First impression

caTTerror V.1 expansion card for TTs
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First impression

Postby Administrator » Thu Apr 28, 2016 8:26 pm

Today I patched TOS 3.06 at two locations. You recognise them? 8-)
Anyway... some minor issues need to be settled before its status can be declared as "final".
Beta test is probably starting the next weeks.
TOS is 3.06 German.I can patch US, UK, French and Swedish, too.
Are there any other 3.06 around to patch this way? If so: let me know.

And now the screenshot - caTTerror V.1 at work:

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Re: First impression

Postby Administrator » Fri Apr 29, 2016 6:19 am

caTTerror V.1 top view:

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First Benchmark (yet without read-burst):

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Re: First impression

Postby Administrator » Thu May 26, 2016 7:00 pm

Latest addition is ReadBurst mode for TT-RAM. Benchmark gives a 15% improvement:

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Original Atari TT-RAM card as comparison (non nybble mode):

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And Magnum TT:

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You can see that it does not use ReadBurst at all.

A MightyMic TT gives 14.2MB/s in reading but I don't think I can squeeze anything out of the CPLD anymore. :oops:
But... hey... that's just 3% difference :D

PCB needs a little rework and if there is interest then I will start a batch of PCBs.

Is there any interest?

Edit: I think the VHDL code has maxxed out in terms of performance with DRAM now. Same performance as a MightyMic32B
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Re: First impression

Postby Administrator » Thu Jun 02, 2016 5:19 pm

There doesn't seem to be any interest at all. If so then I will populate my PCBs and use them on my TTs. I'm not gonna spend some hundred bucks on PCB manufacturing to let them get spoiled on my shelf. :(
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Re: First impression

Postby crashman » Fri Jun 03, 2016 11:20 am

I can't say I'm not interested, but I have too many open fronts right now.
The TT it's the latest Atari added to my collection, and I'm not doing anything right now with it, so if you have a spare one, well, perhaps we could talk some day.
As I said, too many Atari things on my hands right now.
But, I have to say, I'm impressed and I have to thank you for all your work on the Atari systems.
I feel envy of your minds.

Regards.
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Re: First impression

Postby Administrator » Mon Jun 20, 2016 5:47 pm

New PCBs arrived saturday.

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Will try to populate them the next weekend and see how they perform.
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Re: First impression

Postby Anzac » Fri Jul 15, 2016 4:38 pm

Did i see correctly?

128MB RAM on a TT?
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Re: First impression

Postby Administrator » Fri Jul 15, 2016 5:03 pm

Anzac wrote:Did i see correctly?

128MB RAM on a TT?
Yes. I used one 128MB SIMM.
That was no problem with newer batches of aixTT or Magnum TT cards before (16, 32, 64 and 128MB SIMMs).
With caTTerror you can mix any combination of with 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128MB SIMMs.
AND you get two IDE ports for up to 4 devices. No need to buy expensive IDE<->SCSI interfaces anymore.
Thanx to pakman's (he designed the PAK68/3) TOS patch you can boot from an IDE device.
My TOS patch corrected the number shown at the end of the TT-RAM test. With standard TOS 3.06 and more than 99999KB you get some garbled output.
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Re: First impression

Postby Anzac » Fri Jul 15, 2016 6:23 pm

very very good!

i would say this is a muST for TT owners (í´m not one).

pity the MegaSTe design is not a little more similar to the TT or this would have a much bigger market! :)
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Re: First impression

Postby EmpireAndrew » Mon Jul 25, 2016 1:02 pm

Hi, I am very interested in this board...

I have some questions though:

1. Does it come populated (I just add my own simms) or is it a bare PCB and I have to solder on components?

2. Does it need any soldering inside the TT?

3. Does it fit inside the standard TT case?

4. What simms does it need? 2x 128MB FPM 60ns ok? Does the number of chips matter?

5. Do you supply necessary software patches?

6. How much is it inc shipping to USA?

7. When is it available?


I have no equipment to solder, and my TT is in the original case.

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