rapidus - correct sequence of upgrading

[patjomki]

Hi there,

 

I try to upgrade my rapidus.

 

Therefore I downloaded the following files from @drac030's website at: :: drac030.atari8.info (krap.pl)

 

http://drac030.krap.pl/xlos-20210906.arc

http://drac030.krap.pl/flnd6502.arc

http://drac030.krap.pl/mrom12.arc

 

I also downloaded the upgrade instruction von @lotharek's site: 

rapidus_upgarde_instruction (lotharek.pl)

 

When I press the INVERSE key and Reset I get into rapidus configuration menu revision 1.0 from Nov. 15, 2016 and core version 6S9054E

 

As I understood there are no new core versions.

 

When I open update.txt from the file mrom12.arc it says:

 

"HOW TO UPDATE›-------------››The PBI0.ROM file is the contents of the Rapidus PBI#0 device ROM. It is programmed into the FPGA chip. You cannot update it easily.››But, before updating other ROMs, please make sure first that your Rapidus board's FPGA contains (and provides) this code.››You can make the PBI#0 available in the CPU address space by writing a value of $01 into the $D1FF register.››You have to do it at the machine language level, because BASIC will hang when you write a nonzero value to $D1FF (yes, even the Turbo-BASIC XL - but owning the Rapidus accelerator board you can use MultiBASIC for this task).››Once done, you can compare the contents of that ROM with the PBI0.ROM. When you are *damn* sure that there are differences there, please contact the reseller."

 

Actually I don't know what that means. Can anyone of you help?

Edited August 7, 2023 by patjomki

[_The Doctor__]

sounds like you have to update the FPGA chip first to PBIO.ROM

Verify it is updated and working with MultiBASIC by writing the $01 value to $D1FF

as you can then verify that the update took by comparing what you see in the actual operating system space to the PBIO rom... if they are different try again or contact the reseller so they can do it or handle the situation if defective.

 

using any other BASIC will result in a lock up/issues so use MultiBASIC on the Rapidus

 

Edited August 7, 2023 by _The Doctor__

[patjomki]

Thanks for trying to help.

 

So if I understood correctly I have to set $d1ff to 1 either with a machine language program or in MultiBasic. Then I have to dump memory area $c000-$ffff to a file and do a byte compare with pbi0.rom?

 

_TheDoctor_ the following is NOT adressed to you I am glad that you tried to help.

 

Well, the above mentioned procedure is what I call user friendly. Not a surprise that rapidus isn't widely spread.

[patjomki]

  

39 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said:

You understood well, but of course I meant to type 'ameliorated' instead of 'exercerbated'.  Apologies!

 

Generally: isn't there an existing Rapidus thread for this discussion? Or Perhaps Piotr could make a new one about the 'O2 Fixer' so that the AVG thread doesn't have to be hijacked. Just an idea.

 

O.k. As flashjazzcat likes to obfuscate 😇 things for us non native speakers by using uncommon 😀 words I just want to make sure that using rapidus for a longer period of time (several hours in a row) doesn't harm the sally cpu. Is this right?

 

If it could harm the cpu would adding a heat sink help and where should it go as I am using ADAPTUS 800XL 6502C that sits on top of sally?

Edited August 14, 2023 by patjomki

[flashjazzcat]

13 minutes ago, patjomki said:

I just want to make sure that using rapidus for a longer period of time (several hours in a row) doesn't harm the sally cpu. Is this right?

No-one has reported permanent damage to the 6502 AFAIK. The only thing my heatsink did was (apparently) delay onset of the 'unwanted coldstart' issue on an U1MB system, and that issue can (probably) be worked around by deactivating Rapidus entirely when you want to run in 6502 mode.

Edited August 14, 2023 by flashjazzcat

[patjomki]

Great. Good to read. So I continue using rapidus only in 65c816 mode like I already did before. 👍

[flashjazzcat]

13 minutes ago, patjomki said:

Great. Good to read. So I continue using rapidus only in 65c816 mode like I already did before.

I was talking to someone about this the other night and an accelerated Antonia would probably suit a lot of users who have spare machines for those situations which require an original SALLY CPU. Not that running the CPU and RAM at a higher speed than the rest of the bus is a trivial undertaking in itself, but it might be a lot less complex than Rapidus.

[Piotr D. Kaczorowski]

4 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

I was talking to someone about this the other night and an accelerated Antonia would probably suit a lot of users who have spare machines for those situations which require an original SALLY CPU. Not that running the CPU and RAM at a higher speed than the rest of the bus is a trivial undertaking in itself, but it might be a lot less complex than Rapidus.

 

The Warsaw stories on this subject (where Simius, Draco, and I live) are such that it will simply be Antonia, which will run at a higher speed than 1.77Mhz - perhaps 14Mhz, as in the WDC specification. I don't know if it's supposed to be on two processors. Nevertheless, I have been preparing for such projects since the beginning of the year, hence my interest in clock signals and the subsequent creation of O2/Fixer. All in all, it's a bit like only now, after 20 years, my knowledge from my studies is coming in handy in practice.

[Piotr D. Kaczorowski]

@patjomki,

 

(copy-past from previous thread)

 

These processors are designed to work at this temperature. If you want a better feeling and a lower temperature, replace the processor with an NCR (maybe bought on eBay?) or buy a heat sink like this:

https://www.reichelt.com/pl/pl/radiator-19-times-4-8-times-51-mm-do-dil-ic-ick-40-b-p164362.html

 

I've just checked that 100kHz is the minimum frequency for the NMOS 6502, so maybe I will consider designing an adapter for Sally that will lower the frequency when in HLT mode.

 

111.86078125kHz is the 14.31818 MHz / 128. That frequency and that binary divider could be nice choice. 

[flashjazzcat]

22 minutes ago, Piotr D. Kaczorowski said:

it will simply be Antonia, which will run at a higher speed

So exactly what I suggested. Nice.

[Piotr D. Kaczorowski]

@flashjazzcat,

 

Curiously, the simplest solution would be to make an adapter for Teensy 4.1 (or RPI2040) and load into it one or two processor cores, all the RAM, ROM, and (E)MMU, Ultimate 1MB + SIDE3.x, and use the Atari board as IO ports.

 

Another interesting solution, which I'm also discussing with Draco as a software developer, is to create a card that will fit into the Antic socket, leaving the CPU socket completely empty. On the card inserted instead of Antic, there would be the entire Turbo + VBXE. Then the fast processor would have full access to video memory. It would also be great to use dual-port memory, at least in the first 64KB. Then the zero page and stack would operate at full speed and fully asynchronously for both processors.

[patjomki]

I was able to update all the necessary files on my rapidus and everything is running fine so I want to share my experience with you all.

 

Important: You need SpartaDOS X to upgrade your rapidus. And everything needs to be done with rapidus ENABLED.

 

First of all make sure that you have core version 6S9054E. Press RESET+INVERS then SPACE to find out your core version (thanks to flashjazzcat for the tip). This is the latest core and all production boards (white) came/come with this core version. If you have an older core version I can't help here as my rapidus was already equipped with this version.

 

DON'T upgrade if you don't have this core version installed.

 

Then you have to download two files from drac030's site at

 :: drac030.atari8.info (krap.pl):

and one at 

:: drac030.atari8.info (krap.pl) because at the first link the latest 65C816 XL OS (v. 2.44) isn't available only at the second. These are the necessary files with direct links.

 

• Rapidus core booter 1.1
• http://drac030.krap.pl/flnd6502.arc

 

• Rapidus BIOS + Menu 1.2
• http://drac030.krap.pl/mrom12.arc

 

• 65C816 XL OS
• http://drac030.krap.pl/xlos-20230524.arc

 

After that you have to depack the above mentioned files. I used the following program for depacking in windows but there are also depackers on the ATARI itself:

https://www.izarc.org/

 

Put the following files on a disk (DOS version doesn't matter, even on a DOS 2.0 disk there is enough space).

 

FLND6502.COM

RCLR.COM

RFLASH.COM

MODULE.ROM

FLASHOS.COM

XLOS816.ROM

 

Start SpartaDOS X and mount the disk where you copied your files to.

 

Upgrade in the following order - type at SpartaDOS X prompt:

1. flnd6502
2. flashos xlos816.rom
3. rclr
4. rflash module.rom

ATTENTION! After step two the computer resets automatically without giving any information that flashing was succesful. I found this irritating but it works that way.

 

After you finished all the four steps above power cycle your ATARI, press RESET-INVERSE and then SPACE.

 

You should read:

Rapidus Configuration Menu Revision 1.2, 29 Feb. 2020:

 

Congratulations!

In order to find out which version of XLOS816 is installed just use the following basic program

 

10 OPEN #1,4,0,"@:SYSDEF"
20 FOR I=0 TO 9
30 GET #1,K1
40 ? K1
50 NEXT I
100 CLOSE #1

 

Output should be:

36 (Comment: that's $24 - day)

5   (Comment: that's $05 - month)

35 (Comment: that's $23 - year)

3

68 (Comment: that's $44 -> D)

68 (Comment: that's $44 -> D)

0

0

2 (major version no.)

44 (minor version no.)

 

or use ::drac030:: latest SysInfo:

http://drac030.krap.pl/si226.arc

 

In the end this means that you have v.2.44 from 24th may 2023 installed. Congratulations again!

 

To find out which version of the core booter is installed I don't know yet.

 

DISCLAIMER: Although this procedure worked flawlessly with my setup and it only took a couple of minutes I am not responsible for any damage that is done when you follow these instructions.

 

Edit: Correction of SpartaDOS->SpartaDOS X

Edited August 27, 2023 by patjomki

[Piotr D. Kaczorowski]

1 hour ago, patjomki said:

Important: You need spartaDOS to upgrade your rapidus. And everything needs to be done with rapidus ENABLED.

 

 

You need SpartaDOS X, not SpartaDOS. The rest is okay. I've just spoken with Draco.

 

Best,

Peter

[patjomki]

Thanks for the correction Piotr.

 

SpartaDOS X of course.

[Albert]

6 minutes ago, patjomki said:

Thanks for the correction Piotr.

 

SpartaDOS X of course.

You can now edit your post to correct that.

 

 ..Al

[Piotr D. Kaczorowski]

.

Edited August 26, 2023 by Piotr D. Kaczorowski

[patjomki]

Update: Corrected it in the original text.

[drac030]

1 hour ago, patjomki said:

After step two the computer resets automatically without giving any information that flashing was succesful. I found this very irritating but it works that way.

Well, this step is reflashing the ROM containing the active OS. So after it is done, all the system information in RAM (vectors for interrupts, CIO etc.) are invalid, the only thing to do is to reboot.

[patjomki]

I understand that, perhaps an information for the user before flashing starts is possible? 🙃😃

Edited August 26, 2023 by patjomki

[drac030]

Well, yes, this tool is rather crude (look at the date: 14 November 2013, early prototype stage of Rapidus). I will probably have to find the source code, but apart from adding some message beforehand and "Press a key to proceed", nothing much more can be done, I guess.

 

[Piotr D. Kaczorowski]

14 minutes ago, patjomki said:

I understand that, perhaps an information for the user before flashing starts is possible? 🙃😃

Now, it is here.. on AtariAge   

 

@patjomki,

 

Add in the original text, 'This is the place where 'PRESS A KEY TO PROCEED' could appear'

 

Edited August 26, 2023 by Piotr D. Kaczorowski

[patjomki]

19 minutes ago, drac030 said:

Well, yes, this tool is rather crude (look at the date: 14 November 2013, early prototype stage of Rapidus). I will probably have to find the source code, but apart from adding some message beforehand and "Press a key to proceed", nothing much more can be done, I guess.

 

 

Hope you find the source code. 👍 For me a message beforehand would be enough like "Information: after flashing the computer resets".

I really thought something went wrong during flashing so that the computer reset on accident and not on purpose. 🤣

 

Well, it is just a problem for first time users. Next time I hope I remember how the program works.

Edited August 26, 2023 by patjomki

[drac030]

23 minutes ago, patjomki said:

Hope you find the source code.

I found it. It has some sort of "Press a key to proceed"... commented out. I probably found the message and the additional keypress irritating.

 

It is not a thing one is doing every day, so maybe it is enough to write the relevant information into the FLASHOS.TXT file.

[Piotr D. Kaczorowski]

@patjomki,

 

I've just upgraded Rapidus firmware as well.

 

Here is the ATR (SDX format) file with all tools up-to-date for Jan 14, 2024.  

 

 

A. Press INS+RESET and select Sweet 16 mode - 65C816 processor at regular Atari speed. 

 

B. Repeated procedure from SDX (in my case loaded from Ultimate Cart as ROM cart, ATR mounted as D1: via Fujinet):

1. flnd6502
2. flashos xlos816.rom
3. rclr
4. rflash module.rom

 

C. Check

1.  Press INS+RESET and set "System ROM Rapidus"

2. Turn on BASIC and write the program that was mentioned before.

 

 

 

rapidus_14012024.atr

[Peri Noid]

2 hours ago, Piotr D. Kaczorowski said:

Repeated procedure from SDX (in my case loaded from Ultimate Cart as ROM cart, ATR mounted as D1: via Fujinet):

1. flnd6502
2. flashos xlos816.rom
3. rclr
4. rflash module.rom

Seems to work fine. Although the reboot after step 2 is a bit... unexpected.

Edited January 14 by Peri Noid