Changes to V2.6 (05/17/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Changed the way the messages were displayed. Now, a ROM Checksum message is really caused by a ROM checksum. Two new messages were added: 'ROM mirroring error' (MMU either inactive or defective), 'Mirroring limit exceeded' (we do not let you select too much memory anymore!) * Fixed bug in RsrvMem37ii. If you ran it without an EMPLANT board installed, it would crash. Also, running RsrvMem37ii toggles the serial bit correctly so that both Port A and Port B (Units 0 & 1) can be used by the empser.device. * Fixed a serial bug. If you did a POWEROFF, the serial interrupts were left active. This would result in a system lockup if data was received by one of the EMPLANT serial ports. * Fixed a NASTY, NASTY bug in the AmigaDOS device support. The READ routine did not return errors _at all_, instead (if an error was encountered) it would fill memory full of trash and usually blow up. We now return error code -36 (i/o error, bummers!) to the MAC when there is a read/write error on a device. * Finally corrected floppy recognition routine. In previous versions it was possible that an AmigaDOS disk (or any other non-readable format) would show up as a MAC formatted disk, causing the emulation to sit there for many minutes while the MAC was trying to read it... and it didn't matter if SYBIL was on or not. * Added LOGOS. You may notice that the software size shrank by about 10K. Actually, it shrank about 16K, but we added 6K worth of new code. We removed the hardcoded EMPLANT/copyright Logo (graphics) and we now use random disk-loaded logos. These new logos are in color, and we have actually made an anim format for ourselves so we could do things like spin cubes, morph pictures, etc. We don't have any anims included yet (we don't have _that_ much free time), but the ability is there. You will now (for the first time) be required to make an ASSIGN for EMPLANT: so the logos can be found. * Made a new option in the Emulation Control menu (menu that is shown after emulation is started) "Re-Mount Ejected". Just like the gadget name implies, clicking on this gadget will re-mount any device that you threw away into the MAC's trashcan. You must mark a device as 'ejectable media' before it can be thrown away. You mark devices as ejectable by going to the DEVICE menu and select the device after it appears in SELECTED DEVICES window (click on the device name). You will see a window open containing information about the device, and an option to make the device ejectable. * Added DisplayBeep() to the floppy drive eject/insert icons. Whenever you remove a disk when you are not suppose to, the MAC pops up a sprite in the lower right corner of your screen with a '?' in the middle of it (and the drive number above it). Not only will you get this friendly message asking you to re-insert the disk, but every one second the displaybeep is called. Likewise, when you are asked to remove a disk, the displaybeep is called, but only once. * Changed RetinaVideo driver to work properly with the Retina's WorkBench emulator. Before, you could lose the MAC screen completely by pressing Amiga-M/N to swap screens. Now, you just click on the blank white screen, and the MAC will reappear on the Retina's display. * Fixed the emulation so you can not run more than copy of the MACII program at the same time. * Added the ability to lock/unlock the Amiga floppys! You can now use the floppys on the Amiga side while the emulation is running. You can also select what has control of the floppys while the emulation is running (either the MAC side or the Amiga side). You can flip sides while disks are in the drives and there won't be a problem. The MAC will recognize that the Amiga has control (when you select AMIGA) and will take the floppys offline. A neat trick is to mount PC0 and select it with the DEVICE menu. Now, use a program on the MAC side like AccessPC, PCExchange, or Apple File Exchange and you can read/write IBM disks via PC0 on the Amiga side. * Added ability to select if you have the SYBIL hardware or not. If you don't own SYBIL, or if you do not plan to use SYBIL during the emulation, you should turn it off (no check mark in the box)...otherwise, your printer will have a fit and eject paper. * Last minute change! I found it! A lot of people have been reporting problems formatting floppys. If the disk you were formatting was not AMAX, EMPLANT or MAC formatted previously, it would always fail the formatting. If you formatted the same disk again, it would then work fine. There was also a problem inside the Apple File Exchange. IBM disks would be verified twice. This has all been fixed! ************************************************************************** Changes to V2.5 (04/28/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * MAC's VBR is now left at address $0 for better compatibility. * MAC's and Amiga's VBR and table are now seperate from each other. * VBRMover now checks to see if the VBR can be moved to/from $0 safely. * Fixed cache control with 030/040 processors. The caches were getting shut off after boot time. No 030 MAC can function with caches off! ALL of the MAC's ROM routines, ROM overrides, Resources, etc. use software timing loops for their 'accuracy'. This was the cause for everyone's serial rates to drop with severe error conditions. * Fixed slot manager routines to properly handle video drivers with multiple resolutions. * Added -H option to Soft/HardKickMMU. The -H option will remap the EMPLANT hardware to appear at the exact same memory location that the MAC II/x/cx hardware is located at. This means that if a program pokes $50800000 directly (serial chip location) it will now work! This is a no-no on the MAC to be doing this, but we have seen quite a few PD programs doing this, so here is a fix. * RsrvMem37ii now replaces the older RsrvMem37. The difference is that it now handles ALL of the MAC traps like the real MAC does and no longer lets the Amiga side handle any of these. The result is that you will no longer see a system crash (unless something walked on the Amiga side!), you will get the standard MAC requestor telling you to restart instead. * Added four new video drivers that replace ALL other versions completely. (The old ones still work though). The drivers allow different size screen resolutions. To change the screen size, go to the MONITORS control panel on the MAC and click on OPTIONS. You will now see a list of various sizes. Select the size you want and either RESTART or SHUTDOWN. RESTART will let you use the newly selected mode but will NOT save it into the system resource until a SHUTDOWN has happened. PLEASE NOTE:The screen resolutions are taken from the Display Database, so you will need to make sure that ALL of the monitors from the storage drawer have been moved into the DOSDrivers/Monitors drawer or you will not be able to select very many resolutions. * Added the first 256 color/16 million color support using a 3rd party video board! The Retina board is now full supported! This is a great little board! Now that we have the base for the video driver, we will be pumping these things out as soon as we get information on a video board. EGS is completed now and is being beta tested. NOTE: If you are using an 040 machine with the Retina board, you will have to use the INIT_RETINA program *before* running the emulation using the RetinaVideo driver. There is something that the Retina.library does not like about the 040 and the MAC. * Change converter to now read/write MAC disks using the AMAX cartridge and a real MAC floppy drive. This is not yet supported through the emulation. Also finally corrected ALL of the known problems with SYBIL and it now reads *AND* WRITES MAC disks properly! For those of you who have not heard yet, John Droden, the President of Utilities Unlimited, Inc. passed away on the 22nd of April, 1993. This software is dedicated in his memory... ************************************************************************** Changes to V2.4 (04/22/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Fixed ALL floppy drive routines to correctly handle PAL mode. (Not ALL of the routines were fixed before!) * Fixed serious bug in 'emplant.library' that was leaving the system in a Disable()d state when not getting IDCMP messages or signals. This could explain quite a few random problems with the video display 'locking up' when switching modes. * Fixed shutdown problem when using the -S command line option. Before a shutdown would return back to the main setup screen then instantly restart the emulation. * Fixed problem with 0 length autoconfig boards (boards told to shutup by the Amiga). These would blow up the MMU program (ie Bridgeboards that would not fit in the autoconfig space). * MMU program now skips blocks 2 megs or less. This means that the emulation now -requires- that you have at least 4 megs of memory in your Amiga. * Fixed those darn 'Cant allocate 32 bit memory' messages when some of the memory gets fragmented. You should be able to allocate memory very easily and applications launched from the startup-sequence or user-startup should now work fine with the emulation (as long as you don't get carried away and eat multi-megs of memory in the process). * Created new program called 'VBR_Mover'. This will re-locate the Vector Base Register and the associated table to/from location $0. This was done in attempt to remain compatible with those Amiga games that break the rules. It is interesting to note that the A4000 moves this on startup (setpatch does this), so you can actually use this program to obtain some compatibility with these games on an A4000. ************************************************************************** Changes to V2.3 (04/19/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Corrected problem with booting. The change in the hard drive code in V2.2 broke. If you were *not* booting from an AmigaDOS device (or did not have any devices selected in the DEVICE menu) the emulation would instantly crash. Argh. ************************************************************************** Changes to V2.2 (04/18/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Changed RsrvMem37. VBR is now moved to FAST memory. * Correct potential problems with floppys. You will probably have to make your HEAD STEP RATE value much smaller now as the disk drive code was made less timing dependant, and the head step rate with the default value sounds like the drive is going to fall apart! * Fixed floppy problems while in PAL mode. * Changed the way the hard drive partitions were recognized. Hopefully, this will prevent applications from ejecting them. * Added COPYBACK ability for 040 owners. You need to use the appropriate Hard/SoftKickMMU with the -C option to enable CopyBack mode. It is also HIGHLY recommended that you use the -F option as well to remap the kickstart ROM into fast memory (SoftKick machines do not need this). *NOTE* : You must be running System 6.0.7 or later in order to run the emulation on an 040 based machine...no exceptions. * Added support for System 7.1.0 and higher. Earlier versions of the emulation software did not support System 7.1.x at all. * Added the ability to have a background refresh. This means that if you are on the Amiga side doing something, you can make the MAC periodically update it's display at the time interval you select. This was a request from customers who use the MAC for ray tracing and such, and do not want to have to 'click' on the MAC screen (making it the 'active' window) just to see what progress has been made on the MAC side. The only video drivers that support background refresh are AmigaVideo2.7 and AGAVideo1.5, both of which also use the 256K lookup table for better speed. ALL other video drivers still work as normal, they just don't support the background refreshing. * Corrected interrupt problems in the serial dept. AppleTalk could cause the Amiga to lockup if it 'went away' while moving data. * Fixed the 'run away' clock problem. We are still not quite sure what causes the problem, but 'something' is poking different values into our (the MAC) hardware. * Added 32 bit clean interface screen, however, at this time, the ability to select a 32 bit clean system is not available. Please note that there will most likely be several new versions of software over the next week. We are frantically beta testing the 32 bit clean system and will be releasing it as soon as we are completely satisfied that it is stable....hang in there... ************************************************************************** Changes to V2.1 (03/21/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Changed RsrvMem. Added handling of ALL traps. Sometimes traps are used to restore stack and register contents saved on the exception frame. MicroSoft likes to do this to prevent the original stack and register contents from being different when you exit (I think that is the lazy way of doing things). This is why when you exit some MicroSoft programs, the emulation would crash. * Added MAC & IBM 1.44mb floppy support. This *requires* Commodore's HD floppy (Chinon 357A drive guts). SYBIL can not be used to read or write high density format. High density floppys are recognized automatically. Please note that it is not possible to format a low density disk format on a high density floppy (another MAC thing). So, you can not make a high density floppy a 720K IBM disk without covering the high density 'detect' hole (opposite the write protect hole). * Added IBM 720K floppy support. DOSInit, AccessPC, DOSMounter, and Apple File Exchange have been with tested and work as they should. You can use ANY Amiga drive for IBM 720K disks. If you want to allow the formatting of 720K disks, you need to hold down either SHIFT key while inserting a disk. If you do not hold down one of the SHIFT keys, then the disk will only be able to be formatted with 800K MAC/AMAX/EMPLANT format. Please note that you MUST be running a program that has the ability of formatting in MS-DOS (IBM) format, such as Apple File Exchange, AccessPC, DOSMounter, etc. The MAC has no way of formatting or using IBM 720 or 1.44HD disks directly without some support program(s). * Changed reading. ALL formats use FULL track reading (full track writing is being worked on now). This means that ALL formats can read properly in 16+ colors. * The floppy disk routines average 4-5 times faster than before. This is accomplished by FULL track reading, improved encoding & decoding, improved sector caching, and general optimization of code. * Fixed floppy formatting problem that required a floppy to be formatted twice before it was usable....no, you all were not going crazy. :-) * Fixed Format & Verify return error messages. I walked on D0 with one of the SYBIL.LIBRARY routines called after formatting or verifying an entire disk. Formatting and Verifying ALWAYS returned success. * Removed ability to format IBM disks by holding down the SHIFT key on a format. Since the MAC can not read or write IBM disks, it made no sense to allow 720K MAC formatted disks that would not work on an IBM machine. Disks formatted in IBM format were in fact IBM disk format with MAC DOS on them. Pretty useless. * Added experimental iconify routine. Ok, you asked for it, so you got it. Once the emulation has started, you can click in the upper left corner of the window (one behind the info window) on the 'close window' gadget. This will iconify the window to a small window on the WorkBench. * NOTE * Currently, there is no way to expand it back to the full size window when the emulation is running. If you 'SHUTDOWN' on the MAC, the window will expand back to full size. ** NOTE ** OS1.3 users! Due to our extensive use of the Amiga's operating system (and our need for speed), this will be the *last* version of the MAC II/x/cx emulation software that will work under OS1.3. From here on out, we *will* be calling OS2.x specific routines. A4000/A1200 systems will also be using OS3.x specific calls. ************************************************************************** Changes to V2.0 (02/19/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Changed RsrvMem. Moved multi-tasking handling routines into FAST memory resulting in a speed up of up to 20%! RsrvMem also corrects 68040 problems. *NOTE* Please put this as the *very first* item in your S:STARTUP-SEQUENCE. It *must* be run before 'setpatch'. SETPATCH *must* be used if you have a 68040 processor or the MAC will crash. * Fixed 68040 problems with MAC II emulation setup menus. * Miscellaneous cleanup and fixes. * Fixed a few cosmetic problems and renamed the 'SyQuest' program to 'MAC_HDSetup'. Fixed 68040 problems as well. * A4000 owners rejoice! You will now have the ability to run a true 640x480 de-interlaced display in your choice of 2,4,16, or 256 colors! Please note that this video driver steals a full megabyte of memory (this *is* reflected properly in the MEMORY menu). * Added 68040 specific video drivers, one with standard chunky conversion, and one with a lookup table. (V2.4 & 2.5 respectively) * NOTE TO 68040 OWNERS -- A real MAC with a 68040 (Quadras, etc.) require the use of System 7.0.1 or higher for proper operation. Although you can use any System version available with our emulator and the 68040 (that is one up on Apple), we highly recommend that you use System 7.0.1 or 7.1.0 as these systems have custom routines that bypass the necessity of certain FPU emulations by the 68040 handling routines. ************************************************************************** Changes to V1.9A (02/01/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Disabled SOUND. We were experimenting with the sound routines, and since they could cause random lockups, they should have been disabled... ************************************************************************** Changes to v1.9: (02/01/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Added SCSI device support. Enabled the EMPLANT SCSI interface so that SCSI devices can be plugged directly into the SCSI port and used. ALL known SCSI devices (hard drives, SyQuest drives, hand scanners, etc.) appear to work just fine. MAKE SURE THAT THE DEVICE IS SET FOR 'POLLED READS AND WRITES'!! BLIND READS AND WRITES COULD FAIL, DEPENDING ON HOW THE SCSI DRIVER WORKS. "DataWare" (hard drive setup software) works just fine. The SCSI enable/disable control can be found by selecting the MASS STORAGE menu option. * Added CLI input for MAC II. You can now type MAC ? and see the version and the switches (only 1 currently) that are available. The '-s' switch will skip the menu selections and immediately launch the emulator using the existing config file found in the S: directory. You will have to use RUN or RUNBACK to launch the program as it does NOT detach itself. * Changed SYBIL.library! The routines now used for reading MAC disks with SYBIL are incredibly intelligent. You can now have the calibration way off and the unit will adjust itself automatically...no more tweaking the pot for those stubborn MAC disks! ************************************************************************** Changes to v1.8: (01/27/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Fixed problem with System 7.x locking up when either the installer or the System was loaded. This problem only existed with EMPLANT boards not having the serial option. * Added new Hard/SoftKickMMU programs that fix problems with PP&S 040's (including Zeus). ************************************************************************** Changes to v1.7: (01/18/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Fixed a few problems with the DEVICE selection requestors. * Fixed (once again) 32 bit color quickdraw for the A3000s. The System gadget would often times end up corrupted. * A3000 owners rejoice! We have fixed the memory selection so that 4 or 8 megs of 32 bit memory can use the memory for the MAC system! Although not fixing the "32 bit clean" problem that plagues the MAC II/x/cx computers, it does solve the low memory problems found with most A3000s. 6 meg A3000s (4 fast/2 chip) will be able to use about 3 megs of 32 bit memory with emulation. 10 meg A3000s (8 fast/2 chip) will be able to use about 5 megs of 32 bit memory with the emulation. With either system, the amount of memory you can use will vary depending on how much memory the Amiga is using, how badly fragmented the memory is, and what type of auto-config boards are plugged into the machine. * Added command line parse routine to HardKickMMU and SoftKickMMU. There is a single argument of '-q' to not call DisplayBeep() (flash the screen) when the program is run. (You're welcome Scott!) * Fixed a few problems with the file requestor not cleaning up the window during some functions and the random crashing when doing really weird things that only the Germans would do...hahah (Sorry Albert, just had to throw that in) Changes to AmigaVideo2.2/2.3: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Fixed problem with formatting disks. With the introduction of the new keyboard routines, we broke the format routine. Basically, everytime a format was attempted, it was attempted in MAC format, which for the time being has been disabled. Formatting controls still remain the same: AMAX format - Hold down the CONTROL key before format starts. IBM format - Hold down the SHIFT key before format starts (not used yet). MAC format - Hold down both SHIFT & CONTROL keys before format starts (not used yet). EMPLANT format requires no keys to be pressed and is the default format. - NOTE - You can release a key after the formatting has started. You can NOT format under 16 color mode with any format except EMPLANT format. * AmigaVideo 2.3 uses a 256K lookup table for the Chunky to Planar conversion routines. Although this pencils out to be a 27% faster conversion, however, due to DMA contention, this is only about a 7% increase in speed with non-AGA machines. Remember, although this file is apparently smaller in size, it will remove 256K of available memory that could be used for the emulation. * Support for new memory mapping for the A3000 with 4 or 8 megs of fast memory. _Must_ be used with v1.7 or later software! * Write protected ROM image for SuperKickStart machines. * Added parsing for people like Scott Shambarger who run OS3.0 and have two hour audio samples for the screen flash. :-) Arguments: SoftKickMMU -q (-q is the only argument, this means QUIET - no flash) HardKickMMU -q (ditto) Please note - Until the next release of the MAC II/x/cx emulator, we highly recommend that you do NOT attempt to boot a MAC or AMAX formatted floppy while in 16 color mode....you will most likely see a system crash! Also, do NOT attempt to write data to even an EMPLANT formatted floppy while in 16 color mode. We have seen that DMA contention (especially on slower machines) is so severe that the floppys do not function properly with the existing driver while in 16 color mode. 2 & 4 color modes have no problems with any format. HARD DRIVE USERS -- DON'T WORRY ABOUT 16 COLOR MODE, IT ONLY AFFECTS FLOPPYS! :-) ************************************************************************** Changes to v1.6: (01/16/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Fixed System7.0/7.1 to function properly. The ADB routines were changed in System 7.x and the Mac was waiting on interrupts to happen that never did. * Fixed 32 bit color quickdraw for all Systems. A3000 owners can now use the 32 bit color quickdraw INIT file in their System folder. * Fixed CPU identification. Previously, we just told the Mac that it was a MAC IIx (because they have six NuBus slots compared to the Mac IIcx's three slots) with a 68030 CPU. There is a potential problem with some Mac software calling 68030 only routines if you had a 68020, or worse yet, calling 68030 cache routines if you had a 68040. * Fixed problem using MacBinary ROM images. Yes, I goofed. I did correctly identify the ROM image as MacBinary, however, since MacBinary files contain a header (128 bytes long) I simply forgot to add 128 to the start of the ROM position. So, when the failsafe routines looked at the ROM, they reported that the ROM image was unusable...I guess those routines work just fine. :-) * Completely rewrote the DEVICE interface. A more reasonable/easier approach to selecting devices was necessary. I think that this is the answer! The LEFT window shows the devices that can be used with emulation. The RIGHT window shows the devices that you have selected (so far) to use with the emulation. The LEFT list of devices is sorted alphabetically. The RIGHT list of devices is in the order that you selected them. This is the order that the Mac will attempt to boot them in. For example, if you have six devices selected, two of which are bootable, whichever of the two bootable devices appears in the list first will be booted from; even if the two devices are last two in the list. Non bootable devices are things those that do not have a Mac System/Finder on them, including unformatted devices. * Rewrite of nearly all code. This was necessary in preparation for the Mac IIsi/ci list. The way the software is written, by simply supplying a list of patch locations, all of the existing patch routines for the Mac II/x/cx emulation can be used to patch the Mac IIsi/ci ROMs. There really is not much difference between the different Macs in the Mac family. * Renamed emulation program from "EMPLANT" to "MAC II". (Yes, we are gearing up for the other emulation modules, so we had to start calling them by their proper names) * Reduced custom screen colors from eight to four. This saves CHIP memory and speeds things up. * Added ability to change the video refresh rate while the emulation is running. Added ability to "Power OFF" the Mac while it is running (in case the Mac side crashes or you are too lazy to do a shutdown). I also made the emulation memory usage information a seperate window. This seemed to confuse a lot of people that were not interested in this information. * Fixed slow mouse problem. The previous video drivers had a problem with moving in the positive (RIGHT/DOWN) direction. If you moved the mouse really, really slow, the mouse pointer (called a 'cursor' in the Mac world) never moved at all. An error was found in the routine that converted Amiga mouse hardware data into the data the Mac uses. * Fixed random lockup problems when switching color modes. We found out that Intuition does not like the OpenScreen() and OpenWindow() functions to be called from within interrupt code, so, we now use signals. * Completely rewrote the keyboard handling routines. We now use the Mac's window to send IDCMP RAWKEY messages. We convert these to the key codes needed by the Mac. * Optimized Chunky-to-Planar conversion routines. The 16 color mode gets faster every time! We got another 13.3% increase in speed. * No longer holds off interrupts. The last version of RsrvMem held off ALL softints and level 2 interrupts. This resulted in some really strange things happening. Under OS1.3, things like MOD players, Imploder, or any other program that used interrupt driven music would play at about 1/10th the normal speed. Also, uploading with a terminal program would give you about 1/10th of the normal transfer speed (or worse). 2400 baud transfers were averaging 23 CPS, while 14400 baud transfers would almost reach 80 CPS. ** NOTE ** With the release of this new version, you *must* be using an AmigaVideo driver v2.0 or higher. ************************************************************************** Changes to v1.5: (11/07/92) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, here it is. Full hard drive support...well sorta... * We did away with hard drive support in favor of a better, more pratical approach. We now support ANY standard AmigaDOS device that has DOSEnv variables with HiCyl/LoCyl format. This means that any device that is based on trackdisk will work. This includes ALL known hard drives (reguardless of their pysical format - SCSI, IDE, RLL, MFM, etc), recoverable RAM disks (like VD0, RD0, RAD, etc), and some networking devices as well as others. * You need not know anything about your hard drive or other AmigaDOS devices for this to work. You also do not need to have a mountlist entry for your device(s) to use with the emulation. You just need to have a properly formatted device. ALL devices must be properly formatted with either AmigaDOS's format routine or a prep program for the device (Supra uses SupraTools, Trumpcard uses TCUtils, etc). * The entire operation of the AmigaDOS device support (and it's complexity) is completely hidden from the user. This means a "fool-proof" installation. * If you select on the DEVICES gadget from the main window, you will notice a few things. First of all, it does something again. Customers who did have this option enabled will notice that little has changed in the way of looks. Secondly, you will notice four rotating gadgets. Each time you click on a gadget a new AmigaDOS device will be displayed. Only valid (HiCyl/LoCyl) devices are displayed. You will also notice that if a gadget is marked as "Unused Device", it is not possible to select the next gadget in the sequence, this is normal (e.g. If Device 2 says it is Unused, then you will not be able to change the state of Device 3). Select the AmigDOS devices that you wish to use with the emulation. People who already have a properly formatted AMAX partition can use it directly. There is no magic to an AMAX partition, it is simply MAC format on an AmigaDOS device. Same holds true for SyQuest owners....just make SURE that the cartridge is in *before* you run the emulation. Device selection is straight forward and should present too much of a problem for anyone. The maximum number of devices that are allowed is four. This will change to 16 shortly after Christmas. The maximum allowed on a real MAC is 14, however, if you disabled both floppys (did not select them), you could really use 16 different AmigaDOS devices. I think that would be a bit much, but, it will be there for those with special applications in mind. * You will also see a "Transfer Buffer Size" gadget set. This will be moving to the MEMORY screen on the next release as it really has to do with how much memory you want to allocate for the device buffer space. The MAC's own buffer size is adjustable via the control panel. The value you select here will best if it matches the control panel value. Make sure that you have the CACHE set to ON. There is only a slight speed decrease if you do not use the cache...remember, the AmigaDOS devices are cached using the ADDBUFFERS command. So, basically, the memory selection set by the "Transfer Buffer Size" is the middle man between the AmigaDOS device and the MAC. The Amiga fetches the data into it's own caches (increased in size by the ADDBUFFERS command), then that data is passed to us, and we then pass the data to the MAC. So, you can see that if one buffer is smaller than the other, you could have a bottle neck effect. Experiment! There is nothing you can do to harm your devices. How safe is the hard drive support? Well, let's put it this way... If your hard drive is properly formatted, you will NEVER have a problem. We check the HiCyl/LoCyl and the start position variables EVERYTIME the hard drive is accessed. The reason is simply...if something changed the DOSEnv table, there is a possibility that the hard drive could be written to an area outside of the defined range, thus trashing whatever was there before. We check every time to make sure that it hasn't changed size or position on us...and if it does, we shut down the emulation instantly, and report the problem. It is possible that something either on the MAC or the Amiga side "walked" on memory and causes the DOSEnv table to change. I think everyone will appreciate this safety feature, although, manually altering the table was sufficient for our testing, we have never seen this actually happen. So, I am confident (to the point of being cocky..hehe) that these routines are completely safe. Another thing, if you decide to format a device, put a System Folder in the Device, and then delete the System Folder, you will have to reformat the drive. This is a MAC thing, we didn't event it. What happens is that the boot block never gets cleared, so the device will try to boot because the boot block is still valid. When the device doesn't find the System or Finder, it crashes violently (our MACs go out to la-la land and make neat noises and colors). :-) __________________________________________________________________ WHAT HAS CHANGED? Well, in a word, EVERYTHING! The *only* programs that you can use from the previous versions of EMPLANT are the RSRVMEM34 and RSRVMEM37 programs (although we will have new versions of those in the next few weeks). ALL of the LIBRARYs are NEW. DELETE your old versions completely, and replace them with the new versions included in this archive. Delete your old PRAM.config as well as your MACII.config files, they have changed too. The main program, "EMPLANT" has grown quite a bit since the v1.4. The larger size is mostly due to the extensive error handling now built in. The type and VERSION number of the MAC ROM image you have will be displayed and will tell you if you can even use the ROM image or not (thanks to Steve Winokur and Mark Blanke for their help testing this out). There are new versions of the various MMU programs. You must use the new versions with the v1.5 EMPLANT software. A special video driver has been created for those with MMU's. This driver is substantially faster than the non-MMU version (except for 16 color mode, which we have not had to time to change the routines to use the MMU yet). You will find that this version will run as fast (or faster depending on what you are doing) in 60 FPS (new mode) than 6 FPS did. Four color mode is the same or faster than two color mode. 16 color mode (when finished) will be only slightly slower than two color mode, giving a VERY usuable 16 color MAC. To use this new video driver, you MUST be using one of the MMU programs on this disk (SoftKickMMU, HardKickMMU, or ImageMMU). ************************************************************************** Changes to v1.2: (11/23/92) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Memory now allocated as contiguous memory to minimize fragmentation. * User interface completely re-written to allow memory selection from any block (type) of memory. * Moved video refresh gadget to the Video Options window. * Fixed problem with configuration. You no longer have to save the configuration, exit and restart to use changed settings. * Fixed AmigaVideo v1.2-->now v1.4. Major oversight=bitplane pointer locations were fixed, and if the OS used oddly spaced bitplanes, the colors went bananas and often crashed the system. * Fixed ReStart option. Now does proper screen closing. We forgot to clear out the fake SWIM and ASC buffers. * Fixed ShutDown option. Totally re-wrote the startup and shutdown procedures, thus curing the wild crashes often experienced. * Fixed problem with high memory (A3000 owners should be happy now). :-) Memory is mirror'd allowing high memory to be used like low mapped memory. * Added caching to EMPLANT floppy format. Substantial difference in speed, especially when in heavy DMA contention. * Fixed interrupt locking problem caused by task switching into an interrupt. * Added NOCLICK option to floppys and turned off "euro-hacker" Power LED flashing when reading sectors (by popular demand). * Fixed floppy selection problem when exiting the floppy menu and returning. * Added version strings to all programs (OS2.x/3.x $VER: style). * Fixed EMPLANT.library routines for determining what kinds of chips are installed on the EMPLANT hardware. * Fixed DUMP256K to use expansion.library located EMPLANT hardware. * Added MAC compatible RS422-->RS232 hardware handshake schematic (IFF pic file) for those of you wanting RTS/CTS ability. * Added complete "walk through" help file on release disk. * Cleaned up code, removed some debugging LED flashing. Hey! If you're really bored, hold down the joystick button when starting the emulation (hold it until the boot screen appears). Now that the system is completely stable, we are going back to look at the hard drive again. We re-wrote a lot of the code because of the errors that we encountered. It appears that the problems really were caused by the interrupts locking up the system, and perhaps signalling problems (all have been corrected). Hang in there people! We are going as fast as we can... ************************************************************************** Changes to v1.1: (11/01/92) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * The SCSI has been disabled due to unknown random crashing that results in total catastrophe (read as _corrupted hard drive_). * Sound is not available currently. * Apple File Exchange does not function (reads/writes AMAX format instead of IBM...argh!) * Added ability to read & write AMAX formatted disks. * MAC writing has been disabled, reading is fine. * Reselected keys for various functions- * Screen Front to Back: ALT * (keypad) Screen Back to Front: ALT / (keypad) * Format EMPLANT: Default (no key press) Format AMAX: Hold CTRL until format begins Format IBM: Hold SHIFT until format begins Format MAC: Hold CTRL & SHIFT until format begins * ROM Dump temporarily moved to seperate program (saves file as RAM:testfile). Supports 256K ROM SIMM. DIPS not supported...next version. :-) * Added disk Eject/Insert Sprites- (Number of Disk Sprite represents the MAC drive number) X = Eject this disk (The disk can now be safely ejected) ? = Re-Insert the disk. (You must have ejected the disk w/o the MAC telling you to do so) * Changed format/verify routines to allow screen refreshes. * Screen refresh speed enhanced (15% speedup). * Removed AE HD drive auto-eject (will be back next version). Included is a file called "utils". This is a file compressed in .LHA format. Decompress this file to either RAM or your hard drive. The file will be over 800K. Now, use the "Converter" program and convert from FILE to EMPLANT (or AMAX if you like). The disk created will contain a file called ROM INFO, which is used to dump ROMs on a real MAC. You will need an Apple System disk in either AMAX, MAC (if you have SYBIL), or EMPLANT format. Systems 6.02, 6.04, 6.05, 6.07, & 7.0 (if you have a hard drive) will work. These systems can be obtained from MAC dealers as well as public forums such as GEnie, BIX, and FTP sites. Added empser.device to release disk. This is the highspeed Amiga serial device driver using the EMPLANT's hardware (if you have the serial option). ************************************************************************** Release v1.0: (10/06/92) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, here's hoping it works on ALL systems! Please leave comments/questions/criticisms/flames/etc. on our support BBS: (602) 453-9767 24hrs v.32bis+/v.32bis/v.42bis 2400-19200 true connect. Jim Drew * Joe Fenton