Breakthrough for the ao486 core announced - Cache

[lroby74]

Aladdin needs EMS memory via EMM386 in config.sys file but also a lot of free mem eaten by eatxms

[NightShadowPT]

After the CPU work, the video controller could use a lot of love too..

You’re in for a treat... (all of us are, really)

[lomdar67]

After the CPU work, the video controller could use a lot of love too..

But please in a new thread. This one here is getting more and more chaotic by the day. Especially for newcomers there is nothing more annoying than threats that are longer that arround 5 pages.

[Threepwood]

After the CPU work, the video controller could use a lot of love too..

You’re in for a treat... (all of us are, really)

Sounds like you know more about what's to come?

[NightShadowPT]

Sounds like you know more about what's to come?

I don’t have any insight information, but Sorgelig just published an image teasing SVGA on the Facebook page...

[ericgus09]

After the CPU work, the video controller could use a lot of love too..

You’re in for a treat... (all of us are, really)

Sounds like you know more about what's to come?

Gifted insight..

[ericgus09]

Sounds like you know more about what's to come?

I don’t have any insight information, but Sorgelig just published an image teasing SVGA on the Facebook page...

Btw I posted that comment before the FB post

[breiztiger]

setblaster from wolfenstein 3d only work to recognise SB on repo ao486 core, not on cache?? core

[friendly.joe]

Yes, newer beta cores are having FM sound issues atm.
However, some games work with complete sound on Windows 95's MS-DOS Window (e.g. DOOM) (full screened), some do work well on DOS (Magic Carpet). Let's wait and see The resulting core would be wonderful.

[Schyz]

Actually, fast machines can cause FM issues on real hardware, also detection issues. Lowering core speed to 15MHz might not be enough (*) for some games, maybe we need an option to switch L1/L2 Cache off.

*(I cannot test 15MHz because it makes my CRT monitor go out of its frequency range even with the VGA scaler turned on, I'm using I/O board)

[breiztiger]

When i was child i have a 486dx2-66 without issue with Sound blaser card ...

[suverman]

I have a 486dx100 no problems with FM sound at all.

[Beeble]

Neither my 486DX 50 nor my Pentium I 90Mhz had that issue. Soundblaster Pro with Wavetable, also never heard of that issue actually.

[ToothbrushThreepwood]

Sounds like you know more about what's to come?

I don’t have any insight information, but Sorgelig just published an image teasing SVGA on the Facebook page...

Btw I posted that comment before the FB post

For those not on facebook, this was the teaser image:

8307A5EE-3CB7-46B1-8208-E350F1361E99.jpeg (317.28 KiB) Viewed 10701 times

And yeah, the last month has moved the performance of the core from state of the art 1987 to 1993. Extremely impressive.

[Preazics]

"fast machines" = 160MHz and above, because the bus speed is faster than the ISA-Specs (I've read in vogons-forum sometime).

[Beeble]

ISA Bus speed was 8Mhz, VLB up to 50Mhz (only safe up to 40Mhz) and PCI afaik 33Mhz, so how does a 160CPU interfere with that?

[Coffea]

guess this is going to answer the question "would you download a graphics card"

[bazza_12]

I love that background picture..

[dshadoff]

And yeah, the last month has moved the performance of the core from state of the art 1987 to 1993. Extremely impressive.

I think this is a useful way to consider what the core does - as there are so many different types of specifications about its contents... and hardware from that time period was itself so variable.

It's useful because software of that time period was targetting a range of configurations; for example, software from 1999 was not targetting this configuration, so don't expect it to run. Software from 1993-94 are candidates.

It's also useful to think of it this way, because of what was "possible" versus what was easy/to be expected:
- Internet access was not yet commonplace, and was barely possible (and very finicky to set up). Don't expect SL/IP or PPP to be easy. It was hell back in the day.
- Software stability was always a concern, as memory managers were layered on top of each other and didn't aways play nicely
- Programming practices were not what they are today - many Windows applications were distributed with different runtime libraries, and it was common for an existing, stable application to become unstable because the version installed as part of another application, was incompatible with the first application. This was immortalized with VB6, but existed previously.

But most of all, because the internet was nascent at that time, it might be difficult to find documented solutions to problems by searching the internet...

[Schyz]

When i was child i have a 486dx2-66 without issue with Sound blaser card ...

I have a 486dx100 no problems with FM sound at all.

Neither my 486DX 50 nor my Pentium I 90Mhz had that issue. Soundblaster Pro with Wavetable, also never heard of that issue actually.

Guys, remember that the fps in Doom is not the same as the bus speed for the Sound Card, it might be like a 486SX for some things, but it might be much faster for others. Maybe with another implementation of the VGA controller this turns out to have Pentium speeds, maybe this adaptor is actually much faster than anything from the DOS era, I don't know, but speed is something to consider.

Anyway, here some examples of speed-induced issues in sound:

http://sierrahelp.com/Patches-Updates/P ... ivers.html (this one, actually, I can reproduce on ao486_Cache16)
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=28208
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=28152

[Beeble]

True, and some Games already run faster then on an 486, some are performing below expectations, I do have an IT background but no clue about x86 implementation a´la Boch in Mister. Not sure if Bus Speed is even taken into consideration

[flynnsbit]

So I don't know if it will affect other games, but I got Wolfenstein 3-D and Doom to launch with Sound Blaster support and Music on Cache20 by setting speed to 30MHz and then running Wolf3d, then select the Sound -- SB settings, then switch back to 100Mhz for full speed and it runs just fine from there. Video example of Doom and Wolf3d showing the behavior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OC6-MZf5VM

[tlaloc]

So I don't know if it will affect other games, but I got Wolfenstein 3-D and Doom to launch with Sound Blaster support and Music on Cache20 by setting speed to 30MHz and then running Wolf3d, then select the Sound -- SB settings, then switch back to 100Mhz for full speed and it runs just fine from there. Video example of Doom and Wolf3d showing the behavior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OC6-MZf5VM

I don't know how you pulled this off on Cache20.
I tried like you showed and got the music+soundFX to work, but when I turned it back up to 100Mhz the music and sound effects all sped up.
Here are the steps I took:
1.) Loaded ao486 'Cache20' with MS-DOS 6.2 vhd starting at 30Mhz
2.) Loaded Doom
3.) Heard the music and sound effects at normal rate, then when I went to switch to 100Mhz, EVERYTHING sped up.

Did you set up dos in any special way? QEMM or EMS Memory in CONFIG.SYS?
When I tried starting the core at 100Mhz, then switching to a crawling 30Mhz to see if the music starts, all I get are slowed down sound effects, but not music.

On a side note: I used specific CONFIG.SYS DEVICE=C:\EMM386.EXE * parameters from the following post to get Tie Fighter to work w/ extended memory. Once I figured out how to get the mouse to load (cheated and used CTMOUSE), I turned the Music ON and then both Music & SoundFX worked:
https://www.misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?p=3272#p3272

[flynnsbit]

I am using Windows 95 but shutting it down in Dos Mode (Start Shutdown- Reboot to MS-DOS) not runnning in a Dos shell.

Config.SYS
FILES=40
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF
DOS=high,umb
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\emm386.exe 8000 RAM FRAME=E000 D=256 X=A000-C7FF I=C800-EFFF
DEVICEHIGH=C:\SB\DRV\CTSB2.SYS /UNIT=0 /BLASTER=A:240 I:7 D:1
DEVICEHIGH=C:\SB\DRV\CTMMSYS.SYS

autoexec.bat
C:\WINDOWS\net start
REM C:\WINDOWS\net start
SET SOUND=C:\SB
SET BLASTER=A240 I7 D1 T3
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E
@ECHO OFF
SET PCPLUS=C:\PCPLUS
PROMPT $p$g
REM ** SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6
LH C:\dos\ctmouse.exe
PATH C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM;C:\DOS
SET TEMP=C:\DOS


Nothing too crazy in here. A couple of notes from a discussion on Facebook. I am running the MiSTer file that came with the Cache20 download, but I am still using the release boot0 and boot1 roms. And then a Windows 95 install on the SD card.

[robng15]

This looks like the patch we've been waiting for. Many thanks to sorgelig and FPGAzumapass!

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/ao486_M ... 94c36f77fd

[IAmParadox]

Now, we need someone to compile the latest... on another note, I'm still having issues running anything above 56mhz, it completely freezes at 100mhz and randomly at 90mhz, I am beginning to think I have a bad de 10 board, or, something. anyone know of a hardware check program for the board? or, some way to test the hardware.

[Schyz]

This looks like the patch we've been waiting for. Many thanks to sorgelig and FPGAzumapass!

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/ao486_M ... 94c36f77fd

SVGA is going to make a lot of games available, fantastic news! Looking forward to run Sim City 2000 on MiSTer.

[flynnsbit]

This looks like the patch we've been waiting for. Many thanks to sorgelig and FPGAzumapass!

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/ao486_M ... 94c36f77fd

Does this mean VESA support as well? What driver would that be?

[bertnorg]

my guess would be a Tseng Labs ET4000

[JUNKER Seed]

my guess would be a Tseng Labs ET4000

You’d guess correct. That was the driver referenced in Sorg’s screenshot preview.