Its a really good piece of Hardware. The customers won't be sorry.

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I´m back in 2023 on Classic Amiga with my A1200/Blizzard1230IB@50Mhz, 32MB RAM, AmigaOS3.2 and ROMs, Indivision AGA MK3, Author of Amiga-Flipclock (OS4)

@fingus
Quote:

Its a really good piece of Hardware. The customers won't be sorry.

Yes but it already has issues with UBoot (dual boot not working and DMA disk access being disabled), hopefully these are just documentation issues and uboot bugs, rather than hardware issues, but it is hard for consumers to tell the difference.

Not being able to dual boot linux or find connect the front audio headers to allow audio input dose mean that I cant currently purchase any for my work and they could put other people off.

Finishing writing the manual by adding a instructions on how to connect up the audio header to a standard ac97 case connector and adding the standard section on how to use the motherboards bios in this case uboot to enable DMA for devices select boot devices and do all the other standard bios stuff normally covered by a motherboard manual would help allot.

Linux/OS4 dual boot issue should also be fixed as soon as possible as well.

Still I cant wait to get my SAM440 and start enjoying OS4.1.

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Sam440ep 667mhz, 512MB, 120GB 2.5" HD, OS4.1FE
WinUae 3.0.0, OS 3.9, BB3, Catweasel MkIV
Amiga 1200, Blizzard 040/40 (BlizzardPPC 060/200 with SCSI removed at present), mediatorSX pci, Voodoo3, PCI network card os 3.9BB2
4MB Minimig with ARM addon boar

@Dwyloc
Quote:

Yes but it already has issues with UBoot (dual boot not working and DMA disk access being disabled), hopefully these are just documentation issues and uboot bugs, rather than hardware issues, but it is hard for consumers to tell the difference.

Those are purely software issues.

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ExecSG Team Lead

Enabling DMA is quite easy, if you know how (I posted how on a thread). They probably disabled it, because it might cause problems for a few people (even though it shouldn't).

You can always buy a pre-built system, which should have all those issues sorted out (apart from dual-booting anyway).

Last edited by ChrisH on 04-Dec-2008 at 05:21 PM.

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Author of the PortablE programming language.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue...

How many boards was selled in first batch?

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Amiga is the One...

Quote:

They probably disabled it, because it might cause problems for a few people (even though it shouldn't).

The only way it could cause problems is if the SAM440 hardware is faulty or the OS4 drivers or uboot are bugged as all SATA drives support DMA and the SAM440 only has SATA connectors.

As such DMA should be enabled by default and the information should be in the user manual.

_________________
Sam440ep 667mhz, 512MB, 120GB 2.5" HD, OS4.1FE
WinUae 3.0.0, OS 3.9, BB3, Catweasel MkIV
Amiga 1200, Blizzard 040/40 (BlizzardPPC 060/200 with SCSI removed at present), mediatorSX pci, Voodoo3, PCI network card os 3.9BB2
4MB Minimig with ARM addon boar

@Dwyloc
Remember that Sam440 has a wider audience that OS4 - there is CruxPPC Linux & (hopefully) embedded customers. I think they are simply playing it safe, although it does suck - hopefully they mention this issue in the manual (either the Sam manual or the OS4 manual).

_________________
Author of the PortablE programming language.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue...

@Dwyloc
Quote:

The only way it could cause problems is if the SAM440 hardware is faulty...

The Sam440ep hardware is not faulty. All the IDE drivers default to PIO mode as a safety precaution for AmigaOne users. The same SATA boards can be plugged into an AmigaOne where problems could result. There are even a few still clinging to SE boards remember.

You could argue the IDE drivers should be changed to enable DMA by default on non-A1 hardware but that isn't the case to date. As an initial release, the team thought safer is better and those that want speed can learn how to do configure things from the docs.

Besides, I thought Amiga users loved to tinker with their machines?

P.S. There are docs in the Documentation/IDE drawer.

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ExecSG Team Lead

@ ChrisH

I enabled DMA and I don't have any problems. So far.

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My complaint is about lack of supplied SAM440/ OS4.1 documentation, as a professional systems Administrator thats the sort of information that needs to be ether covered in the motherboard manual or the OS4 printed documentation and it is missing from both.

That's what I was trying to highlight.

The problem is that a large number of former Amiga users and developers are being put of my the AmigaOnes past history. They are seeing these details misted out from the SAM440 manual and assuming that the SAM440 is broken in the same way and being put off.

We really need to win these people back as they are the people doing the current Linux development in there free time working for a company that develops embedded software for the mobile phone industry and have a lot of contacts with other developers in the industry.

You and I know that DMA works on the AmigaOne with PCI SATA cards but they have just herd the about the AmigaOnes broken VIA on board controller and have they dont have any interest in dealing with broken hardware as a hobby even if they do still have a soft spot for the Amiga. That's why I would like to see the docs fixed.

If just one or two of the C developers in the company I work for decided to do some OS4.X development the mozilla/firefox port would be far more likely to become a reality. If embedded C and ARM assembler developers how work on a mobile web browser for a living who started out coding on an Amiga are not up to a Firefox port I don't know who would be.

My Minimig setup in the office has gained quite a bit of attention over the last few weeks and more than one person is thinking about buying one as a demo coding platform and to play their old favourite games and it would be really nice if we could win some Amiga developers back but if they cant easily purchase the hardware with the required development documentation they are not interested.

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Sam440ep 667mhz, 512MB, 120GB 2.5" HD, OS4.1FE
WinUae 3.0.0, OS 3.9, BB3, Catweasel MkIV
Amiga 1200, Blizzard 040/40 (BlizzardPPC 060/200 with SCSI removed at present), mediatorSX pci, Voodoo3, PCI network card os 3.9BB2
4MB Minimig with ARM addon boar

@Dwyloc

>>My Minimig setup in the office has gained quite a bit of attention over the last few weeks and more than one person is thinking about buying one as a demo coding platform and to play their old favourite games and it would be really nice if we could win some Amiga developers back but if they cant easily purchase the hardware with the required development documentation they are not interested.



*cough, cough* Don't forget to tell them about the case

Last edited by TheDaddy on 06-Dec-2008 at 10:43 AM.

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www.loriano.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

Quote:

There are even a few still clinging to SE boards remember

Like me, for example. Heh heh. With Sii0680 card this is quite nice software development computer.

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Rock lobster bit me. My Workbench has always preferences. X1000 + AmigaOS4.1 FE
"Anyone can build a fast CPU. The trick is to build a fast system." -Seymour Cray

I still think it's not worth it till they put a CPU module on these things..

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José

Quote:

I still think it's not worth it till they put a CPU module on these things..

Is it actually possible to use a CPU module with a SystemOnChip motherboard?