#AdSpeed & GVP Series II
8 messages in this thread
To ICD: HI…..I purchased AdSpeed at the show in Toronto in November. Just
this past week I got a 52M SCSI GVP Impact Series II…. When AdSpeed is
running at 14MHz, it screws up the hard drive (I get a series of "Error
reading drive DH0:" and when it turn it off, e(the AdSPeed) everything
works fine. I know AdSpeed works by caching FAST RAM and not touching chip
ram. The setup utility (FAAASTPREP) that comes with the GVP HD lets you
select the type of memory that buffers are allocated from (Either, Fast, or
Chip) as well as an address mask to specify memory range that DMA transfers
can use. I tried to phone on Friday but I was too late…so I figure CServe
is just as efficient…. So, I set it up so that CHIP memory only was used
for the drive's buffers and restricted all SCSI data transfers to those
regions of memory that do support DMA (CHIP) by setting the mountlist
mask-parameter to 0x1FFFFF (chip memory only) from 0xFFFFFE.
The above I've basically copied out of the AdSpeed and GVP manuals.
WHen I did this, everything worked fine. However, using DPERF2, the
transfer rates were brutally slow (higher buffers made no difference at
all) …something on the order of 80K/s. When AdSpeed is off and I let my
harddrive use FAST RAM and reset the mask back to 0xFFFFFE, and use 32K
buffers, I get 800K/s.
Hopefully, you can understand what I'm trying to convey. Personally, I'd
rather have the faster transfer rates than the speed increase (which has
been marvelous up to now)…that's if I had to choose at gunpoint. Ideally,
I'd like to run AdSpeed AND have the HD work no problems with the high data
transfer rate.
Help?
Warren Briggs
Good thinking. You may have to stick with this for a little while, but not
for long.
What computer is this connected to? There could be another problem other
than the main one I am about to discuss.
Anyway, with the new GVP Series II, when you have RAM on the same board as
the host adapter, they do direct DMA on the board, not doing the normal
handshaking with the CPU for DMA. Since AdSpeed is never told that DMA is
happening, it doesn't invalidate the cached data (which it is designed to
do to remain compatible with DMA devices). We contacted GVP and a solution
exists, or will sortly. FROM GVP, you need to get ROM release 4.10 or
higher (it may or may not be available now) and a program that, at least in
the beta version we got, was named sii-icdpatch. You then jumper AdSpeed
to boot at 7MHz and, somewhere early in your startup-sequence, run the
program (redirecting i/o to/from NIL:. This program patches into a hook in
the new driver software and kills the AdSpeed cache during hard drive
access. GVP was very cooperative in working this out. Anyway, contact GVP
for the update.
If you have an Amiga 500, this is all you need. If you have a 2000, then
you need to have your AdSpeed modified. There is a bug in Buster that
improperly passes the DMA handshake sequence. By modifying the timing in
AdSpeed, we were able to overcome it. (By just touching buster with a
logic analyzer lead the problem was also fixed. You figure it out.)
Anyway, all but the first few AdSpeeds have this fix installed. If anyone
has a DMA host adapter in a 2000 and are having problems with AdSpeed
(there shouldn't be many) then we can fix it.
Craig
Does this mean that if I have a ram board separate (in another slot) from
the GVP Impact Series II controller, that I can expect no problems? (no RAM
on the HD controller card). Randy Monk
Thanks for the info. I have no idea what ROM release it is (I only got it
a week ago?) but it should be fairly recent. Will I get both the ROM (if
necessary) and the sii-ICDPATCH from GVP or can I get that from you ppl?
Warren Briggs, OVC'92
How about the first series GVP Impact 500? I have 2 Megs out of 4
installed in it.
– via Whap!
No problem, only the Series II. We confirmed at Amiga World Expo that they
will be releasing the ROM and program soon. Appears that the program has
changed, and that it will be parameters for the GVPMount program. Anyway,
there are some other things changed in it. They say price should be around
$20 for the upgrade.
Craig