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U1MB, Incognito, SIDE2, SIDE3, 1088XEL/XLD Firmware 4.0 Released


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I'm pleased to announce the release of the version 4.0 firmware update for U1MB, Incognito, SIDE2, SIDE3, 1088XEL, and 1088XLD. The update includes a redesigned SIDE loader, and completely redesigned BIOS plugins with support for SIDE3, Sophia 2, and PokeyMAX. Also newly introduced is support for an NTSC colour palette in VBXE (loaded transparently when the machine is turned on). User documentation has also been comprehensively updated, with sections covering the new SIDE3 loader and Incognito. Most excitingly, Incognito is now capable of supporting firmware plugins, subject to release of a CPLD JED update which I have been testing for Candle. The SIDE3 loader is now capable of native PDM (FujiConvert) playback as well (see the manual for discussion of all new features).

 

https://atari8.co.uk/ultimate-1mb-firmware-update-4-0-released/

 

Since I spent the entirety of Saturday preparing and uploading all this stuff (after spending the previous day moving my website and work emails), I'll forego further disucssion for the moment, and hopefully answer any questions as we go on. I will probably make a video showing a topical overview of what's been released as well.

 

All ROMs inlclude the newly released SpartaDOS X 4.49e; I thought we might as well get in sync with the SIDE3 ROM, which uses this version by default. Meanwhile, SpartaDOS 3.x, Bewe-DOS and RealDOS users can find RTC drivers for U1MB and SIDE3 on the APT toolkit disk.

 

I would not be surprised if I screwed something up while preparing the files here, so if anything looks anomalous, please let me know. Likewise, please use this thread to discuss any installation or usability issues. The menus in the setup menu and loader are quite different now (many controls are 'modal' to facilitate interactive facilities via callbacks), but this actually makes things like setting the clock quite a bit easier. Feedback from testers of pre-release versions (indeed, some variation of this firmware has found its way onto all U1MB and Incognito machines which have been through my hands these past few months) has been positive, so hopefully the only work that remains to do will involve minor bug fixes.

 

Meanwhile, now that this update is released, I hope to focus on ambitious new features in the SIDE3 loader, such as FAT write capability, more media playback support, and auto-mounting media.

 

Update (060621)

 

Thanks to Doug_in_NC on Discord for immediately spotting that I'd broken joystick trigger handling in main BIOS 4.02 for U1MB and Incognito. Fixed in 4.03, so please head over to the firmware section and update (U1MB/1088 users may update the 'FIRMWARE.ROM' file, and Incognito users need flash only 'IBIOS.ROM').

 

Blog post:

 

https://atari8.co.uk/u1mb-and-incognito-firmware-4-0-bug-fix/

 

The 'complete' ROM images also have the update (disregard file creation date).

 

SIDE3 Loader Update (230621)

 

For those who already updated their SIDE3 loader or are yet to do so, please be sure to download version 0.40, which fixes MegaCart, Sic! and AtariMax 1Mbit/8Mbit emulation bugs.

 

https://atari8.co.uk/firmware/side3/

 

Update (070721)

 

Blog post:

 

https://atari8.co.uk/u1mb-incognito-1088xel-and-1088xld-firmware-update/

Edited by flashjazzcat
SIDE3 loader update
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As usual, many thanks for all the effort you put into these for us, will install later ?

 

Just noticed, the SIDE3_Loader_0.38.zip does not have SDX449e_side3.atr    SpartaDOS X update disk image

in the .ZIP files as indicated in the readme.txt

Edited by TGB1718
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4 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

Most excitingly, Incognito is now capable of supporting firmware plugins, subject to release of a CPLD JED update which I have been testing for Candle.

Good news !!!!

 

Now that you mention it:

 

Have you ever received, seen, or found any information that documents the scope and functionality of PBI-support implemented on Incognito and / vs. Ultimate1MB?

 

Asked in other terms: are these two sets supposed to provide the same functionality and compatibility with PBI (and the required bus-logic), or are they different and not sharing the same level of support, by design?

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1 hour ago, Roydea6 said:

Download SpartaDOS X 4.49e for SIDE3

is not available notice.

Thanks Roy. Hopefully fixed now.

48 minutes ago, Faicuai said:

Have you ever received, seen, or found any information that documents the scope and functionality of PBI-support implemented on Incognito and / vs. Ultimate1MB?

 

Asked in other terms: are these two sets supposed to provide the same functionality and compatibility with PBI (and the required bus-logic), or are they different and not sharing the same level of support, by design?

Should be identical in terms of functionality, since Incognito in XL/XE mode is supposed to behave exactly like an XL/XE machine. Certainly all PBI-attached devices I have tested (which is to say, TurboFreezer and IDE Plus 2.0) have always functioned exactly as expected when attached to the Incognito 800.

 

The latest JED (as yet unreleased) implements dual modes of EXTSEL behaviour as well, although as I understand it this is primarily aimed at VBXE support.

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Just flashed my 1088XLD, 1200XL + SIDE3 and Incognito 800 with the latest and greatest. Wonderful work, Jon. I especially like the nice selection of ROMs and options for Incognito, and the NTSC Core setting for VBXE users is nice for us North Americans. Thank you.

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I've flashed the U1MBS3.ROM and SOS3P2.ROM plugin so I have control of my Sophia2 on my 800XL, and flashed the new S3 Loader and SDX image to my Side3 cart.

 

When I power the 800XL up, I just get a black screen until I press System Reset, then the U1MB splash screen is displayed and the computer boots into SDX.  Everything seems perfectly ok apart from the power on black screen issue.  It happens with or without the Side3 cart plugged in and with or without my FujiNet plugged in.

 

Has anyone else seen something like this?

 

Geoff

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Just now, GreyHobbit said:

When I power the 800XL up, I just get a black screen until I press System Reset, then the U1MB splash screen is displayed and the computer boots into SDX.  Everything seems perfectly ok apart from the power on black screen issue.  It happens with or without the Side3 cart plugged in and with or without my FujiNet plugged in.

I was getting that on my 1200XL + U1MB last year out of the blue. I installed a small ceramic filter cap between U1MB RESET line and GND lines per @tf_hh's instructions elsewhere on the forum, then swapped the stock 74LS08 chip (which buffers the Phi2 system clock signal) with a faster modern 74F08 version instead. Between these two minor mods, the problem went away and has not returned. I did both at about the same time, so I don't know whether the results are attributable to either step individually or the combination. 

 

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8 minutes ago, GreyHobbit said:

Has anyone else seen something like this?

I have, and unfortunately it often requires solutions such as replacing the CPU or changing out 74LS08 for a 74F08 (as Herb explains). Candle is aware of this phenomenon, but it appears that every machine which exhibits the issue is somehow situated outside of Poland. At some point, it would be useful to ship a machine which glitches with SIDE3 over to him for inspection. Unfortunately I encounter none but customer machines here which have problems, and they're usually fixed by the methods described above.

 

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Just now, Dinadan67 said:

I like the possibility to change the palette from PAL to NTSC on my VBXE equipped XEGS.

I should probably have pointed out that a power-cycle is needed to make the palette change show up after it's enabled (it's only loaded on a cold power-on), but I guess people figured this out for themselves. :)

 

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6 hours ago, TGB1718 said:

Just noticed, the SIDE3_Loader_0.38.zip does not have SDX449e_side3.atr    SpartaDOS X update disk image

in the .ZIP files as indicated in the readme.txt

I decided to split these at the last minute; there's a separate link under the loader download which takes you to the SDX download. I'll gradually clean things up as time goes on, but thanks for flagging this up. :)

 

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13 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said:

I have, and unfortunately it often requires solutions such as replacing the CPU or changing out 74LS08 for a 74F08 (as Herb explains). Candle is aware of this phenomenon, but it appears that every machine which exhibits the issue is somehow situated outside of Poland. At some point, it would be useful to ship a machine which glitches with SIDE3 over to him for inspection. Unfortunately I encounter none but customer machines here which have problems, and they're usually fixed by the methods described above.

 

Thanks for the quick and helpful replies @flashjazzcat and @DrVenkman.

 

I left the 800XL powered on for a while as I was distracted by something shiny elsewhere, and just power-cycled it a few minutes ago only to see it work perfectly a few times and fail on others.  I assume this is going to be one of those intermittent things that depends on the alignment of the stars, but I'll keep an eye on it over the next few days and see if it reoccurs.  I think I should have a spare 6502C I can try swapping in, not sure about the 74F08, but I'll track one down if necessary I am sure.  I'll search for the fix by @tf_hh, hopefully I have a few capacitors that will match what's needed for that if I have to go there.

 

As I said, it was happening with or without the Side3, but seems sporadic.

 

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Hmmm... I missed that, so might have misspoke in this instance. Does enabling and disabling the PBI HDD alter behaviour at all?
I went back to check and can hardly get it to fail now!

I have the Sophia2 output going through a DVI to HDMI cable through an HDMI splitter and it only failed when the PC was also sending a signal to the HDMI splitter.

But there was no sign of the usual boot sounds from the XL, it just freezes on the blank screen until Reset is pressed.

With the PC off (or suspended) the Atari seemed to work every time.

I did see it fail with the PBI HDD both enabled and disabled, but I'll try again tomorrow and see if I can see a pattern.

I should have said up front, the new firmware is amazing, I've especially been enjoying the ability to tweak the Sophia2 settings. Thanks for all the hard work you've put in.

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk

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I appreciate the positive feedback. :) Still, things like this make me uneasy.

 

The situation has been complicated by many factors since machine became ever more top-heavy with upgrades. I endured quite a saga this year with a customer 600XL which was unable to work reliably with U1MB+SIDE3 unless the switch-mode power supply was capable of outputting 5.2V. I eventually built the client a replica of the Cisco/LiteOn PSU I was using at the time (which solved all his problems), and simultaneously replaced my own 5.2V PSU with a Lotharek 'Meanwell' unit which puts out 5V on the nose (in order to provide a truer picture of the customer setup when I am testing machines here).

 

Meanwhile, my LG monitor is slow to sync to the Sophia 2 DVI source, so I often resort to the legacy output when trying to diagnose problems. Most recently, I received a machine back from a client for whom the thing is crashing all the time, and I have yet to replicate a single issue with it. :)

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How do I update the SDX image? I have the SIDE3 cart updated and I have a FujiNet installed with the SDX atr on a local tnfs that I can get to. However, I can't get the computer to boot into the FujiNet with the SIDE3 installed - it will either start the SIDE3 loader (switch up), or SDX (switch down). I can't mount the SDX atr with the SIDE3 loader (says the atr image is too big)

??

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43 minutes ago, tsom said:

How do I update the SDX image? I have the SIDE3 cart updated and I have a FujiNet installed with the SDX atr on a local tnfs that I can get to. However, I can't get the computer to boot into the FujiNet with the SIDE3 installed - it will either start the SIDE3 loader (switch up), or SDX (switch down). I can't mount the SDX atr with the SIDE3 loader (says the atr image is too big)

??

Well, when you say "boot into the FujiNet" do you mean boot into CONFIG to mount the ATR? You can side-step that if your FujiNet firmware has been upgraded in the last month or two. In that case, you can use the FujiNet web interface to select the firmware ATR you want and put it into a drive slot, then run UFLASH from SDX. 

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4 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

Well, when you say "boot into the FujiNet" do you mean boot into CONFIG to mount the ATR? You can side-step that if your FujiNet firmware has been upgraded in the last month or two. In that case, you can use the FujiNet web interface to select the firmware ATR you want and put it into a drive slot, then run UFLASH from SDX. 

Yes, that's what I mean. My FujiNet is up to date. I had pulled the SIDE3 cart out to boot into CONFIG to mount the ATR, but when I put the cart back in, it wouldn't boot into the ATR, just either the SIDE3 loader or SDX. I was able to finally boot the atr off the FujiNet - I'm not sure what combination of things I did (I think I turned of the ATR support in the SIDE3), that didn't work at first, but just kept trying to reboot, flipping the switch up and down. Finally booted the ATR and I was able to update. Of course, I really can't do anything with SDX on the SIDE3, as I don't have an APT partition, and can't figure out how to get that set up...

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Atari 800xl with U1MB, SIDE3 and a Sophia 2

I flashed the U1MB with the Ultimate ROM no errors

Also Flashed the SIDE3 with the .38 Loader and the updated SDX with no errors

 

My U1MB now shows version 4.02 but the plugin says VXS2STCO version 2.04. <-- what did I do wrong?

No longer sees my SIDE3 cart and I don't see any SOPHIA controls.

 

Tried the SIDE3 out on a non U1MB Atari and it works fine.  Am I supposed to set the plugin myself and if so how?  Fooling very noobish?

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7 minutes ago, Mazzspeed said:

Can you flash SIDE3 from SIDE3 itself? Or do you need to use an SIO attached device?

From the Readme file included in the ZIP:

 



INSTALLATION
============

The SIDE3 loader update (S3LOADER.XEX) should be copied to a FAT partition on your SD card and launched directly from the existing loader. The flashing tool should identify the SIDE3 hardware and report the version number and revision date of the currently installed loader, as well as the same details for the incoming update. If you do not see meaningful data for the hardware of currently installed loader, do not proceed.

The SpartaDOS X update disk image (SDX449e_side3.atr) may be mounted using SIO2PC or similar serial-based peripherals. Enable SDX on your SIDE3 cartridge (move the switch to the loader position and ensure there are no conflicting ROMs on the machine), power-on the computer, and the update should begin automatically.

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