digger wrote on 2024-05-21, 18:58:

Didn't PCMCIA lack DMA support, though? (The original 16-bit standard, not counting 32-bit CardBus.)

I guess it could still support non-DMA sound devices such as Adlib, Disney Sound Source, CMS and Tandy/PCjr 3 voice.

Yes, PCMCIA lacks DMA but there is a DMA emulation technique used by IBM on their 3D Sound PCMCIA card, apparently patented by them so nobody else used it. yyzkevin has reimplemented it for his PCMCIA card and it's working with Sound Blaster with digital sound even in DOS protected mode, as you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoJ12leojwo

polpo wrote on 2024-05-22, 04:45:

there is a DMA emulation technique used by IBM on their 3D Sound PCMCIA card, apparently patented by them so nobody else used it. yyzkevin has reimplemented it for his PCMCIA card and it's working with Sound Blaster with digital sound even in DOS protected mode

any technical details on how that works?

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-05-22, 05:12:

polpo wrote on 2024-05-22, 04:45:

there is a DMA emulation technique used by IBM on their 3D Sound PCMCIA card, apparently patented by them so nobody else used it. yyzkevin has reimplemented it for his PCMCIA card and it's working with Sound Blaster with digital sound even in DOS protected mode

any technical details on how that works?

Here the mentioned patent https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/9 … e/US5768631.pdf

And this thread has many posts from yyzkevin that shows the progress and has the details
Re: Newly made PCMCIA sound card

ok got it
Re: Newly made PCMCIA sound card
Re: Newly made PCMCIA sound card
>dma emulation interrupt calls.
Re: Newly made PCMCIA sound card

yep, pretty straightforward and doesnt require protected mode trapping

IBM's method requires the system to have an actual DMA controller, so the emulation software can read how it was configured by the application, correct?

A bit off-topic here, but doesn't that mean that this emulation method would not work in a system lacking an Intel 8257 compatible DMA controller, like say, newer post-ISA and post-floppy motherboards?

8257 legacy compatibility is still present all the way to at least 2014, I think its missing from 100-300 series chipsets from 2015-18.

@Freddy:

Can't wait to try the EMS on one next pay cheque 😀 Thank you greatly (!).

I use the 2MB LowTech card pretty heavily via Turbo C++ for fun and pleasure rather than profit. This'd be rather good!

Great project

Saw the second version of the ISA card demostrated by Adrian's Basement on YouTube.

I am impressed with the ease of use.

Hope to see it available in South Africa

keyboard emulation with USB is a sore need. The keyboards with DIN plugs are not available here.
With Apple Performa computers, .... it is the ADB keyboards and mice in short supply - ADB=Apple Data Bus.

HENNIE from Sunny South Africa

@Freddy:

out of curiosity, would it be possible to set the config settings via the config file, for things like memory etc, as you can set them in the bios but they dont save after power off.
i have updated to latest firmware and the added adlib, wifi and other bits if excellent.

Thank you Freddy for the great work.

In collaboration with Freddy (thanks!!!), PicoMEM is coming to serdashop soon : https://www.serdashop.com/PicoMEM

I've had some issues with the picomem card...
1) on my 8088 Zenith Z-157 mod2/3 machine, when I install the card the Zenith BIOS complains about 'memory parity failures' ... so I've moved it to my 386 machine.
2) Not a card issue but I've tried to create a raw img file of my current MS-DOS 6 SD card to use it on Picomem instead, but all the images I've tried give me "Error" in the picomem setup utility. the latest raw img I created with this: https://hddguru.com/software/HDD-Raw-Copy-Tool/
I tried winimage but couldn't find a way to get it to save in raw img format (raw was an option but it insisted on saving it as a PFR and simply changing the extension didn't help). The basic images linked off Github work okay (D33_EN, D62_EN).

I just received the card yesterday and it has the latest May 28th firmware on it. I figure once I get it working okay on the 386 machine I'll loop back around to figure out the 8088 issues (which is the machine I originally bought it for).

I'm hoping someone here can help me with this - most specifically, can recommend disk imaging software that will create raw img files Picomem will accept. I haven't tackled the other functionality yet (but I will) as the disk functions are the most basic thing I need them for. Thanks for any help! Let me know what questions you have that can help troubleshoot this.

Think you get answers on Discord quicker then here (https://discord.com/channels/1022977989979426 … 814563045777508). Especially point 1 needs some debugging. You're sure your SD card is not defect?

I personally use Arsenal Image Mounter to create an image. Then I mount it with this tool and copy files over (from a backup). After that I start once from a (virtual) floppy and do a "sys c:". I also tried to restore an image with Macrium Reflect to this mounted image and that also seems to work.

PicoMem works fine for me on a 286 btw (EMS/Floppy/HDD/Adlib). Only wireless networking is not working correctly for some people (including me).

Sorry didn't see your response before I crossed out the disk issue - I shorted the 13 character file name down to 8 characters and that fixed it. I'm sorry about that, was dumb of me.

Question since I haven't found a diagram of the Picomem yet: there are two USB interfaces on the card, the mini and I'm guessing micro sized (the mini in the middle of the plate, the micro near the bottom of it). Which is used for what? And if it has sound, how do I get the sound out of it? I'd love to replace the Gotek-Flashfloppy with this card too.

Yknow, I'm slow. Let me watch the vid Adrian's Digital Basement put out. It probably explains all this.

... and it does! Amazon has 3 of those DACs for $12 🤣. and grabbed a pair of USB on the go adapters too. Once I get this working on the Zenith I may have to order another picomem for another project too and so I have extra DACs and adapters for it 😁

Now just down to the memory thing. but I'll get there.

One thing I notice though is that unlike flashfloppy, where you can swap floppies by spinning the knob on the Gotek drive, there's no function on Picomem to swap floppies without rebooting. At least as far as I can tell. Am I wrong there?

NHVintage wrote on 2024-06-28, 15:23:

One thing I notice though is that unlike flashfloppy, where you can swap floppies by spinning the knob on the Gotek drive, there's no function on Picomem to swap floppies without rebooting. At least as far as I can tell. Am I wrong there?

That is possible (in text mode) by pressing Left Ctrl + Shift +F2. See also here:

https://github.com/FreddyVRetro/ISA-PicoMEM/w … after-dos-boot-

That is only possible with the virtual A drive. I made a feature request to make it also possible for the virtual B drive but that is not implemented yet.

woo I'll take it on just one drive.. but I see it's limited to only 32 floppy images. Sounds like a lot but when installs take multiple disks that fills up fast. Flashfloppy on a Gotek still maintains a significant edge there, with the number of images only being limited by the USB stick size. And my flashfloppy off my multi I/O card is now not recognized either.

Moved the Picomem back to the Zenith Z-157, the machine I originally bought it for, and figured out the Zenith Z-157's memory parity error - I disabled parity checking of the memory with a dip switch setting on the motherboard. The one piece of documentation I've found on the whole net for the Z-157 is the list of DIP switch settings for the switch block 0-7. Thank goodness. I may print that and tape it to the inside of the machine's lid 😁 !

So now I'm booting and able to access the Picomem's setup menus, boot off it HDD or FDD, and good news, the Flashfloppy (now drive B:) works as well. I've also implemented EMS with PMEMM, and that gives me 4080K expanded memory - considering the total conventional memory is 512k, that's pretty awesome.

Unfortunately it seems when I power off the computer and turn it back on it loses the EMS and other memory settings.

Other than that, very cool!

Tomorrow the DACs and 'USB on the go' adapter show up from Amazon, so hopefully I'll have time to play with those as well. And at some point I'd like to see if I can get the 5.25" floppy still in the machine to work to... just because. I'm on the fence about installing the ISA-USB card as I don't think I'll need it with the Picomem, but I'll know for sure after the adapter arrives...

Yoghoo wrote on 2024-06-28, 13:54:

... Only wireless networking is not working correctly for some people (including me).

Hello!

Which network driver are you using? I had issues with the PM2000.COM driver and MTCP, but then I switched to the NE2000.COM driver and new everything works fine!

Regards

birnwieapfel wrote on 2024-06-29, 15:25:

Hello! […]
Show full quote

Yoghoo wrote on 2024-06-28, 13:54:

... Only wireless networking is not working correctly for some people (including me).

Hello!

Which network driver are you using? I had issues with the PM2000.COM driver and MTCP, but then I switched to the NE2000.COM driver and new everything works fine!

Regards

I did the same as PM2000.COM didn't work for me as well. But with NE2000.COM I can do DHCP requests but can't really use it as it's not stable at all. Even with an open case and 1 meter from an access point it's dropping half the packages etc. So not usable atm. Strange thing is that the PicoMem detects a strong connection. Thought it was maybe related with the pico (in combination my acces point) but I tested a standalone pico with C and also Python and it's rock solid. So somewhere the timings or something else is not working correctly in the PicoMem.

I tried plugging a USB stick into the USB port on the pico (which is the USB hub for the Picomem) and of course nothing happened. I'm sure I should be able to use it to read a USB memory stick, but I'm not sure how that works here, it doesn't just automatically recognized the USB stick as a drive. Maybe it can't? I would think using the USB port for storage would be possible if it can be used for things like joysticks.

Being able to use a USB stick for mass storage is hugely convenient and helpful working on these machines. I hope this functionality is included.