Sega Saturn Core in Development

[musashi73]

Can you write exactly what version you are using? Rom, Bios, Rbf? I have the same Ram 2x128mb

[lamarax]

Check if your SDRAM cards are exactly the same, or possibly bought separately, and if they've been tested under stress

I'm using an official XSDRAM issue 2.9 board on GPIO0, and my originally bought 128 MB 2.5 version on GPIO1. Newer one tests @ 150 Mhz stable, and the older one @ ~143 Mhz. No hiccup whatsoever. As long as chips are the same, there should be no problem regarding timings.

[Edit] Here's a handy utility to test your GPIO1 mounted board, without the need to manually switch around, by none other than our own @aberu (aka birdybro):

2ndrammemtest_20220315.zip

(654.37 KiB) Downloaded 239 times

[ntt]

Agreed
With stable cores a hard freeze is likely a hardware issue, and probably RAM-related (and/or heat-related, sometimes)
In this case the core is so preliminary that it could be just about anything.... checking the SDRAM boards may offer a clue, anyway
Thanks for the testing tool!

I'm using an official XSDRAM issue 2.9 board on GPIO0, and my originally bought 128 MB 2.5 version on GPIO1. Newer one tests @ 150 Mhz stable, and the older one @ ~143 Mhz. No hiccup whatsoever. As long as chips are the same, there should be no problem regarding timings.

[Edit] Here's a handy utility to test your GPIO1 mounted board, without the need to manually switch around, by none other than our own @aberu (aka birdybro)

[musashi73]

My tests

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[Vendest]

Radiant Silvergun runs fine at my end too. Although I did not spend more than 30 minutes on it.
- Dual SRAM v2.9
- Saturn_DS_20220930
- Bios JP v1.01
- Game MD5 1b5dc4600c09e06e448c30dedcf69d22

[TobyRieper]

I have one of those odd 4 chip antonio vilenna boards too. Cant get many saturn games to work. I can get Die Hard arcade to run. Thinking of sellling it for official RAM.

[Hodor]

I have one of those odd 4 chip antonio vilenna boards too. Cant get many saturn games to work. I can get Die Hard arcade to run. Thinking of sellling it for official RAM.

I suggest you not selling it until the core reaches maturity. Now it´s in alpha stage.

[TobyRieper]

I have one of those odd 4 chip antonio vilenna boards too. Cant get many saturn games to work. I can get Die Hard arcade to run. Thinking of sellling it for official RAM.

I suggest you not selling it until the core reaches maturity. Now it´s in alpha stage.

Groovy. Thanks It works fine with everything else ive thrown at it

[Neocaron]

I have one of those odd 4 chip antonio vilenna boards too. Cant get many saturn games to work. I can get Die Hard arcade to run. Thinking of sellling it for official RAM.

I suggest you not selling it until the core reaches maturity. Now it´s in alpha stage.

Groovy. Thanks It works fine with everything else ive thrown at it

Agreed!

[Xbytez]

srg320 has posted a work in progress YouTube update for the core.

Main: Rework CD drive. Now the following games are running: Doom, Dragon Force, Galaxy Fight, Last Bronx.

VDP1:
-add interlace support

VDP2:
-add interlace support
-fix Sprite window
-fix shadow

SCSP:
-fixes to PCM
-add support for DSP

[Neocaron]

The new version of the Core is also live on github!

[FPGA64]

Single and Dual Ram attached, fresh from the Build job

[musashi73]

Today I updated the newest core and unfortunately there are still problems with many games on SdRam v3.0. This Ram is an absolute failure. I advise against anyone buying this crap!

[Jeruro]

I can't boot any game with the Antonio Villena's SDRAM.

[PixelCherryNinja]

Does anyone know if Castlevania SotN works yet?

[FPGA64]

what is sdram 3.0? The latest official ram is V2.9

[jordi]

I tried both dual ram and single ram and I haven't noticed any difference. It's it any?

[ntt]

what is sdram 3.0? The latest official ram is V2.9

In theory yes AFAIK, but recent samples from a reputable supplier in Europe sport v3.0 on their PCB, and seem to show a slightly different layout of components on the board (see pictures from musashi73 some posts earlier in this thread)
For the record I have two of those SDRAM boards on one MiSTer and have found no issue at all with them, go figure.

I'm wondering if the bumped up revision might have something to do with JT's remarks in this oldish post...
That post BTW perfectly explains why many users often face issues with SDRAMs

[phillai]

I can't boot any game with the Antonio Villena's SDRAM.

I have the same problem as well!
If you get this resolved please let me know!!

[Neocaron]

I can't boot any game with the Antonio Villena's SDRAM.

I have the same problem as well!
If you get this resolved please let me know!!

Funny enough I had more game booting with the previews version of the core running on Antonio' Mister and sdram. With this one most games don't boot.
But again it's pre alpha alpha alpha stuff. So you can either wait for the core to be in a betaish state to see how it goes, or just buy new ram now.
In my case, I'm just gonna wait.

[neogeo81]

Did you all update the Mister Main also... some folks forgot that part

[Neocaron]

latest unstable Main or latest stable build?

[Tulius]

Sega Ages: Power Drift works very well here with very minor glichtes and very good sounds(music and sfx) in the latest Saturn core update.

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[InfernoHabanero]

Just a random question related to the SEGA Saturn core, but would it be possible to also make it compatible with SEGA Titan Video (ST-V) arcade games?

From what I understand, the arcade hardware is identical to a SEGA Saturn, with the only difference being that it used cartridges instead of CDs. So hypothetically games like the SEGA Titan Video versions of Puyo Puyo SUN, Cotton 2, Puzzle & Action: Treasure Hunt, etc. should work on the same core.

The SEGA Titan Video did have a handful of exclusives, and the SEGA Titan Video versions of SEGA Saturn games did have differences, so it might be worth considering.

[phillai]

Did you all update the Mister Main also... some folks forgot that part

Yup, fully updated.

[lamarax]

I can't boot any game with the Antonio Villena's SDRAM.

I hate to have been "prophetic" at an unsuspected time, but here we are; sticking to the official specs of the project, at least as far as the main hardware components are concerned, will keep you on the safe side regarding future developments based on the given MiSTer platform.

[Neocaron]

I can't boot any game with the Antonio Villena's SDRAM.

I hate to have been "prophetic" at an unsuspected time, but here we are; sticking to the official specs of the project, at least as far as the main hardware components are concerned, will keep you on the safe side regarding future developments based on the given MiSTer platform.

Since no other core have problems with Antonio's ram (PSX included) I don't think it's fair to say that just yet. The current Saturn core is in such early state that every variation in design counts, but I don't expect the final core to have any issue. I also want to mention, that a core like the Ao486 is actually more stable at over 100mhz with Antonio's setup (mine anyway) than my friends Mister which can't use the core at this frequency without regular crashes. He has different ram module and different Mister altogether, so I don't know if that's why, but I just wanted to point this out.

[pac]

Radiant Silvergun frozen...I have a dual RAM

RSG freezes for me too after some time. Single RAM. I wouldn't think too much about it, the core is in an early phase after all.

[dshadoff]

what is sdram 3.0? The latest official ram is V2.9

In theory yes AFAIK, but recent samples from a reputable supplier in Europe sport v3.0 on their PCB, and seem to show a slightly different layout of components on the board (see pictures from musashi73 some posts earlier in this thread)
For the record I have two of those SDRAM boards on one MiSTer and have found no issue at all with them, go figure.

I'm wondering if the bumped up revision might have something to do with JT's remarks in this oldish post...
That post BTW perfectly explains why many users often face issues with SDRAMs

That would depend on a lot of factors, but in no case should somebody be referring to their board as "official" and "v3.0" except if released here: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Hardwar ... r/releases. As you can see, there is no official 3.0 release at this time.
When/if there is, that board will not be official.

The thread you refer to, has a lot to do with capacitor values/placement, soldering work, and power supplied to the board (note: that is not necessarily a reflection of the system's power supply). I am not aware of any vendor who revised their board layout for the reasons stated in that thread - however, it did seem to have an effect on which brands of capacitors to avoid and which capacitor values to place at which specific locations on the board.
Separately, as I recall, Jotego also revised how his controller worked to further reduce issues.

It's still too early to tell whether the Saturn's SDRAM controller will (or can) be altered to accommodate the non-standard SDRAM cards, but there is no obligation to do so.

[ntt]

I haven't knowingly bought SDRAM v3.0, I've discovered that my recent MiSTer came with boards labeled as such when trying to help a user on this thread.
Actually I can't complain about these "v3.0" SDRAM boards, regardless of their revision number they work fine for me with any MiSTer cores, including Saturn, to the point that I assumed they were the usual v2.9 until I've opened the MiSTer case.
At a minimum these SDRAM boards would appear to be functionally equivalent to the v2.9 ones I have in an older mister of mine, now I'm curious to learn how the v3.0 boards were born and what differences they have -if any - compared to the official v2.9

PS: sorry about the off-topic, this discussion is about Saturn cores not SDRAM HW details...

That would depend on a lot of factors, but in no case should somebody be referring to their board as "official" and "v3.0" except if released here: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Hardwar ... r/releases. As you can see, there is no official 3.0 release at this time.
When/if there is, that board will not be official.

The thread you refer to, has a lot to do with capacitor values/placement, soldering work, and power supplied to the board (note: that is not necessarily a reflection of the system's power supply). I am not aware of any vendor who revised their board layout for the reasons stated in that thread - however, it did seem to have an effect on which brands of capacitors to avoid and which capacitor values to place at which specific locations on the board.
Separately, as I recall, Jotego also revised how his controller worked to further reduce issues.

It's still too early to tell whether the Saturn's SDRAM controller will (or can) be altered to accommodate the non-standard SDRAM cards, but there is no obligation to do so.