No, they don't need OS drivers to work in DOS, they have a BIOS 😁
If they come with the raid ROM, they'll need to be flashed with another ROM to function under w9x (there are some threads on vogons)

As for win9x, I think it does actually write quite a lot to the flash, considering there is a swap file that is already used quite a bit by many programs and that OS has never ever been made with flash memory in mind whereas modern linux supposedly probably has some optimizations going on (as you pointed out, not enough due to the log files ...).
Now there may be a thing that should limit the wear as well : it's the time spent. My pi corrupted its SD card in about 6month-1year, but it was on 24/7, I doubt anyone would do this with a windows 9x/DOS machine.

Actually a benchmark of SD vs SSD on the ITX lamma could probably tell us more about how it performs 😀

@Deksor

rloew did write an AHCI driver for both DOS and Win9x for the more modern SATA3 controllers that use the AHCI protocol pretty much exclusively at this point, with the sole exception of a PCIE JMicron card that can be flashed back to IDE mode.

I would say that rloew's AHCI drivers is reliable enough that you don't need to look for IDE mode hardware for DOS/win9x anymore.

It would be nice if rloew's son would release the source code for his dads AHCI drivers though, we could learn so much from rloew's code.

I also hope those sources will be released. Those AHCI drivers don't work in VirtualBox and QEMU, for some reasons.

It would also be cool if someone made an NVMe driver for Win9x. (And one for later Windows versions as well, for that matter. Even Windows XP 32-bit doesn't currently have an NVMe driver.)

Duffman wrote on 2023-10-06, 10:07:

@Deksor […]
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@Deksor

rloew did write an AHCI driver for both DOS and Win9x for the more modern SATA3 controllers that use the AHCI protocol pretty much exclusively at this point, with the sole exception of a PCIE JMicron card that can be flashed back to IDE mode.

I would say that rloew's AHCI drivers is reliable enough that you don't need to look for IDE mode hardware for DOS/win9x anymore.

It would be nice if rloew's son would release the source code for his dads AHCI drivers though, we could learn so much from rloew's code.

I think I remember trying it with my windows 98 core 2 duo (yes I know ...) because I have very bad freezes when using sata, so I tried it but it didn't change much.

Now maybe I did something wrong or the os was just too far gone due to some other patch so it's worth another try I guess

@digger

There are NVMe drivers available for XP. You can find them with George King's XP2ESD project, or as part of REMOVED

No NVMe for Win9x though.

Update:
I managed to slipstream the rbloew tbplus drivers into the win98 installation, and it works nicely. Win98SE now installs without hickups. I also removed the (non-working) PNP support in the BIOS - and Windows now properly configures itself during the installation.
In addition, I finally got to testing the D1 Mini addon and successfully tested some BBS-ing in win98's Hyperterminal as well as ppp dial-up.
...and I added mainboard LED on/off + intensity, and hdd clicker sound configuration to the BIOS settings.
Guess I should really get to the part I don't enjoy that much, which is making a video to showcase the board. 😁

Duffman wrote on 2023-10-07, 07:38:

@digger

There are NVMe drivers available for XP. You can find them with George King's XP2ESD project, or as part of REMOVED

No NVMe for Win9x though.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing! 🙂

Updated the first post with finalized specs and ordering info.

Regarding memory size of SOM-128-EX: does it matter much if there is 128MB or 1 GB of memory available in this kind of use? The 1 GB version is around 10 USD more expensive but was wondering if it is of any use here.

Also does the Toslink digital port output audio from all sources, like CS4237, opl3 and wavetable?

janih wrote on 2023-10-12, 11:01:

Regarding memory size of SOM-128-EX: does it matter much if there is 128MB or 1 GB of memory available in this kind of use? The 1 GB version is around 10 USD more expensive but was wondering if it is of any use here.

I haven't tested with the 1GB module, DMP is out of stock and according to them, won't get any new ones at least for a while.
I think other resellers might have them though, but they're charging way more than DMP.
The 128MB module has certainly worked well for me.

janih wrote on 2023-10-12, 11:01:

Also does the Toslink digital port output audio from all sources, like CS4237, opl3 and wavetable?

It does indeed. Thanks again to 640K!enough for helping me get that working! 😁

Eivind wrote on 2023-10-12, 11:23:

I haven't tested with the 1GB module, DMP is out of stock and according to them, won't get any new ones at least for a while. I […]
Show full quote

janih wrote on 2023-10-12, 11:01:

Regarding memory size of SOM-128-EX: does it matter much if there is 128MB or 1 GB of memory available in this kind of use? The 1 GB version is around 10 USD more expensive but was wondering if it is of any use here.

I haven't tested with the 1GB module, DMP is out of stock and according to them, won't get any new ones at least for a while.
I think other resellers might have them though, but they're charging way more than DMP.
The 128MB module has certainly worked well for me.

janih wrote on 2023-10-12, 11:01:

Also does the Toslink digital port output audio from all sources, like CS4237, opl3 and wavetable?

It does indeed. Thanks again to 640K!enough for helping me get that working! 😁

In Stock https://shop.dmp.com.tw/INT/products/25

Vridek wrote on 2023-10-12, 12:15:

In Stock https://shop.dmp.com.tw/INT/products/25

The 128MB module is in stock, yes. Not the 1GB one.

For the W9x programs that might benefit from 1gb of ram I think the CPU would be too slow.

If the CPU is comparable to a pmmx 233, most of those machines ran happily with 64mb only so this is already "overkill"
Maybe if you plan on running XP this could be an issue, but it's probably not the right machine to install XP on anyways

Deksor wrote on 2023-10-12, 12:35:

For the W9x programs that might benefit from 1gb of ram I think the CPU would be too slow.

If the CPU is comparable to a pmmx 233, most of those machines ran happily with 64mb only so this is already "overkill"
Maybe if you plan on running XP this could be an issue, but it's probably not the right machine to install XP on anyways

Yep, I think this summarizes it nicely. 😀

wow…..simply. wow.

You’ve once again outdone yourself Eivind. I’m sitting here with a TinyLlama that, well, I’m super happy with, but this is on another level.

A couple of curiosities:
-Does PXE boot work from the inbuilt ethernet controller? For a number of years I’ve avoided using floppies/CDs/USB just by booting machines to DOS, from my NAS, and then installing Windows 98 SE from the network to local storage. If not, it’s not a huge deal, it sounds like I can just simply take what is essentially a floppy disk image and adapt that to USB.
-Being that the Voodoo3 AGP for example is ..pretty much just a PCI card with an AGP connector, I imagine that’ll work just fine, yes?

Expect me to be in the order queue very soon!

doogie wrote on 2023-10-12, 16:01:

You’ve once again outdone yourself Eivind. I’m sitting here with a TinyLlama that, well, I’m super happy with, but this is on another level.

Thanks, appreciate it! 😀

doogie wrote on 2023-10-12, 16:01:

A couple of curiosities:
-Does PXE boot work from the inbuilt ethernet controller? For a number of years I’ve avoided using floppies/CDs/USB just by booting machines to DOS, from my NAS, and then installing Windows 98 SE from the network to local storage. If not, it’s not a huge deal, it sounds like I can just simply take what is essentially a floppy disk image and adapt that to USB.

Haven't looked into that before today! I believe Coreboot should support PXE, but it requires a PXE rom file coded specifically for the ethernet controller - in this case an RDC R6040. Looks like various other Vortex86-based systems are using that same controller, but with an AMIBIOS with PXE code baked into it. If you're able to locate the appropriate rom file, I'd be happy to give it a shot!

doogie wrote on 2023-10-12, 16:01:

-Being that the Voodoo3 AGP for example is ..pretty much just a PCI card with an AGP connector, I imagine that’ll work just fine, yes?

Can't imagine why it wouldn't work. Even more modern AGP cards (as long as they can tolerate 3.3V signaling) are backwards-compatible with the 1x standard, and I suspect all the additional AGP-specific features/signals on top of PCI are optional.

doogie wrote on 2023-10-12, 16:01:

Expect me to be in the order queue very soon!

Just send me an email, and I'll put you on the list! 👍

Youtube video video uploaded!

Eivind wrote on 2023-10-13, 18:03:

Youtube video video uploaded!

So cool! Would love to see more cards and games tested on the board! Did you try out CD-Rom drive (I see emulated one in video)?

Very Neat! 😀

Eivind wrote on 2023-10-13, 18:03:

Youtube video video uploaded!

Hows the interest after posting the video? This project is really exciting! Really hope I can get ahold of one of these.