Alright, I've dragged my 31KHz monitor out. The core displays fine out of the box, just need to change Aspect Ratio to Full Screen as per usual.
IMG-20220731-213721.jpg (7.27 MiB) Viewed 8529 times
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 4:52 am
by MicroCoreLabs
Archon is my favorite game, and one of the first programs I try when testing a new core! I enjoy watching the demo to see who wins: The computer or the computer!
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 12:47 pm
by Mills
Chol wrote: ↑Sun Jul 31, 2022 3:33 pm
Thanks for your input so far. I had no success with the CBM PC-I, but I got the CBM PC-10 BIOS to boot after padding the file with 32kb of zeros at the beginning:
pcxt-pc10.jpg
So that was half a success. I learned that this is not a good idea at all and will stop further approaches.
I tried that bios and I inserted the xtide at the first 12kb, it boots and tells me to press f1, then it should start xtide and load the img, But keyboard is not working .
Chol wrote: ↑Sun Jul 31, 2022 3:33 pm
Thanks for your input so far. I had no success with the CBM PC-I, but I got the CBM PC-10 BIOS to boot after padding the file with 32kb of zeros at the beginning:
pcxt-pc10.jpg
So that was half a success. I learned that this is not a good idea at all and will stop further approaches.
I tried that bios and I inserted the xtide at the first 12kb, it boots and tells me to press f1, then it should start xtide and load the img, But keyboard is not working .
I guess that computer doesn't have an special feature like Tandy has, so better use 86box for it as commented before.
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:26 am
by Mills
kitune-san wrote: ↑Wed Jul 27, 2022 3:35 pm
@spark2k06
Timing constraint violations have been overlooked for a long time.
I have a suggestion to resolve the timing constraint violation.
I have considered two methods. You can choose one or the other.
I compiled both versions.
1. The 50mhz one, worked as the previous versions, and landmark test showed a 4.99mhz 8088 . There are still some volume issues with the opl2 chip.
2.This second version has an issue because pc speaker and opl2 produce distorted noises.
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 6:45 am
by spark2k06
I have updated the prebeta 2.0 branch with all the changes proposed by @newsdee regarding the video, plus those proposed by @kitune-san with the 50Mhz chipset, which is the one I have observed to be more stable:
Also remember that in order to use the OSD's integrated disk image selection option, you need to use the modified Main_MiSTer with integrated serdrive:
The ghost line problem in Tandy 320x200x16 mode, a common problem in the original Graphics Gremlin project on which it is based, has not yet been solved.
Below is a video of the Area 5150 demo run in this PCXT project for MiSTer:
MrMartian wrote: ↑Thu Jul 28, 2022 6:28 pm
I will toss my hat in and say I'm working on adding true IDE support compatible with XT-IDE to this. VHDL/Verilog I understand, the MiSTer framework for accessing data I'm still reading through...
Have you made any progress on this, I haven't wanted to make any improvements to the serdrive integrated in Main yet because I was waiting to see if IDE was available, and it would be work that would be discarded.
no_ghost_lines_tandy.jpg (153.62 KiB) Viewed 7716 times
Soon, I will revise the latest stable version of the 1.5 turbo prebeta, to add this improvement.
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 5:14 pm
by somhi
Great improvements @spark2k06!!!
I'm adapting those to Sockit (MiSTer) and NeptUNO (DeMiSTify).
By the way, congratulations to Kitune-San. Last changes in prebeta 2.0 reduces considerably the worst case slack timings.
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 5:16 pm
by MicroCoreLabs
Below is a video of the Area 5150 demo run in this PCXT project for MiSTer:
I'm happy to see that the MCL86 is able to run this new demo for the most part.
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2022 5:35 pm
by wark91
Thanks ! It is great !
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:20 am
by somhi
I'm having good vibrations on the new core since prebeta 2.0 changes which led to more relaxed timings.
Now on a Cyclone IV FPGA I'm getting around -9ns worst case slack in comparison to -18ns I had before.
Before I couldn't even load the original IBM BIOS as the keyboard was not working. Now working Ok.
Compilation time has also reduced from more than 12 to 8 minutes.
This must be changed in a prior beta, but just noticed now the increase in the UART clock. Now I can also use serdrive at 460.8 in NeptUNO FPGA.
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2022 5:52 am
by spark2k06
I have created a new branch based on the prebeta-2.0-turbo branch, in this case I have named it prebeta-2.0-turbo-stable:
I've just removed the last 50Mhz chipset and SDRAM related improvements made by kitune-san, so that we get the stability back and at the same time take advantage of the latest Tandy mode display improvements.
I attach the binary so you can use it, I recommend to set the frequency to 14.318Mhz and save the configuration, as I remember that at 4.77Mhz in this version the UART does not work at 460.8Kbps, having to lower it to half:
tandy_14_318_mhz.jpg (164.45 KiB) Viewed 7446 times
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:45 pm
by kitune-san
Hi. Long time no see.
I have improved the READY signal.
This results in a clock cycle equivalent to PC/XT.
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2022 5:10 pm
by AmintaMister
Hi all!
I've tried to automatically mount the serial drive at MiSTer startup with:
in "linux/user-startup.sh" but it doesn't work, why?
Now, it is not only possible to load an HDD image, but it can also be saved in the settings, so you don't have to worry about the script, because the feature is integrated in Main
Lines must be added to the MiSTer.ini configuration file:
[PCXT]
uart_baudrate=460800 ; 115200, 230400 or 460800
uart_hdd_cyl=62
uart_hdd_sect=63
uart_hdd_head=16
As long as we don't have a real IDE on XTIDE, this is the most friendly solution... however, before I make a pull request to sorgelig to bring it to the official Main, there are still some things to do.
We still need to be able to add FDD image for serdrive, and we would have to rework these changes to make them cleaner, I don't have a deep knowledge of the Main project either, maybe you can give me a hand here, @bbond007:
For example, right now when selecting the image, although it is applied, it hides the menu, and it would be nice to see how it has been applied keeping the menu active.
In addition, the code has several warnings that need to be checked. And I would also like to replace F12 as Win+F12 to access the menu, like ao486 does... I have to check how that works.
Once all these problems are solved and the pull request from Main is accepted by sorgelig, I hope to make this prebeta 2.0 official as beta 2.0 as well, in order to reach more users.
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2022 10:21 am
by AmintaMister
Thanks a lot @bbond007 and @spark2k06!
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2022 1:02 pm
by Malor
If I understood sorgelig correctly, he won't accept this core until the IDE controller works. He seemed pretty horrified by the serdrive idea.
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2022 1:53 pm
by spark2k06
Malor wrote: ↑Sat Aug 13, 2022 1:02 pm
If I understood sorgelig correctly, he won't accept this core until the IDE controller works. He seemed pretty horrified by the serdrive idea.
Well integrated in the Main, except that it will take up a bit more than usual, I don't see what the drawback could be, the serdrive would only be active when the core running... for other cores, it wouldn't have any repercussions.
It is clear that the ideal is real IDE, but as long as we don't have it (it seems easy to implement, but it is not), it is the best we have at the moment.
Malor wrote: ↑Sat Aug 13, 2022 1:02 pm
If I understood sorgelig correctly, he won't accept this core until the IDE controller works. He seemed pretty horrified by the serdrive idea.
Well integrated in the Main, except that it will take up a bit more than usual, I don't see what the drawback could be, the serdrive would only be active when the core running... for other cores, it wouldn't have any repercussions.
It is clear that the ideal is real IDE, but as long as we don't have it (it seems easy to implement, but it is not), it is the best we have at the moment.
Have you looked into his suggestion of trying to integrate the floppy drive from the Atari ST into this core?
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2022 2:07 pm
by spark2k06
dmckean wrote: ↑Sat Aug 13, 2022 2:03 pm
Have you looked into his suggestion of trying to integrate the floppy drive from the Atari ST into this core?
I have already looked at several projects, yes, that one too. They're all proving to be a real challenge for me, unfortunately... one day we'll have some integrated, for sure, but at least for the moment they're proving to be unattainable for me.
dmckean wrote: ↑Sat Aug 13, 2022 2:03 pm
Have you looked into his suggestion of trying to integrate the floppy drive from the Atari ST into this core?
I have already looked at several projects, yes, that one too. They're all proving to be a real challenge for me, unfortunately... one day we'll have some integrated, for sure, but at least for the moment they're proving to be unattainable for me.
Floppy support is probably the quickest way to get the core accepted into Main as IDE will most likely take longer. Unfortunately, it's proven difficult to recruit anyone to help with it.
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2022 3:18 pm
by Malor
I'd help if I could, but I barely know a resistor from a capacitor.
The Amiga/Minimig core has two-controller, four-channel IDE emulation you might be able to poach. I think it may be pretty complete, because the virtual drives on Minimig work very well.
That's probably all 16-bit, though, and adapting it to run on an 8-bit bus might be painful.
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2022 6:38 pm
by spark2k06
New Main with floppy disk loading support via integrated serdrive:
boot_b.jpg (84.08 KiB) Viewed 6583 times
To boot by floppy disk, you must press the 'B' key... loads booters without problems, here is an interesting website with many booters games.
Great news about the FDD support. Look for "gruby ibm" on archive.org, it's probably the most complete MSDOS floppy collection out there (in various formats).
Re: MiSTer PCXT
Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2022 3:28 am
by suww37
Thank you . Now I think the most important thing left is mouse support.