Merciful 1/Merciful - Disc 1.iso/software/g/gvp_faaast_prep/gvpfaastprep.dms/gvpfaastprep.adf/Read Me

Text File | 1991-05-09 | 6KB | 106 lines

           G V P   F A A A S T P R E P   R E L E A S E   N O T E S

                      S E R I E S   I I   6 8 0 3 0

                               ('030 COMBO)

    This file contains information that has not yet been incorporated
into the documentation for the Series II 68030 processor board (also called
the '030 combo board.)  The Series II 68030 board features an evolutionary
new RAM design that allows the Amiga 2000 to expand beyond the former 9
megabyte limit without special commands in the startup files or extra gadgets
to click on. This new memory does appear above the normal address range of
the 68000 chip but is well within the address range of the 68030. We refer
to this memory as EXTENDED MEMORY since it extends the usable address bits
from 24 to 32. This difference could cause some confusion or unusual results
if not understood. This file addresses the issues not discussed in the
manual.

1. Extended Memory Use

        All memory in the Amiga is still usable by the Series II 68030 board.
     The amount allowed on the standard Amiga bus depends upon the memory
     configuration selected. Any software that conforms to Commodore
     standards will function correctly with Series II 68030 board. If you are
     unsure about a particular software package, just ask if it will work on
     an Amiga 3000. If it works on an Amiga 3000, it surely will work on the
     GVP Series II in extended memory.


2. Hard Disk Drive Performance

        It may be possible that SCSIdrives already set up on other control-
     lers may have limits set on the memory range they can directly address.
     This can have an adverse affect on the hard drive transfer rates since
     all data from such a drive has to be buffered through the 1megabyte of
     RAM on the Amiga motherboard. For the fastest possible drive speeds, a
     SCSI drive should be connected to the Series II board and have access
     to the full address range of system and extended memory. To ensure that
     the maximum SCSI performance is achieved with the built in controller
     of the '030 Combo board, it is very important that the "DMA Mask" in
     the RDB on the hard drive is correctly set.


3. DMA Mask

        The drive parameter that sets the drive's usable address range is
     the DMA mask. This is a hexadecimal number which when translated into
     binary makes a list of address bits that can be used. The default value
     for most existing DMA controllers is only six characters long. This is
     enough to access all of the standard Amiga memory, but not the extended
     memory. With a drive attached to the combo board SCSI interface, the
     mask should be changed to 0xFFFFFFFE which will allow the controller to
     transfer data to all the standard Amiga memory AND the extended memory
     on the combo board.


4. Setting the DMA Mask

        There are two methods for setting the DMA mask for your previously
     prepared and formatted hard disk drives. The first is a simple command

     line utility called SCSIMaskFix. The program has instructions built
     into it and can be displayed by typing, "gvp.install:scsimaskfix ?" from
     a shell. The GVP Faaastprep program can also change the mask value and
     runs under Workbench. To set the mask to 0xFFFFFFFE, double click on
     the Faaastprep icon. Select the manual installation option on the
     opening screen. Next, use the arrows or type in the ID gadget to select
     the drive you want to change. The screen should display the partitioning
     information for the drive. Click on the first character in the Mask
     block and delete the string. Now type in 0xFFFFFFFE and repeat this for
     each partition on the drive. Once this is complete, click on the Write
     button to save the changes to the drive. This will not erase the data
     on your drive as long as nothing else is changed. It will only change
     the boot information only for that drive.


5. Maximizing System Performance

        If you did not use the Faaastprep program to set up your disk
     drive or a GVP factory formatted drive, you may not be taking full
     advantage of your Series II 68030 board. Included in the gvputils
     directory on the GVP installation diskette, is a program called SetCPU
     which can use some of the special features of the 68030 chip to make
     your Amiga run faster. SetCPU can turn on the processor data cache and
     move the Kickstart software from a slow ROM to the super fast 32 bit
     memory. This will make every application that accesses data from memory
     or uses any of the Amiga built in software run faster. The SetCPU
     command should be one of the first in the startup sequence on your hard
     disk drive. We recommend using the command, "SetCPU cache Fastrom " as
     one of the first you have. The GVP installation disk s:startup-sequence
     file is a good example of how to use the program.


6. A Reminder about multiple SCSI drives.

        The GVP FaaastROM device driver allows you to boot from any
      partition on any drive, regardless of the number. There does need to
      be a flag set to tell the Amiga which partition should be used. This
      flag is called bootpri and is displayed in the manual screen of
      Faaastprep. The value for the boot partition should be -10. All
      nonbooting partitions should be set for -128. If this guideline is
      not followed, you may boot from the wrong partition depending upon
      the type and speed of your drives. Refer to chapter 8 of your manual
      for more detail on using the manual mode of Faaastprep.