BLANK@BRANDEIS.BITNET (David N. Blank * BLANK@BRANDEIS.bitnet) (03/28/88)
Howdy,
This message is being forwarded for a friend that does not have net access
at the present time. Please do not respond to me, as I am an Amiga owner,
and have negative quantities of interest in machines with 2 letter names.
Peace,
David N. Blank
BLANK@BRANDEIS.bitnet || DNB@BRANDEIS.csnet
"This is Leonard Nimoy, as we go In Search of... a disclaimer."
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a summary of articles in the March c't:
1) the adaptor to attach a PC harddisk is selling in kit form for 22 Dm ($12)
2) they have TOS/GEM/etc. running on a 68020 board. they had to "fix"
several problems with TOS to do this.
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Once again my lack of German handicaps me in my reporting. But here's a summary
of various articles/ads:
The PC-Harddrive adapter was described in last month's issue. Basically it
interfaces a standard PC ST506 controller to the ST's DMA bus. It consists of
only 5 chips and looks easy to build. Software was included in the article or
you can order it. The address: Heise Platinen and Softwareservice,
Postfach 61 04 07, 3000 Hannover 61. This adaptor kit is stock # 880212dBE,
and is 22 dm, while the software is # S8802126 and is 20 marks. Theoretically,
you can put together a 20 meg harddrive for about $450 using this kit.
Anyone want to import these to the United States?
Beware if you build the board from the plans in the 2/88 issue: the 3/88
issue lists 1 mistake in the software and 1 mistake in the circuit diagram.
The 68020 card is called the "PAK68", and they have interfaced it to various
computers in addition to the ST. It has a 12mhz 68020 and 68881. The article
for the PAK68 itself was in the 8/87 of c't; the ST interface article was
11/87. The article this issue is only about the software hacks needed to get
it running under GEM.
There were 3 basic problems: (1) the MOVE SR, <ea> instruction, which is
privileged on the 68010 and 68020, (2) GEM is dependent on the exception stack
format of the 68000, and (3) the F-Line routines of the AES use self-modifying
code. They present both source code for fixups and ROM patches for the 2/86
and "blitter" ROMS. They report that 100% of TOS programs work! They present
this benchmark for 100 iterations of the sieve (megamax C):
cpu seconds relative speed increase
68000 23.6 ----
68010 22.8 3.5%
68020 11.9 98.3%
This version does not use the 32-bit memory add-on which they described in
the 1/88 issue. They expect another 100% speed increase with the faster and
wider RAM. They did not present a benchmark using the 68881. However, they
did say that GFA Basic users with version 3.0 or higher could directly access
the 68881. So I would _assume_ that the 68881 works, although I can't read
enough of the article to see what's going on.
The straight PAK68 board sells for 1098 dm (including the 68020 and 68881),
but this doesn't include any 32 bit ram or the Atari-specific interface.
Another article describes a simple (5 IC's) 8-bit A/D converter which plugs
into the cartridge port. It is available at the same address as the disk
controller kit; stock # 8803120B, 12 dm for the kit. It samples up to 70 kHz.
The article indicates that this project costs 60 marks, so I guess that the
chips amount to about 48 dm in Germany. However, ask a German friend before
you trust my non-existant German.
One ad was for a graphics monitor system which plugs into the cartridge port.
It offers resolution up to 1024 x 768, mono and/or color. It sells for
2300 to 3000 dm. I believe that they only offer a driver for the RTOS
operating system; but the ad didn't mention anything (at least that I can
read) about software compatibility.
[ the remainder of this note is about the Atari PC Klone. Skip it if this
isn't interesting for you. ]
A final article is a review of 4 "Home-PC" systems, including the mythical
Atari PC 1. It looks like the Atari PC that I saw at the Boston AtariFest.
It lists for 1600 dm with 1/2 meg, 1 5.25" floppy, and a monitor. As a
comparison, the Commodore PC-1 lists for 1000 dm without a monitor. The
Atari machine has a "turbo" mode (1.7 Norton SI), while the Commodore machine
just runs at a stately 4.77 mhz. So, it seems that the hardware is stable
enough for them to send it out to reviewers... although the motherboard has
a "Rev A" sticker on it.
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disclaimer: i have no connection with c't: the subscription is being paid
for by somebody else ;-)
Greg Lindahl |
brandeis radio astronomy group (BRAG) | ci$: [76515,1122]
--------------------------------------| us snail: box 2522 brandeis university
"Insults are the spice of life." | waltham mass (usa) 02254-9110
| telco: (617) 899-5884meulenbr@cstw01.UUCP (Frans Meulenbroeks) (03/29/88)
Some additional remarks from a PAK (68020/88881) owner: In article <8803280338.AA25219@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> BLANK@BRANDEIS.BITNET (David N. Blank * BLANK@BRANDEIS.bitnet) writes: >Howdy, > This message is being forwarded for a friend that does not have net access >at the present time. Please do not respond to me, as I am an Amiga owner, >and have negative quantities of interest in machines with 2 letter names. > Peace, > David N. Blank > BLANK@BRANDEIS.bitnet || DNB@BRANDEIS.csnet Lots of stuff deleted >The 68020 card is called the "PAK68", and they have interfaced it to various >computers in addition to the ST. It has a 12mhz 68020 and 68881. The article >for the PAK68 itself was in the 8/87 of c't; the ST interface article was >11/87. The article this issue is only about the software hacks needed to get >it running under GEM. This ST interface is almost nothing. The original article describes a 68020 board which you can stick into an 68000 socket. (on many systems, not only st, will even work for amiga's :-); some problems for other systems are mentioned in the 4/88 issue). What is called an ST interface here, is a small switching board, which can contain both 68000 and 020. You can select one of them by means of a switch (some critical lines are switched by means of CMOS ic's; if I recall correctly 43's) Note that you can stick either 12.5 or 16 Mhz components on the board. However the 68020 still has to run on the 8 Mhz provided by the ST. You do NOT get a 12 Mhz 68020, unless you apply some additional hardware hacks! However, it is possible to use the 68881 asynchronous to the 020, thus having it run at 16 Mhz. The board does allow different clocks to be fed to both chips, and has room for one oscillator. > >There were 3 basic problems: (1) the MOVE SR, <ea> instruction, which is >privileged on the 68010 and 68020, (2) GEM is dependent on the exception stack >format of the 68000, and (3) the F-Line routines of the AES use self-modifying Actually line F has another problem. The 020 thinks line F codes are for the 68881, and does not call the appropriate handler. This problem is much more a pain in the ass. >code. They present both source code for fixups and ROM patches for the 2/86 >and "blitter" ROMS. They report that 100% of TOS programs work! They present Note here that the ROMs are German roms (different keyboard layout and messages). Better start from the source code. (anyone having the source of a disassembler for me??? You need to find all line F calls.) Additional note: they claim that almost 100% of the programs work. Exceptions are programs that call line-F directly, or perhaps that are auto booting (games). >this benchmark for 100 iterations of the sieve (megamax C): > > cpu seconds relative speed increase > > 68000 23.6 ---- > 68010 22.8 3.5% > 68020 11.9 98.3% The gain here must be due to the fact that the main loop fits in the cache. This result is NOT typical. Expect percentages around 10 or 20. >This version does not use the 32-bit memory add-on which they described in >the 1/88 issue. They expect another 100% speed increase with the faster and >wider RAM. They did not present a benchmark using the 68881. However, they The add-on memory is SRAM ($$$). No add-on DRAM exist. >did say that GFA Basic users with version 3.0 or higher could directly access >the 68881. So I would _assume_ that the 68881 works, although I can't read >enough of the article to see what's going on. I do not know anything about the GFA basic stuff (in fact I do not know anything about any basic). However, it shouldn't be difficult to create your own fpp c library. >The straight PAK68 board sells for 1098 dm (including the 68020 and 68881), >but this doesn't include any 32 bit ram or the Atari-specific interface. However, you can also sell the bare PCB from Heise Verlag, which is much more interesting if you can obtain the 020/881 at some reasonable price. Other hardware needed: about 11 TTL chips (AS flavour), some sockets, jumpers etc. The 68020/68881 board is 49 dm, the interface I believe 29. Roms go for about 200 dm, rom images on disk for 30 dm. Copies of the original articles do dm 5. I don't have order numbers handy, but if you really want to order drop me a note and I'll dig it up. Note: in order to operate properly the 68881 is not required. If you are on a low budget, you can go for the 68020 alone, and leave the 68881 for later. Disclaimer: I have no interest in C'T or Heise Verlag. I'm only a reasonably happy customer Remainder of included message junked. Final remark: Apart from the bootstrapping, the PAK board will run Minix without any modification. Hope this informs you all a little more. -- Frans Meulenbroeks Centre for Software Technology ...!mcvax!philmds!prle!cst!meulenbr or ...!uunet!prlb2!cst!meulenbr or perhaps meulenbr@cst.prl.philips.nl