1541 Ultimate .. first impressions

[Mark Smith]

Well I'm impressed :-)

I finally got my C128 near a TV to try out the 1541 Ultimate .. and what a nice toy it is! :-)

Works straight out the wrapper, works in 64 mode, works in 128 mode, gives a nice 16MB REU (the other 16MB is not addressable just yet apparently), gives an emulated 1541 that seems to work pretty good with fast loaders and demos, and gives a device 9 for access the SD card filesystem .. so you can see the D64s.

I've tried it with GEOS 64 (the REU only shows as 512K though ... any patches for that ?)  will give the 128 version a whirl and see if 2Mhz mode works ok.

But to really give it a run I wouldn't mind some 1541 and REU diagnostic tools, something that see if 16Mb really works.

Any good things to try against it ?

Regards

Mark

[bacon]

Now I just wish someone takes the FPGA core from the 1541 Ultimate, replaces the SD card slot with a USB port, and develops a nice cross-platform file server program (think a Linux/Windows/OSX based 64HDD) so I get a nice GUI for handling disk images and programs. Then I'd have a truly universal storage device for all my C= computers and I wouldn't have the hassle of moving an SD card between the 1541 Ultimate and my Linux box whenever I want to try out a new program. And no more having to set up a seperate machine with 64HDD - I could run the server on my desktop box or my EeePC, whichever is most convenient at the moment. I almost always have my commies close to the desktop PC anyway.

Way beyound my expertise unfortunately.

[RobertB]

I've tried it with GEOS 64 (the REU only shows as 512K though ... any patches for that ?)

Get Configure 2.1 and see if that cures your 512k ram expander limitation in GEOS.

Any good things to try against it ?

Off the top of my head right now, try Zed 0.77 and see what it says for how many bytes free the text editor has.  If you have Wheels 64 and/or Wheels 128, that would be a good test.

             Truly,
             Robert Bernardo
             Fresno Commodore User Group
             http://videocam.net.au/fcug
             The Other Group of Amigoids
             http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/

[airship]

I h8 Mark. And anyone else who has better toys than I do.

[Mark Smith]

I h8 Mark. And anyone else who has better toys than I do.

Awwww ... that's OK!   Would you like to buy my old hand-me-downs ?  Got an MMC64+MP3@64 sitting here feeling unloved and replaced ;-)

Mark

PS.  You're off the Christmas card list for hating me!

[zone64]

The 16 Mb boundary is apparently a REU limitation, hence there could not be a bigger REU without sacrificing compatibility.

On the other hand, the whole 32 Mb SDRAM could be addressed with a completely new system. In fact, Gideon has hinted that he could let us ship our code to the internal 6502 running at 25 MHz. Imagine this 6502 variant without any 64 Kb limit - it would let us do very powerful stuff, like a SCPU. This remains to be implemented of course, so we should not expect anything like that in the near future.

At the moment, the 1541U is even completely invincible to the C128.

[Golan Klinger]

The 1541 Ultimate is the best thing since sliced bread and with almost endless possibilities, it is something that is going to get better and better. With some clever coding a 1541U could replace a SuperCPU, RAMLink and CMD HD as well as every cartridge ever made for the 64. If it ever ends up supporting ethernet (and there is talk about that) and the mini-USB connector becomes functional for data as well as power, the 1541U will be the say all, end all of C= peripherals.

I'm seriously considering selling most of my disk drives (gotta keep one in case someone ever gives me or needs something put on floppy) and my reserve of new floppies too. I guess the disk boxes and notchers can also go as can the CMD drives. All that stuff has been rendered unnecessary.

If you don't have a 1541 Ultimate you should strongly consider it. Get your name on the list for the next batch because I suspect they're going to sell out just as quickly as the first batch.

[Mark Smith]

I just remembered something I forgot to mention .. and it's only a small thing as well ... when I went into the configuration screen of the 1541U+ it was allready registered in my name  ... what a nice personal touch :-)

Mark

[RobertB]

     How goes the testing, Mark?  Have you gotten it to recognize a bigger ramdrive in GEOS?  Have you tested it against other 128 programs, like those on the list of known 128 commercial programs?

          Truly,
          Robert Bernardo
          Fresno Commodore User Group
          CommVEx v4 website - http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex

[Mark Smith]

No :-(  time is scarse for me now, our new twins suck up all our time and I don;t have a TV/monitor near the 128 .. I've REALLY got to get a nice small LCD/TV with a decent selection of inputs on it.

Mark

[Golan Klinger]

I've had a chance to experiment a bit more with the 1541U (with JiffyDOS) plugged into a 128 equipped with JiffYDOS. So far, everything works as expected. The 1541U is aware of the 128's autoboot attempts because the lights flicker on boot. DMA loads are a no-go unless you're in 64 mode (it works perfectly in 64 mode too). If you press the reset on the 1541U in 128 mode you return to 128 mode and if you press the 1541U's reset in 64 mode, the 128 resets back to 128 mode and if you hold down C=, it goes straight to 64 mode. It's pretty straightforward. If a 1541 can do it, a 1541U can. Oh, and Zed reports 8MB available regardless of whether the 1541U's REU is set to 16MB or 8MB but I think it's a limitation of Zed because it reports the same thing running under VICE.

Any other suggestions of things I should try?

[Mark Smith]

Can you try ACE ?  And Lunix ?  Think they have REU support.

Mark

[Suudy]

Now I just wish someone takes the FPGA core from the 1541 Ultimate, replaces the SD card slot with a USB port, and develops a nice cross-platform file server program (think a Linux/Windows/OSX based 64HDD) so I get a nice GUI for handling disk images and programs. Then I'd have a truly universal storage device for all my C= computers and I wouldn't have the hassle of moving an SD card between the 1541 Ultimate and my Linux box whenever I want to try out a new program. And no more having to set up a seperate machine with 64HDD - I could run the server on my desktop box or my EeePC, whichever is most convenient at the moment. I almost always have my commies close to the desktop PC anyway.

Very close to what I am working on now.  Check out my post (I just posted it), and my blog.  This is what I am working on now!

[Golan Klinger]

Very close to what I am working on now.

Really? Perhaps I've misunderstood what it is you're doing...

[Suudy]

Very close to what I am working on now.

Really? Perhaps I've misunderstood what it is you're doing...

It really is PC<-->15x1 via USB.  However, there is no need to have all the other stuff in the FPGA, such as the processor, RAM, ROM, etc.  All that can exist on the PC side of things.  So it can be like the 1541Ultimate, just in a smaller package.

[Golan Klinger]

Rather than take us further off-topic, I've posted a reply to here. Further discussion of the U1541 should be posted there.

Cheers.

[bacon]

Very close to what I am working on now.  Check out my post (I just posted it), and my blog.  This is what I am working on now!

Nice! I'll follow the development with interest :-)