PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

User avatar
spark2k06
Core Developer
Posts: 864
Joined: Sat Jun 06, 2020 9:05 am
Has thanked: 409 times
Been thanked: 961 times

Re: PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

Unread post by spark2k06 »

kitune-san wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 6:56 am

It may be due to the fact that I fixed the CHS of the drive to h=15 S=63 in this design.
Will reformatting it with a new drive make it usable?

Okay, I understand that it is not dynamic to obtain CHS. I will prepare an image of these characteristics and let you know. I will first try running FDISK and formatting.

User avatar
spark2k06
Core Developer
Posts: 864
Joined: Sat Jun 06, 2020 9:05 am
Has thanked: 409 times
Been thanked: 961 times

Re: PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

Unread post by spark2k06 »

spark2k06 wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 7:36 am
kitune-san wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 6:56 am

It may be due to the fact that I fixed the CHS of the drive to h=15 S=63 in this design.
Will reformatting it with a new drive make it usable?

Okay, I understand that it is not dynamic to obtain CHS. I will prepare an image of these characteristics and let you know. I will first try running FDISK and formatting.

In my case, what is happening is that it is not writing anything to the SD. With FDISK I make changes, but then they are not effective when I reboot, and formatting, it goes very slow and when I finish it doesn't transfer the OS with the /S option, because it hasn't actually written anything. From Windows you see the same content as before trying to write from MiSTer, I have tested it with SD cards of various sizes:

20230428_153827-screen.png
20230428_153827-screen.png (64.53 KiB) Viewed 3854 times
20230428_155546-screen.png
20230428_155546-screen.png (155.69 KiB) Viewed 3850 times
kitune-san
Top Contributor
Posts: 401
Joined: Wed May 18, 2022 11:20 am
Has thanked: 127 times
Been thanked: 412 times

Re: PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

Unread post by kitune-san »

It is strange.
Would the results be the same using this?

Attachments
PCXT.zip
(1.39 MiB) Downloaded 108 times
kitune-san
Top Contributor
Posts: 401
Joined: Wed May 18, 2022 11:20 am
Has thanked: 127 times
Been thanked: 412 times

Re: PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

Unread post by kitune-san »

In my environment I use 2GB and 32GB cards.
The 2GB card boots successfully.
The 32GB card can be formatted successfully and access FAT, but there is a problem with not being able to boot, which I am investigating.

User avatar
spark2k06
Core Developer
Posts: 864
Joined: Sat Jun 06, 2020 9:05 am
Has thanked: 409 times
Been thanked: 961 times

Re: PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

Unread post by spark2k06 »

kitune-san wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 2:10 pm

It is strange.
Would the results be the same using this?

I still can't try it today... let's see if someone has the opportunity to try it in the meantime.

kitune-san wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 2:19 pm

In my environment I use 2GB and 32GB cards.
The 2GB card boots successfully.
The 32GB card can be formatted successfully and access FAT, but there is a problem with not being able to boot, which I am investigating.

I have also tested with 2 and 32Gb.

kitune-san
Top Contributor
Posts: 401
Joined: Wed May 18, 2022 11:20 am
Has thanked: 127 times
Been thanked: 412 times

Re: PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

Unread post by kitune-san »

When you have time, please try increasing the value of normal_spi_clock_cycle.

2023-04-28 233625.png
2023-04-28 233625.png (25.42 KiB) Viewed 3822 times

in my case...

2023-04-28 233843.png
2023-04-28 233843.png (77.38 KiB) Viewed 3822 times
User avatar
spark2k06
Core Developer
Posts: 864
Joined: Sat Jun 06, 2020 9:05 am
Has thanked: 409 times
Been thanked: 961 times

Re: PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

Unread post by spark2k06 »

kitune-san wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 2:10 pm

It is strange.
Would the results be the same using this?

I have tried it and it doesn't work either, same symptoms. Let's see if someone else tries it and confirms the problem.

kitune-san wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 2:39 pm

When you have time, please try increasing the value of normal_spi_clock_cycle.

All the same, I have made several value increases, up to 20, same result. Slow access from FDISK or formatting, and the results were not applied. Reading does seem to do it, because FDISK recognises the previously created partitions... but any attempt to change, it's not actually doing it. Anything else you want me to try, let me know.

kitune-san
Top Contributor
Posts: 401
Joined: Wed May 18, 2022 11:20 am
Has thanked: 127 times
Been thanked: 412 times

Re: PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

Unread post by kitune-san »

Fixed a bug in which the read/write command did not return an error status when an error occurred.
Not sure if this will solve the current problem, but I will upload it here.

Attachments
PCXT.zip
(1.39 MiB) Downloaded 90 times
User avatar
spark2k06
Core Developer
Posts: 864
Joined: Sat Jun 06, 2020 9:05 am
Has thanked: 409 times
Been thanked: 961 times

Re: PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

Unread post by spark2k06 »

kitune-san wrote: Sat Apr 29, 2023 4:14 pm

Fixed a bug in which the read/write command did not return an error status when an error occurred.
Not sure if this will solve the current problem, but I will upload it here.

The operation is similar, however... I have found a 2Gb card that seems to work well, both in this one and in the previous ones. However, when it comes to using FDISK to create partitions, performance is erratic. The slowness when creating them is noticeable, and sometimes it even hangs and I have to restart the computer, if warm restart, the SD stops working... it's as if the SD had been left in an unstable state.

The good news is that with this card, at least I managed to get the ZXUno version to recognise it and boot ;)

photo_2023-04-29_20-00-41.jpg
photo_2023-04-29_20-00-41.jpg (94.46 KiB) Viewed 3596 times

Have you tried using FDISK and managing the SD partitions?

kitune-san
Top Contributor
Posts: 401
Joined: Wed May 18, 2022 11:20 am
Has thanked: 127 times
Been thanked: 412 times

Re: PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

Unread post by kitune-san »

I use FDISK, which is certainly slow, but I don't feel it is unstable in my environment.

Anyway, I will buy some SD cards and try them out.

kitune-san
Top Contributor
Posts: 401
Joined: Wed May 18, 2022 11:20 am
Has thanked: 127 times
Been thanked: 412 times

Re: PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

Unread post by kitune-san »

I found some bugs in KFMMC. I will fix it.

User avatar
spark2k06
Core Developer
Posts: 864
Joined: Sat Jun 06, 2020 9:05 am
Has thanked: 409 times
Been thanked: 961 times

Re: PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

Unread post by spark2k06 »

kitune-san wrote: Sun Apr 30, 2023 5:39 am

I found some bugs in KFMMC. I will fix it.

I've gone ahead, grabbed the latest sources you've posted and now it's working perfectly with several cards I've already tested ;-)

I'll keep testing, but here is a benchmark at 4.77Mhz and full CPU speed:

4_77MHZ.png
4_77MHZ.png (146.23 KiB) Viewed 3469 times
MAX_SPEED.png
MAX_SPEED.png (143.59 KiB) Viewed 3469 times
kitune-san
Top Contributor
Posts: 401
Joined: Wed May 18, 2022 11:20 am
Has thanked: 127 times
Been thanked: 412 times

Re: PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

Unread post by kitune-san »

That's good :)

kitune-san
Top Contributor
Posts: 401
Joined: Wed May 18, 2022 11:20 am
Has thanked: 127 times
Been thanked: 412 times

Re: PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

Unread post by kitune-san »

Updated MMC drive options.

2023-05-01 000515.png
2023-05-01 000515.png (142.95 KiB) Viewed 3362 times
2023-05-01 000559.png
2023-05-01 000559.png (141.99 KiB) Viewed 3362 times
Attachments
PCXT.zip
(1.39 MiB) Downloaded 100 times
User avatar
spark2k06
Core Developer
Posts: 864
Joined: Sat Jun 06, 2020 9:05 am
Has thanked: 409 times
Been thanked: 961 times

Re: PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

Unread post by spark2k06 »

kitune-san wrote: Sun Apr 30, 2023 7:32 am

That's good :)

Thanks to kitune-san's latest improvements to SD access, which is now via SPI, it is no longer necessary to turn the ZXUno off and on after updating this core and there is no longer any problem with SD card corruption, it works perfectly!

It also takes up much less space, so it has been possible to reincorporate the Adlib sound in the whole LX9 range models, including the ZXUno :-)

The repository of the full range of Xilinx ISE-based ZXUno clones can be found here:

https://github.com/spark2k06/PCXT_Xilinx_Spartan_6

Soon I will include the UART module to be able to use the mouse, and as before, the timing constrains improvement is pending (which I have no idea about by the way), meanwhile, don't expect cycle precision in the 4.77Mhz that is set by default.

For now, access to a turbo mode is in experimental mode and you have to activate it from the MS-Dos debug, run it and launch the command o 8888 1

As always, thanks @kitune-san for your outstanding work with the SD access via SPI, and for everything else. Without your help, and that of @MicrocoreLabs I would never have made it this far and to so many FPGAs ;-)

User avatar
spark2k06
Core Developer
Posts: 864
Joined: Sat Jun 06, 2020 9:05 am
Has thanked: 409 times
Been thanked: 961 times

Re: PCXT Core Access to Secondary SD Card

Unread post by spark2k06 »

After testing it for a while and finding that it works very well, and although it is totally dispensable for MiSTer, since we have VHD mounting, I have decided that this functionality cannot be missing in the main branch and available to all users, although it may probably arouse more interest among advanced users or developers:

viewtopic.php?p=73092#p73092

2nd SD card.jpg
2nd SD card.jpg (95.54 KiB) Viewed 3180 times

As I said, the main beneficiary of this development is the Xilinx Spartan 6 family... it's a pity that the timing is not as polished as in MiSTer, where it's already close to perfection, but little by little I'm sure it will be improved, making it much more stable than it is now.

Post Reply