Tests/Info welcome: Reverse engineering the SB16 ASP/CSP

Posted on 2022-03-06, 23:14

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I'm working on reverse engineering the optional signal processor chip (called ASP = Advanced Signal Processor or CSP = Creative Signal Processor), the CT1748A. I got quite far with it already. It seems the SB16 card I am using is slightly broken, though, most likely inside the ASP. As testbed, I …

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Re: Manual/jumper settings for a 16-bit ISA IO controller UMC UM82C862F for floppy drives?

Posted on 2022-03-06, 09:01

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

JP20 hdd led (either 1-2 or 3-4 can't tell from the photos) JP19 IOCHRDY en/disable Btw do you know why there is an option to enable/disable IOCHRDY? My understanding is that if IOCHRDY is enabled, the PC can detect when it can issue a read or a write operation on the device, but I wonder why that …

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Re: Compaq ProLiant 5000 pci video card makes the SCSI card not detect drives

Posted on 2022-03-06, 08:33

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Update with a reason 9250 it wont show SCSI drives but with an s3 Virge it will. This might be related to Video BIOS size: The Radeon 9250 likely has a 64K video BIOS (C000-CFFF), whereas an S3 Virge card typically uses only the classic 32K range (C000-C7FF) used by VGA cards. If the onboard SCSI …

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Re: Compaq ProLiant 5000 pci video card makes the SCSI card not detect drives

Posted on 2022-03-05, 20:24

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Update with a reason 9250 it wont show SCSI drives but with an s3 Virge it will. This might be related to Video BIOS size: The Radeon 9250 likely has a 64K video BIOS (C000-CFFF), whereas an S3 Virge card typically uses only the classic 32K range (C000-C7FF) used by VGA cards. If the onboard SCSI …

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Re: Schneider Euro PC

Posted on 2022-03-04, 19:05

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

One question, can you determine from the memory checkup at boot, which chip might ne faulty? The memory check in mine always stops at 128k. Half of the memory chips are for the range 0..255K, and the second half is for the range 256K..511K. If just some data bits are broken, you should get an error …

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Re: Identify floppy controller.

Posted on 2022-03-02, 21:52

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't think you need a config utility for that controller. It is most likely similar to the original IBM floppy controller: The FDC chip itself supports four drives, but the IBM variation of the Shugart bus only supports 2 drives (on a single cable), so IBM equipped the card with two floppy cable …

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Re: SiS471 only caching one specific MB of RAM?

Posted on 2022-03-02, 20:50

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The symptom sounds like the chipset is misconfigured into the "do not fill the cache on read misses, but keep serving read/write hits" mode. You should carefully check all the L2 cache enable bits in the chipset configuration.

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Re: 486 VLB motherboard questions

Posted on 2022-03-01, 23:05

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So what you're implying is that it's much easier and cheaper to just get an Intel 5V processor and that going with a lower voltage third party one (that can be more powerful, in line with a first-gen pentium) requires an adapter with an included VRM that can be more difficult to find and …

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Re: 486 VLB motherboard questions

Posted on 2022-03-01, 19:57

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That board is unable to run 3.3/3.45/3.6V ("low-voltage") 486 processors. That SiS 461 chipset also doesn't support write-back L1 cache, as far as I understand. Furthermore, that board doesn't support power saving techniques. This means all the features that require complicated CPU configuration are …

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Re: E-Wave : an ESS based waveblaster card

Posted on 2022-02-28, 00:37

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

In order to play early games that uses MIDI, what is my options with current wavetable daughterboards that dreamblaster designed? Except for the McCake as it needs MT32 firmware which is extra expense to purchase. The MT32 is a highly configurable sample-based synthesizer. Early games with more …

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Re: P3B-F stopped working...need help

Posted on 2022-02-27, 20:37

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Red on 1.4 to Black on GND: MM beeps, and reads 006 Black on 1.4 to Red on GND: MM beeps, and reads 007 Those last 2 measurements have to be done with the CPU still connected, right? Now removed CPU, and measuring resistance between VCORE and GND (so basically I can measure again between 1.4 and …

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Re: Compaq "ES1868 Audio Feature Board" ESS Audiodrive Card Wavetable Header

Posted on 2022-02-27, 19:48

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The capacitors are marked with KJ5 and are identical to ones on the CD audio input. KJ5 = 220nF This value is confirmed in the ESS1869 datasheet. Nice to know. What's the voltage rating needed? Will 6.3 be ok? 220 nano -farad. I don't think you will get caps of that capacity with a voltage that low …

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Re: EGA planar plot pixel

Posted on 2022-02-27, 17:22

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Do you think that this is the fastest way to write a pixel to ega 640x480 16color ?: Mask the plane(s), mask the bit(s), read from a video mem, write to a video mem. Is there any faster method possible ? Algorithm-wise I mean, because I sure can make current faster with asembly. Your algorithm …

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Re: Schneider Euro PC

Posted on 2022-02-27, 17:09

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I’d call that signs of life. I have the picture coming through CGA2Scart to my TV. I gather it doesn’t like the 80 col mode. The Euro-PC character ROM contains both a 8x8 pixel font used for CGA-type monitors with 200 scan lines and a 8x14 pixel font (with a hardware-synthesized 9th pixel) for use …

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Re: Help with 256 colors in CL VLB video card

Posted on 2022-02-26, 14:24

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My guess is that only 256-color and 16-bit color modes are accelerated using the out-of-the-box windows drivers (proper true color acceleration isn't implemented in the 542x series), and the problem is related to memory access patterns used by the accelerator.

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Re: S3 ViRGE VLB project (or " Making a Concurrent for Creative 3D Blaster VLB" )

Posted on 2022-02-25, 19:49

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The lower end solutions with LCD-BIOS often supported a high refresh rate (say 160Hz) on S3 Trio 64V+ chipsets, which the S3 ViRGE 325 is/was compatible to. On the other hand, the 3D performance of the S3 ViRGE 325 is slow enough that rendering pictures for one eye is borderline usable at stock …

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Re: Where is the inner degaussing button for older CRT Monitors typically located?

Posted on 2022-02-25, 06:16

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thank you so much you're a godsend! How do I "engage" it to degauss if there is no button per se? Do I remove the degaussing plug and reinsert? Thanks again You remove AC power, wait 10 to 15 minutes and re-apply AC power. No need to open the monitor. If you re-apply AC power and you don't hear …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-02-24, 23:13

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Might be interesting to see if you can remove the blackout, possibly there might be details hidden by the blackout material, even a hint as to what it might be that you could follow up on with some google sleuthing. I do love a good mystery like an old safe that is locked or a hidden time capsule …

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Re: How do PCI IDE cards supply IRQ14 and IRQ15?

Posted on 2022-02-22, 22:09

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by mkarcher

in PC Emulation

in PC Emulation

When I look at the PCI IDE controller in 'compatibility mode', it's supplying IRQ14 and/or IRQ15 to the interrupt controller (http://www.bswd.com/pciide.pdf). But when I look at the PCI pinout, no IRQ14/15 pins exist? The ISA card does have those pins. PCI IDE controllers that fully support …

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Re: 16 bit ethernet card in 8 bit ISA

Posted on 2022-02-18, 19:19

by

by mkarcher

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Alright, I'll look up the manual for a card that might be called an ELEC5 E333OB with a SMC UltraChip but before I do has anyone had this card working in an 8 bit bus20220104_235646.jpg Incredible coincidence - I have two such cards (RJ45 only), but without the setup file for the configuration. Do …

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