linux-apus-devel

Short question concnerning PCI support within APUS

[T. <Ren...@gm...>]

Hi everybody!

I only want to know if there are plans to support upcoming PCI-hardware f=
or
our Amigas used with Mediator or G-Rex. Concerning G-Rex I was told by Mr=
=2E
Dellert (DCE) that writing drivers should be no problem, as the coder onl=
y
has to know, where the appropriate memory addresses will be. Mr. Dellert
also said, that there is a Software coming with the G-Rex boards which
solves exactly this question.

Are there already plans for supporting the "new" hardware? Cause I want t=
o
keep my Amiga as only computer and therefore I want to buy an expansion f=
or
the A4000 enabling me the use of faster network cards, sound-, GFX- and
TV-cards!

Hope APUS won't miss these new developing direction of our Amiga!

By the way are there any news concerning support of FASTLANE or even
UW-SCSI?
I also asked Mr. Dellert for documents which enable the APUS coders final=
ly
to support the UW-SCSI. He told me that he can't do anything concerning
this point but asking Ralf (forgot the surname) and I was told to call hi=
m
back later this week (tomorrow; today Mr.Dellert was not in house).
I hope I'll have some good news leading in this direction soon!

Kind regards
-- =

Ren=E9 Thol
Mail: Ren...@gm...=

Re: Short question concnerning PCI support within APUS

[Michel <mic...@ii...>]

On Thu, 2001-10-04 at 19:13, Ren=E9 Thol wrote:

> I only want to know if there are plans to support upcoming PCI-hardware f=
or
> our Amigas used with Mediator or G-Rex. Concerning G-Rex I was told by Mr=
.
> Dellert (DCE) that writing drivers should be no problem, as the coder onl=
y
> has to know, where the appropriate memory addresses will be.

If that's true, adding support for it should be straightforward looking
at the existing PCI support for the B/CVisionPPC. Someone with the
hardware will have to do it, what about you? :)

> Mr. Dellert also said, that there is a Software coming with the G-Rex boa=
rds which
> solves exactly this question.

How so? They don't provide source code, do they?


> By the way are there any news concerning support of FASTLANE or even
> UW-SCSI?

There have been posts about the latter on the devel list lately which
looked rather promising.

> I also asked Mr. Dellert for documents which enable the APUS coders final=
ly
> to support the UW-SCSI. He told me that he can't do anything concerning
> this point but asking Ralf (forgot the surname) and I was told to call hi=
m
> back later this week (tomorrow; today Mr.Dellert was not in house).
> I hope I'll have some good news leading in this direction soon!

That certainly wouldn't hurt, thanks for your efforts!


--=20
Earthling Michel D=E4nzer (MrCooper)/ Debian GNU/Linux (powerpc) developer
XFree86 and DRI project member   /  CS student, Free Software enthusiast

Re: Short question concnerning PCI support within APUS

[Alan B. <al...@ms...>]

hi,

> I only want to know if there are plans to support upcoming PCI-hardware for
> our Amigas used with Mediator or G-Rex. Concerning G-Rex I was told by Mr.
> Dellert (DCE) that writing drivers should be no problem, as the coder only
> has to know, where the appropriate memory addresses will be. Mr. Dellert
> also said, that there is a Software coming with the G-Rex boards which
> solves exactly this question.
>
> Are there already plans for supporting the "new" hardware? Cause I want to
> keep my Amiga as only computer and therefore I want to buy an expansion for
> the A4000 enabling me the use of faster network cards, sound-, GFX- and
> TV-cards!
>
> Hope APUS won't miss these new developing direction of our Amiga!


well, supporting these PCI cards shouldnt be too much of a problem - it is
just finding where the PCI access point is in memory space (as such).
however there are 2 issues.

no APUS developers have such board (iirc!) and secondly there are quite a
few cards out there that are x86 centric.....ie the drivers have the wrong
bit order and x86 asm code .  those are, however , minor issues really ;-)

> I also asked Mr. Dellert for documents which enable the APUS coders finally
> to support the UW-SCSI. He told me that he can't do anything concerning
> this point but asking Ralf (forgot the surname) and I was told to call him
> back later this week (tomorrow; today Mr.Dellert was not in house).
> I hope I'll have some good news leading in this direction soon!

I believe that Ralph Schmidt was already asked several times...and did
profer some info (to one indivisual iirc

alan

Re: Short question concnerning PCI support within APUS

[Rene B. <re...@we...>]

Ren=E9 Thol wrote:

> By the way are there any news concerning support of FASTLANE or even
> UW-SCSI?
> I also asked Mr. Dellert for documents which enable the APUS coders=20
> finally
> to support the UW-SCSI. He told me that he can't do anything concerning
> this point but asking Ralf (forgot the surname) and I was told to call =
him
> back later this week (tomorrow; today Mr.Dellert was not in house).


Hi!

I`m working on the UW-SCSI driver and I`ll give you some information=20
about it`s state. The 53c770 chip is detected and configured by the=20
driver and then the driver makes some tests, which works fine. The 4k=20
on-chip RAM is used for SCSI-SCRIPTS and the chip can execute SCRIPTS at=20
on-chip RAM and also at system-memory. The LED is working, which is=20
switched on and off by SCRIPTS in on-chip RAM when the scsi-bus is=20
selected or reselected. Also the driver is reacting on IRQ`s and calls=20
by the generic SCSI driver. After booting, you can find some information=20
about the driver in /proc/scsi/53c770.
And there is the problem, the generic driver tries to detect devices on=20
the scsi-bus and fails. I don`t know whats wrong here, maybe its another=20
cache related problem. But in this state I think there is no need for=20
help from Ralf Schmidt anymore (unless he has a working=20
linux-driver...). So let him work on MorphOS.

But by the way, I also thinking about to buy a G-Rex board and if I have=20
the time and money I will try to get it running on APUS. But there are 2=20
problems. First we probably need some information how we can scan the=20
G-Rex PCI-bus (maybe from Mr. Dellert). Second, if the G-Rex is in the=20
slot, the CV-PPC is not in the slot and so you probably have to work on=20
the G-Rex driver with AmiFb...


Ciao, Ren=E8

Re: Short question concnerning PCI support within APUS

[Alan B. <al...@ms...>]

hi,

> But by the way, I also thinking about to buy a G-Rex board and if I have
> the time and money I will try to get it running on APUS. But there are 2
> problems. First we probably need some information how we can scan the
> G-Rex PCI-bus (maybe from Mr. Dellert). Second, if the G-Rex is in the
> slot, the CV-PPC is not in the slot and so you probably have to work on
> the G-Rex driver with AmiFb...

hmm, I'm tempted byt he Mediator, which is now very popular in the AmigaOS
world.... *that* board would also require its access to PCI space. In this
way we could have a similar 'access port'

fortunately work could be done on it under the PM2FB as that can coexist


I'm more 'worried' about AmigaONE as that works backwards.....the PPC is
on the AmigaONE and the old Amiga is accessed as a PCI device....
perhaps a new kernel... Linux/A1 project would have to be done for this?
..except that it should be so much closer to a CHrp/PreP Mac kernel
than the current APUS one.

alan