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Ultimate Cart (SD multicart) - Technical thread


electrotrains

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Only improvement I can think of at the moment (the menu software is quite well done!) is speed. If I open a directory with a few subdirectories it is quick, but with say 15 directories it takes quite a long time to see those entries (there are lots of files UNDER those directories in some cases, but not at the level of the directories themselves). I can characterize this better for you/test things and PM you more info if you'd like.

 

Electrotrains might be better able to enlighten us on this, since the Atari-side software is basically just a client which asks the ARM chip to serve up directory entries. I don't think there's any recursive scanning going on, but perhaps you could make a video or something to better illustrate things. :)

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Electrotrains might be better able to enlighten us on this, since the Atari-side software is basically just a client which asks the ARM chip to serve up directory entries. I don't think there's any recursive scanning going on, but perhaps you could make a video or something to better illustrate things. :)

 

I suppose you meant the Altera Max10 (FPGA) chip. As far as i know ARM is only used in the UNO cart. I am just about to start assembling my Ultimate Cart and for a second you scared me thinking I purchased the wrong chip :)

Edited by gargoyle
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  • 1 year later...

I think its possible.

 

The jtag pins can be switched to io pins by enabling jtag pin sharing then setting jtagen appropriately. See notes here:

https://www.altera.com/en_US/pdfs/literature/dp/max-10/pcg-01018.pdf

 

Youll need to build a new core to enable jtag sharing and to reconnect the jtag pins in place of the other sd card ones.

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Another technical question:

 

The official description says:

'It supports most ROMs up to 1 megabyte in size, including standard 8k and 16k cartridges, XEGS, AtariMax 1 & 8 mbit ROMs'.

 

The limit of 1 MB, does it depend on the RAM amount?

 

Yes it has an 8mbit (1MB) static ram chip.

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  • 2 weeks later...

How can I know what firmware version I have on my ultimate cart, without disarming it? :?

 

regards

 

As far as I can remember, there have only been 3 versions of the firmware, and it should be fairly easy to tell which is which:

 

(1) The original firmware, with a basic text mode menu and no XEX loading. I sent out a few early carts with this firmware.

 

(2) A beta, with slightly buggy XEX loading and flashjazzcat's new menu (with Ultimate Cart logo at top). The info text at the bottom is green. I *think* Panos sent out a few carts with this firmware. See the picture at the top of this thread:

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/248846-ultimate-cart-firmware-now-with-xex-loading/

 

(3) The final XEX loading firmware, with flashjazzcat's new menu, and the bottom text in blue. Any cart purchased in the last couple of years should have this firmware.

 

Both (1) & (3) are on the project website at https://github.com/robinhedwards/UltimateCart/tree/master/Programming%20Files

 

Note that the cartridge emulation has been 100% since the first version - the updates simply relate to XEX loading and visual changes.

 

Roibn

Edited by electrotrains
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As far as I can remember, there have only been 3 versions of the firmware, and it should be fairly easy to tell which is which:

 

(1) The original firmware, with a basic text mode menu and no XEX loading. I sent out a few early carts with this firmware.

 

(2) A beta, with slightly buggy XEX loading and flashjazzcat's new menu (with Ultimate Cart logo at top). The info text at the bottom is green. I *think* Panos sent out a few carts with this firmware. See the picture at the top of this thread:

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/248846-ultimate-cart-firmware-now-with-xex-loading/

 

(3) The final XEX loading firmware, with flashjazzcat's new menu, and the bottom text in blue. Any cart purchased in the last couple of years should have this firmware.

 

Both (1) & (3) are on the project website at https://github.com/robinhedwards/UltimateCart/tree/master/Programming%20Files

 

Note that the cartridge emulation has been 100% since the first version - the updates simply relate to XEX loading and visual changes.

 

Roibn

thank you very much Robin for the explanation, then I have version 3.

 

now I have another question about the cartridge support, is there space in the firmware to add more types? also how can you help to add more types?

 

I thought that ultimate cart supported the same altirra cartridges, but it supports more.

 

regards

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All the soure code is on github. The first step is to download the Altera Quartus development software, and make sure you can build the code successfully.

 

You'll need to add the logic (in VHDL) for the new cartridge type to:

https://github.com/robinhedwards/UltimateCart/blob/master/Source/QuartusProject/Max10_SD/atari_rom.vhd

 

You'll also need to add the new cartridge type to the C source code for the soft-cpu that loads the CAR files from the SD card:

https://github.com/robinhedwards/UltimateCart/blob/master/Source/QuartusProject/Max10_SD/software/sdcard/ultimate.c

 

That's the basic idea, but feel free to PM for with any specific questions you have.

Anway hope this helps,

 

Robin

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All the soure code is on github. The first step is to download the Altera Quartus development software, and make sure you can build the code successfully.

 

You'll need to add the logic (in VHDL) for the new cartridge type to:

https://github.com/robinhedwards/UltimateCart/blob/master/Source/QuartusProject/Max10_SD/atari_rom.vhd

 

You'll also need to add the new cartridge type to the C source code for the soft-cpu that loads the CAR files from the SD card:

https://github.com/robinhedwards/UltimateCart/blob/master/Source/QuartusProject/Max10_SD/software/sdcard/ultimate.c

 

That's the basic idea, but feel free to PM for with any specific questions you have.

Anway hope this helps,

 

Robin

 

Hi Robin,

 

Thank you very much for the explanation, I just did not understand what I really needed to start with. since all the code is in github, but there are no basic indications for people who do not know this development environment. :-D

 

Right now I send you a PM with some doubts.

 

Regards

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