with the patched ROM, and although the system would boot, disk I/O was impossible. Altirra fared better. Boots up and reads disks, but very slowly: I don't think it's able to emulate the high speed SIO.

All of the EMU patches need to be turned off to get disk I/O as the Hias patchrom program effects the EMU sio. And to also get the proper CHKSUM for the upper half of rom and the lower half of the rom. I posted a basic program resently that will read the STORED CHKSUM and the NEEDED CHKSUM.

 

i did this a lot back before I got a SIO2SD drive, getting the MyIDE internal interface stabalized. But there was so many patches and upgrades to MyIDE that it was annoying to pull the OS out everytime a new patch was OFFERED. But now that the HIspeed SIO patch is finallized. I have done all the MyIDE and version 3 xl/xe OS ROM with reverse basic and screen color.------------I might do the key repeat rate also.

[flashjazzcat]

All of the EMU patches need to be turned off to get disk I/O as the Hias patchrom program effects the EMU sio.

I had the patches turned off but didn't get any further under emulation. I selected four OS's, concatenated them, and burned them to EPROM. Went like a dream, and they're selectable via jumpers on the IntSDX board.

 

The HISIO patched OS's didn't perform any differently to the built-in SDX SIO driver, although, of course, even with SDX disabled, DOS 2.5 was flying along at Pokey divisor 3. However, with any combination of DOS and SIO driver, the best my SIO2SD can muster is divisor 3. Anything less causes NAKs and timeouts.

 

So, turning my attention to the MyIDE external ROM, I booted the system with the IDE/flash cart connected to a CF adapter, with a separate 5v supply for good measure. My previous experiences with MyIDE (an internal device which I ultimately wrecked having pulled it out of the system in frustration some dozen times) have not been good, but I figured that lightning rarely strikes the same place twice. I find the documentation for the device utterly confusing and at the moment I'm unclear as to which software to use to initialize the device, whether FDISK is in the OS or needs to be loaded from disk (I have some extremely flaky BASIC programs on disk which came with the external device), how the CF card or other IDE device needs to be prepared before installing it... It's surely a case of read the manual again but I find the style completely impenetrable.

 

Anyway, muddling through with the built-in FDISK program, all I get are HD errors. This is a carbon copy of my previous experiences with the internal MyIDE. I had great ambitions of getting this to work with SDX as a stop-gap until SpeedDrive but I'm getting nowhere fast. Am trawling through the AtariMax forums for info...

[flashjazzcat]

Well - hurrah. I got MyIDE to work. I went through:

 

2GB Peak CF card: no good.

6GB Fujitsu Siemens 2.5" hard disk: no good.

80GB 3.5" WD HDD: no good.

2.1GB Samsing 3.5" HDD: works!

 

I knew MyIDE was choosy about drives, but I didn't realize it was this choosy. I currently have the 3.5" HDD hanging out of the side of the PC.

 

I need to figure out a PSU for the thing. ATX power supply on the desk???

 

Anyone got any CF card or 2.5" HDD recommendations?

 

Anyway: I'm pleased to have this working, and it's a weekend of fun ahead getting things set up how I want them. I also won an EPROM eraser on eBay; nearly new for a song.

[beamer320i]

Anyone got any CF card recommendations?

 

 

Hi Jon,

 

Not sure if this is of any use, but my 65XE with built-in SIO2IDE only seems to like Transcend 1GB or smaller memory cards, anything else seems to cause problems reading/writing, etc....

[Shawn Jefferson]

Anyone got any CF card or 2.5" HDD recommendations?

 

I haven't had too much trouble with mine. I have a couple 2.5" drives that work, and a 3.5 inch drive I put in an old Mac external CD case. I have a 1GB Kingston CF card that definitely works.

 

I believe there is a compatibility thread over at Atarimax.

[+Larry]

Hi flashjazzcat-

 

A few questions and possible answers...

What MyIDE OS are you using 4.3 or? 4.3 is a pretty stable version in my use. On some of the versions there is trouble with images.

 

What 74xx245 chip does your cart contain? This can make a big difference. Best is probably 74LS245N. Worst (IMO) 74ACT245N. Big difference in media compatibility on my system.

 

What are you using for power for the MyIDE? Pin 20? internal (separate wire) from A8? External PS? If you are using an external (switching) PS, do you have the minimum loading necessary for it to work? I used an external PS and it was great for a HD but was sometimes yes/sometimes no with cards presumably because of the low power requirements. I now use a Transcend 256MB module powered from the cart and it works fine. My biggest CF card is 1MB. I have heard several reports (pro and con) on "big cards."

 

Mr-Atari is *great* about helping at the Atarimax forum. It sometimes takes a couple of days for him to reply but he always does.

 

Hope something in this can help you.

 

-Larry

 

 

Well - hurrah. I got MyIDE to work. I went through:

 

2GB Peak CF card: no good.

6GB Fujitsu Siemens 2.5" hard disk: no good.

80GB 3.5" WD HDD: no good.

2.1GB Samsing 3.5" HDD: works!

 

I knew MyIDE was choosy about drives, but I didn't realize it was this choosy. I currently have the 3.5" HDD hanging out of the side of the PC.

 

I need to figure out a PSU for the thing. ATX power supply on the desk???

 

Anyone got any CF card or 2.5" HDD recommendations?

 

Anyway: I'm pleased to have this working, and it's a weekend of fun ahead getting things set up how I want them. I also won an EPROM eraser on eBay; nearly new for a song.

[flashjazzcat]

Not sure if this is of any use, but my 65XE with built-in SIO2IDE only seems to like Transcend 1GB or smaller memory cards, anything else seems to cause problems reading/writing, etc....

My SIO2IDE is happy enough with my cheap PEAK 2GB CF card, but no dice with MyIDE. I'm using one of these adapters for both devices:

 

 

I haven't had too much trouble with mine. I have a couple 2.5" drives that work, and a 3.5 inch drive I put in an old Mac external CD case. I have a 1GB Kingston CF card that definitely works.

 

I believe there is a compatibility thread over at Atarimax.

Yes: checking out the compatibility thread and watching a few cards on eBay. Large 3.5" IDE device is fun, but a CF card would definitely be more convenient.

 

Hi flashjazzcat-

 

A few questions and possible answers...

What MyIDE OS are you using 4.3 or? 4.3 is a pretty stable version in my use. On some of the versions there is trouble with images.

 

What 74xx245 chip does your cart contain? This can make a big difference. Best is probably 74LS245N. Worst (IMO) 74ACT245N. Big difference in media compatibility on my system.

 

What are you using for power for the MyIDE? Pin 20? internal (separate wire) from A8? External PS? If you are using an external (switching) PS, do you have the minimum loading necessary for it to work? I used an external PS and it was great for a HD but was sometimes yes/sometimes no with cards presumably because of the low power requirements. I now use a Transcend 256MB module powered from the cart and it works fine. My biggest CF card is 1MB. I have heard several reports (pro and con) on "big cards."

 

Mr-Atari is *great* about helping at the Atarimax forum. It sometimes takes a couple of days for him to reply but he always does.

 

Hope something in this can help you.

I'm using OS ver 4.4 because I wanted Percom block support. Now it's working, it's working well. I wasn't too fussy about images, so haven't tested that facility yet.

 

Glad to say I have the 74LS245N chip. It's a very early production cart but is working well with the 3.5" HDD.

 

When testing the CF card and 2.5" IDE drive (both without success, I was running a separate power line from the Atari. The CF adapter I use (pictured above) does not appear to power up without an external 5v supply. I'd ideally like to use a CF card powered via the cart but whether this would work with my chosen CF adapter remains to be seen.

 

Mr Atari has been helpful in the past; he sent me a replacement GAL for a previous unit (which I never had any luck with). My main gripe was with the confusing documentation, but through experimentation I now know what I'm doing.

 

Since SpartaDOS X has to use the OS SIO routine to work with MyIDE, I may write a patch which lets it use its own high-speed routine with SIO devices (removing the need for a high-SIO patched OS to get decent speed with SIO devices).

Edited July 18, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[+rdemming]

I use the same IDE2CF adapter with MyIDE and I never had any problems with it. The jumpers on the picture are set the same as on mine so that is OK.

I used SanDisk 256MB and SanDisk 1GB CF cards with it without problems.

Also with MyIDE OS 4.4 I could use 128MB and 8GB MicroSD cards with an IDE2SD adapter. All these were powered with pin 20.

Do any of the leds on the adapter light up? Are you sure pin 20 on the MyIDE interface is connected to 5V? The early MyIDE flash carts did not have pin 20 connected to 5V and you had to add it yourself.

 

As far as I know the MyIDE OS 4.4 has the Hi-speed patch build-in so you don't need to patch that one yourself.

 

Robert

[flashjazzcat]

Do any of the leds on the adapter light up? Are you sure pin 20 on the MyIDE interface is connected to 5V? The early MyIDE flash carts did not have pin 20 connected to 5V and you had to add it yourself.

 

As far as I know the MyIDE OS 4.4 has the Hi-speed patch build-in so you don't need to patch that one yourself.

The pin 20 issue is something I will definitey look into. As far as I can tell, it is not connected on this cart.

 

SIO reads seemed very slow with the 4.4 OS which is why I assumed it wasn't patched. Hias's SIO patch (assuming that's the high speed SIO patch applied to the 4.4 OS) takes some (necessary) liberties with the VBI routine which is why I'd prefer to fall back onto the stock SDX driver.

 

Although I haven't yet been able to attain lower than POKEY divisor 3 with the Hi-SIO patch, my experiences so far suggest that the highest SIO speeds would just about be a match for MyIDE in everyday use. I imagine the speed of the IDE interface is foregrounded in sector copy and other bulk read operations.

 

It would be nice to have some Sparta command line utilities to do the work of MyIDE's built-in FDISK and disk based SCANDISK functions. Also, I find the keyboard IRQ patch in the MyIDE OS somewhat disruptive. I'd like to see (or write) some mods to the OS which get rid of the SHIFT+CTRL functions (they too could be replaced with command line apps).

 

EDIT: keyboard IRQ problem is easily overcome by enabling a type-ahead buffer.

Edited July 18, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[a8isa1]

Do any of the leds on the adapter light up? Are you sure pin 20 on the MyIDE interface is connected to 5V? The early MyIDE flash carts did not have pin 20 connected to 5V and you had to add it yourself.

 

As far as I know the MyIDE OS 4.4 has the Hi-speed patch build-in so you don't need to patch that one yourself.

The pin 20 issue is something I will definitey look into. As far as I can tell, it is not connected on this cart.

 

SIO reads seemed very slow with the 4.4 OS which is why I assumed it wasn't patched. Hias's SIO patch (assuming that's the high speed SIO patch applied to the 4.4 OS) takes some (necessary) liberties with the VBI routine which is why I'd prefer to fall back onto the stock SDX driver.

 

Although I haven't yet been able to attain lower than POKEY divisor 3 with the Hi-SIO patch, my experiences so far suggest that the highest SIO speeds would just about be a match for MyIDE in everyday use. I imagine the speed of the IDE interface is foregrounded in sector copy and other bulk read operations.

 

It would be nice to have some Sparta command line utilities to do the work of MyIDE's built-in FDISK and disk based SCANDISK functions. Also, I find the keyboard IRQ patch in the MyIDE OS somewhat disruptive. I'd like to see (or write) some mods to the OS which get rid of the SHIFT+CTRL functions (they too could be replaced with command line apps).

 

EDIT: keyboard IRQ problem is easily overcome by enabling a type-ahead buffer.

I can only confirm that the combination of the very same IDE-CF adapter as yours, MyIDE (internal), and separate power connector work fine. Pin-20 power left my MyIDE unable to write. Using the separate power connector wired to my 800XL's power switch I've never had a problem.

 

I've used a SimpleTech 128MB IDE flash module, a Dane Electric 1GB CF and a Sandisk 2GB CF with MyIDE all without problems. (Well, almost. My PC's media reader rejects the Dane Electric CF 9 times out of 10 but that has nothing to do with MyIDE, of course).

 

I'm hoping to get the latest beta 4.4i OS burned into a 16-in-1 so that I can have 8 partitions instead of 3. (I'll need help with that unless uniflash and a flash rom work for me )

 

No rush though. (Off topic) I've been using SDrive mostly these days.

 

- Steve Sheppard

[flashjazzcat]

I can only confirm that the combination of the very same IDE-CF adapter as yours, MyIDE (internal), and separate power connector work fine. Pin-20 power left my MyIDE unable to write. Using the separate power connector wired to my 800XL's power switch I've never had a problem.

 

I've used a SimpleTech 128MB IDE flash module, a Dane Electric 1GB CF and a Sandisk 2GB CF with MyIDE all without problems. (Well, almost. My PC's media reader rejects the Dane Electric CF 9 times out of 10 but that has nothing to do with MyIDE, of course).

 

I'm hoping to get the latest beta 4.4i OS burned into a 16-in-1 so that I can have 8 partitions instead of 3. (I'll need help with that unless uniflash and a flash rom work for me )

 

No rush though. (Off topic) I've been using SDrive mostly these days.

I managed to bag a couple of supposedly compatile CF cards on eBay yesterday, so we'll see what happens when they arrive. The external power source requirement is no big deal, I suppose. I got the cart for nothing, so if I can get it working with a CF card for under a tenner I'll be happy. Not even sure how much I'll use it: my interest has already strayed back to SIO2IDE today.

 

I posted a few questions on the AtariMax forum with regard to Reset causing a cold start, etc. I also suggested that the custom keyboard IRQ and keleidoscopic visual notifications be made optional. I disassembled the MyIDE 4.4E keyboard interrupt handler earlier today and it would be a cinch to duplicate all the functionality via a command line app stored on the RAMdisk. My main objective was to sample parallel I/O on the Atari (albeit non-standard) so as to make a more informed choice about a long-term storage solution. I may attempt a compilation of the old LW 2.1 source code on real hardware using MyIDE to see how quick it is. SysInfo reported the average I/O speed with MyIDE as 10KB/s, which seemed on the low side. SIO2SD is almost as fast as that, with SIO2IDE a close second.

 

I rather suspect that SpeedDrive will mop the floor up with the lot of them when it's finally ready.

Edited July 19, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[a8isa1]

I can only confirm that the combination of the very same IDE-CF adapter as yours, MyIDE (internal), and separate power connector work fine. Pin-20 power left my MyIDE unable to write. Using the separate power connector wired to my 800XL's power switch I've never had a problem.

 

I've used a SimpleTech 128MB IDE flash module, a Dane Electric 1GB CF and a Sandisk 2GB CF with MyIDE all without problems. (Well, almost. My PC's media reader rejects the Dane Electric CF 9 times out of 10 but that has nothing to do with MyIDE, of course).

 

I'm hoping to get the latest beta 4.4i OS burned into a 16-in-1 so that I can have 8 partitions instead of 3. (I'll need help with that unless uniflash and a flash rom work for me )

 

No rush though. (Off topic) I've been using SDrive mostly these days.

I managed to bag a couple of supposedly compatile CF cards on eBay yesterday, so we'll see what happens when they arrive. The external power source requirement is no big deal, I suppose. I got the cart for nothing, so if I can get it working with a CF card for under a tenner I'll be happy. Not even sure how much I'll use it: my interest has already strayed back to SIO2IDE today.

 

I posted a few questions on the AtariMax forum with regard to Reset causing a cold start, etc. I also suggested that the custom keyboard IRQ and keleidoscopic visual notifications be made optional. I disassembled the MyIDE 4.4E keyboard interrupt handler earlier today and it would be a cinch to duplicate all the functionality via a command line app stored on the RAMdisk. My main objective was to sample parallel I/O on the Atari (albeit non-standard) so as to make a more informed choice about a long-term storage solution. I may attempt a compilation of the old LW 2.1 source code on real hardware using MyIDE to see how quick it is. SysInfo reported the average I/O speed with MyIDE as 10KB/s, which seemed on the low side. SIO2SD is almost as fast as that, with SIO2IDE a close second.

 

I rather suspect that SpeedDrive will mop the floor up with the lot of them when it's finally ready.

The idea of MyIDE on a cart appeals to the gamer in me Just pop it in and nearly every game made is theoretically available (minus games with compatibility issues with MyIDE RAM OS).

 

My stripped down SDrive gave me the idea of fitting an SMT version into a little SIO dongle/device. This would have the same convenience of a cartridge (for the above mentioned purpose) but with far fewer incompatibilities. Unfortunately, my lack of soldering skills prevent me from trying it. I can barely solder 0.1" pitch parts and not very well at that. My pile of not-quite-working projects attests to this.

 

MyIDE has high raw data rates. The "RGB" MyIDE movies push data at about 60KB/sec but curiously the SIO emulation is not very fast, about 4.2KB/sec if you read 65,535 sectors. Can't remember the data rate for smaller partitions. It's somewhat faster but still only a fraction of the raw rate.

 

- Steve Sheppard

Edited July 19, 2010 by a8isa1

[flashjazzcat]

The idea of MyIDE on a cart appeals to the gamer in me Just pop it in and nearly every game made is theoretically available (minus games with compatibility issues with MyIDE RAM OS).

 

My stripped down SDrive gave me the idea of fitting an SMT version into a little SIO dongle/device. This would have the same convenience of a cartridge (for the above mentioned purpose) but with far fewer incompatibilities. Unfortunately, my lack of soldering skills prevent me from trying it. I can barely solder 0.1" pitch parts and not very well at that. My pile of not-quite-working projects attests to this.

 

MyIDE has high raw data rates. The "RGB" MyIDE movies push data at about 60KB/sec but curiously the SIO emulation is not very fast, about 4.2KB/sec if you read 65,535 sectors. Can't remember the data rate for smaller partitions. It's somewhat faster but still only a fraction of the raw rate.

I do like the sound of the stipped down SMT SDrive. It's one peripheral I haven't made/bought yet, but I suppose if you shrunk it down enough you could end up with an SIO/SD device the size of RAM 320XL, plugging right into the SIO socket without any wires. Nice. My eyes are good and I can still solder SMT HC175s, so if there's anything you fancy making up!

 

MyIDE on a cart (as opposed to the internal version) appeals to me purely because of its portability. That said, I may still bite the bullet and get an internal board for the collection when I can afford it. It's the neatest and simplest internal solution I know of.

 

Re: speed. Perhaps there are high CIO overheads during I/O, although I would have expected large buffer reads to be quicker nevertheless. Perhaps my 10KB/s data rate can be explained by SpartaDOS X's kernel IO routines.

[Shawn Jefferson]

I posted a few questions on the AtariMax forum with regard to Reset causing a cold start, etc. I also suggested that the custom keyboard IRQ and keleidoscopic visual notifications be made optional. I disassembled the MyIDE 4.4E keyboard interrupt handler earlier today and it would be a cinch to duplicate all the functionality via a command line app stored on the RAMdisk.

 

I have written an FDISK replacement that you can run from the command-line. It's a larger app with a few more features (you can name your partitions for instance), and I believe that you have to run it via the X command.

 

If you do modify the OS to turn off the keyboard shortcuts, let me know, I'd be interested in that too. The first thing I do is turn off that awful flashing background... I guess it's nice if you do want to make sure that some I/O is happening, but I never really need it.

 

My main objective was to sample parallel I/O on the Atari (albeit non-standard) so as to make a more informed choice about a long-term storage solution. I may attempt a compilation of the old LW 2.1 source code on real hardware using MyIDE to see how quick it is. SysInfo reported the average I/O speed with MyIDE as 10KB/s, which seemed on the low side. SIO2SD is almost as fast as that, with SIO2IDE a close second.

 

I belive that there is quite a bit of overhead in the MyIDE SIO routines (multiplications, etc..), and that doing "raw" i/o can be much faster. Something like the speed drive is doing that CHS (or LBA) conversion in hardware, not on the 6502. The appeal of the MyIDE interface is that it is so inexpensive, because it's just simple hardware.

[flashjazzcat]

I have written an FDISK replacement that you can run from the command-line. It's a larger app with a few more features (you can name your partitions for instance), and I believe that you have to run it via the X command.

 

If you do modify the OS to turn off the keyboard shortcuts, let me know, I'd be interested in that too. The first thing I do is turn off that awful flashing background... I guess it's nice if you do want to make sure that some I/O is happening, but I never really need it.

I'll be checking out your FDISK program. I assume it's on your website with all the other good stuff.

 

I'd love a crack at writing a SpartaDOS X MyIDE handler so we could do away with the custom OS altogether, but it's probably too much to take on at the moment and besides - greater minds have already tried. It would have been cool, but Draco has no way of testing the drivers with real hardware. A close second would be patching or rewriting parts of the custom OS. I already noticed areas ripe for optimisation.

 

I belive that there is quite a bit of overhead in the MyIDE SIO routines (multiplications, etc..), and that doing "raw" i/o can be much faster. Something like the speed drive is doing that CHS (or LBA) conversion in hardware, not on the 6502. The appeal of the MyIDE interface is that it is so inexpensive, because it's just simple hardware.

Which in turn makes it attractive for software developers writing drivers. I hate working with disassemblies, though...

[drac030]

Something like the speed drive is doing that CHS (or LBA) conversion in hardware, not on the 6502.

 

KMK/JŻ IDE (aka IDEa) does CHS calculations in software and it is still the fastest I/O for Atari so far

[flashjazzcat]

KMK/JŻ IDE (aka IDEa) does CHS calculations in software and it is still the fastest I/O for Atari so far

Is that in the device firmware? I didn't think IDEa required any special drivers, being PBI compliant.

 

Biggest problem with IDEa (or any other "standard" parallel device for that matter) is that it is not available anywhere.

 

Update on testing: SI2 says a 16MB SIO2SD ATR at Pokey divisor 3 runs as fast as MyIDE (10KB/s throughput).

Edited July 20, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[drac030]

I didn't think IDEa required any special drivers, being PBI compliant.

 

Being PBI compliant means it has its own ROM containing its own "special driver", responsible for performing the raw I/O. At the Atari side, logical sector addresses for logical disks (partitions) are supplied through the DCB block. At the PBI device side, the firmware translates them to a logical sector number for the physical disk, and next it goes to translate this to CHS geometry expected by the IDE drive.

 

Before anyone asks why the LBA mode is not used: in 1995 most cheap IDE disks available worked in CHS only.

 

As for the device's availability: the SpeedDrive is being worked on.

Edited July 20, 2010 by drac030

[flashjazzcat]

Being PBI compliant means it has its own ROM containing its own "special driver", responsible for performing the raw I/O. At the Atari side, logical sector addresses for logical disks (partitions) are supplied through the DCB block. At the PBI device side, the firmware translates them to a logical sector number for the physical disk, and next it goes to translate this to CHS geometry expected by the IDE drive.

 

Before anyone asks why the LBA mode is not used: in 1995 most cheap IDE disks available was working in CHS only.

 

As for the device's availability: the SpeedDrive is being worked on.

So yes: effectively the device "firmware".

 

SpeedDrive will offer the best of all worlds, but some technical aspects seem daunting at the moment.