Rybags Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 DMA off is generally quicker. I've started a thread for us to put our benchmarks and comments about various media types we're testing on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoodByteXL Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 (edited) DMA off is generally quicker. I've started a thread for us to put our benchmarks and comments about various media types we're testing on. Generally yes, I know. that's why I use the F keys on my XL since the 80s. CTRL-F2 helps you getting things done quicker by 25-30%. But this interface running a harddrive is that fast - I wonder if the A8 can digest the byte wave fast enough ... Edit: I even use the SAV option on hard drive - it's much quicker than ramdisk. Edited July 5, 2011 by GoodByteXL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 It'd be interesting to see the code stream for sector operations - then we could easily work out what the absolute finite limits are. But 80 K per second is pretty impressive, works out to around a byte every 22 machine cycles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Just flashed the upgraded BIOS. I think I'm still getting the issue of the SDX option reverting to off. Like the B-Loader! I can see that being the preferred startup default actually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 I think I'm still getting the issue of the SDX option reverting to off. That's normal. SDX state is not kept in NV-RAM, because it would always enforce the selected state. This is not desirable: when the user types "COLD /N" at the SDX prompt, expects a reboot with SDX switched off. This would not work, if IDE Plus BIOS restored the SDX state from NV-RAM: the SDX would come back. Therefore the config screen only reports the SDX current state. When you do COLD /N, it will be off. When you run the binary loader, it will be off afterwards as well, because the loader switches all cartridges off. When you go to BASIC and cause coldstart, it will be off too. To restart SDX go to the config display, press X and then Control/B. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted July 5, 2011 Author Share Posted July 5, 2011 BTW, could DMA OFF speed up loading even more? Sure, but games often display something during loading, so maybe it is more convenient to leave DMA on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 The latest BIOS [.08] is.. GREAT! this is wonderful. the 'L' for binary games loading is nice. it logs different drives, reads subdirectories, just outstanding for the gamer. As for the DMA speeding up loading regular loading is far faster than Cassette and if I can put up with cassette loading I'm sure that I can get use to IDE 2.0 load times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 New BIOS??? Yikes - gonna try this now. I wonder if extending the startup delay will help it work with the XL... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 2) added a binary-file loader FAAAST! Would it be possible to add an option to directly go to the loader on start-up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 That's a thought I had too - show BLoad menu with option to go to BIOS settings instead of other way around. One thing about the loader - if possible I think the sub-directories should list before files since most of us will probably put games in subdirs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 I missed a Bios update O_o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloopy Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 I missed a Bios update O_o even a BIOS update wont help you... ;'D i am still runnning my OEM firmware... think i need to upgrade... sloopy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 I missed a Bios update O_o even a BIOS update wont help you... ;'D i am still runnning my OEM firmware... think i need to upgrade... sloopy. Get with it man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 I missed a Bios update O_o even a BIOS update wont help you... ;'D i am still runnning my OEM firmware... think i need to upgrade... sloopy. Nah, if it works stick with the original Firmware Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloopy Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 well, i have been cleaning my office for a few days... by the time i am done and get back to using my A8, firmware might be in to the 2.x ;'D sloopy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fres Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 The (L) Loader is great. Everything loads so fast, and you never have to turn off the computer to get back to the loader. I'm finally learning more about SDX too. Before now, I had only used disk versions of Sparta. Thanks for all the good work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted July 6, 2011 Author Share Posted July 6, 2011 Would it be possible to add an option to directly go to the loader on start-up? It may seem otherwise but from the actual code's point of view it would be rather complicated. I will think about it, however. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted July 6, 2011 Author Share Posted July 6, 2011 One thing about the loader - if possible I think the sub-directories should list before files since most of us will probably put games in subdirs. The SDX command SORTDIR is your friend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted July 6, 2011 Share Posted July 6, 2011 The SDX command SORTDIR is your friend Tut - it should be done dynamically; you add one file to the folder and the sort is out of order again. I once wrote an extended DIR command for SDX which sorted the entries on the fly if you supplied a switch (or an ENV variable): I must dig it out some time. It wouldn't cope well with several thousand entries, of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Philsan Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 What is the easier way to copy many files from PC to IDE+? I made a 16MB SpartaDOS disk with MakeATR PC program, I copied files on it, I attached it to Atari with SIO2SD and I copied files with copy command (it is amazing to see the speed of IDE+ compared to SIO2SD). The biggest problem is that I have to rename hundreds of filenames to 8.3 format when I copy them to SpartaDOS disk with MakeATR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 At this stage, something like that is the only reliable way. In time no doubt someone will do a PC-based utility that could just write a partition to whatever media you're using. Although we're talking raw writing to a device, not treating it as a volume under Windows or whatever OS. An interim idea I have is to just populate a virtual drive in Altirra then use a PC tool to raw dump to the sectors on SD card. Of course doing that comes with the risk of trashing everything if you get it wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 I'm not real Sparta-savvy, but can't you use APE's PC Mirror to move your files? Even the "trial" version of APE supports copying files from the PC to the Atari (but not vice versa). You just put the files in a PC folder, select that folder from the Mirror and copy away to the IDE+2. The Atari just "sees" the Mirror as another drive, while APE does all the work. -Larry What is the easier way to copy many files from PC to IDE+? I made a 16MB SpartaDOS disk with MakeATR PC program, I copied files on it, I attached it to Atari with SIO2SD and I copied files with copy command (it is amazing to see the speed of IDE+ compared to SIO2SD). The biggest problem is that I have to rename hundreds of filenames to 8.3 format when I copy them to SpartaDOS disk with MakeATR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted July 7, 2011 Author Share Posted July 7, 2011 The biggest problem is that I have to rename hundreds of filenames to 8.3 format when I copy them to SpartaDOS disk with MakeATR. You might try TAR 1.5 (on SpartaDOS X Toolkit ATR). IIRC, it has some provision for mapping long filenames onto 8+3. I.e. you first tar your files on the PC (using f.e. the Total Commander), copy it the usual way to Atari hard drive, and untar there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 If you move files (or .ATRs) into a Mirror folder, you can get Windows to convert the longnames by "DIR/x>dirlist.dat". Change the CR/LF to $9B and you end up with a file of both longnames and 8.3 names that take very little tweaking with the Atari. Now, you can copy all the files (or .ATRs) from the Atari side while you eat dinner. I think a good place to keep the longname/8.3name would be in the 'closet' - those sectors at the end of a partition that cannot be used by DOS. Do a SuperDIR on them to see what's on your HDD... Bob What is the easier way to copy many files from PC to IDE+? I made a 16MB SpartaDOS disk with MakeATR PC program, I copied files on it, I attached it to Atari with SIO2SD and I copied files with copy command (it is amazing to see the speed of IDE+ compared to SIO2SD). The biggest problem is that I have to rename hundreds of filenames to 8.3 format when I copy them to SpartaDOS disk with MakeATR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 I'm not real Sparta-savvy, but can't you use APE's PC Mirror to move your files? Even the "trail" version of APE supports copying files from the PC to the Atari (but not vice versa). You just put the files in a PC folder, select that folder from the Mirror and copy away to the IDE+2. The Atari just "sees" the Mirror as another drive, while APE does all the work. -Larry What is the easier way to copy many files from PC to IDE+? I made a 16MB SpartaDOS disk with MakeATR PC program, I copied files on it, I attached it to Atari with SIO2SD and I copied files with copy command (it is amazing to see the speed of IDE+ compared to SIO2SD). The biggest problem is that I have to rename hundreds of filenames to 8.3 format when I copy them to SpartaDOS disk with MakeATR. The problem with that is we are still limited to a max of 6k/sec over SIO. This is fine for small files, but copying over a 6MB WAV file or big collections of MODs for NEO-Tracker sucks bigtime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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