Hardware > Firebee

Atari Coldfire Project Reloaded

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Gaga:
Na Bild am Sonntag natürlich ;-)

Mathias:
BaS ist das Basis-System das, vereinfacht gesagt, einerseits dafür sorgt daß die ganzen Datenströme richtig hin- und hergeschickt werden, und andererseits auch die fehldenden 68k Befehle ordentlich verarbeiten soll.
Beispielsweise gibt  es dann einen Pseudo-Supervisor Mode auf dem 68k-Programme laufen, und auch einen weiteren echten ColdFire supervisor Mode.

Für ernsthafte und vor Allem technisch richtige Erklärungen, müßte man aber Fredi bitten. ;)

Mathias:
So, ich wollte gestern noch was zum derzeitigen Status schreiben, hab dann aber die Zeit nicht gefunden Untenstehendes auf deutsch zu übersetzten. Hier also mal einfach mein Mail an die öffentliche ACP Liste. Die ganz kurze Variante auf deutsch; die Hardware könnte jederzeit verschickt werden, an Menschen die sie dann selbst flashen können. Nachdem die Software zum Flashen, aber noch nicht umfassend getestet ist, könnte es sein daß man sich die Konfigurationen noch komplett killt. Macht es daher derzeit Sinn die noch nicht wirklich nutzbare FireBee zum Versenden für technisch versierte Leute anzubieten, oder sollten wir noch ein wenig warten?
Es hat sich über die Liste noch niemand außer Mono aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum gemeldet und eine Meinung abgegeben, … ?


--- Zitat ---Von:     "Mathias Wittau" <wittau ät lnxnt.org>
Betreff:     [Atari-coldfire] FireBee Status and Shipping Delay?
Datum:     Mi, 1.12.2010, 03:04
An:     atari-coldfire ät lists.lnxnt.org

Hi Everyone,

the last weeks I put some pressure on the developers, to keep our estimated shipping date "2nd half of 2010", as always published. As you know the hardware is ready for several months now, and the development freaks are working hard in their spare time to make the software ready for being able to ship the hardware.

The main goal is recently to develope the software to be able to do all future flash-tasks by software. Recently you need several different hardware addons for developers to flash the FireBee (JTAG cable, BDM, etc. etc.) and be able to use advanced TOS, FPGA configurations, PS/2 implementation, etc. etc. .

The situation is, that we are still some steps away from using the FireBee with all our 68k Atari applications. EmuTOS works as native CF OS. FireTOS is much more advanced in direction complete 68k instructions (remember Didier had seveal years with the ColdFire Evaluationboard), but we will for sure not be possible to deliver the machines for "simple users" (customers without electronic experiances) in complete ready configuration the next weeks.
So I asked again and again for possibilities to ship to "technically experianced customers", and created some pressure (that is not common in free projects). Several developers told me they expect you - the prepaying people - to find the FireBee at the recent stage useless. I represented the postition of "better delivering as soon as possible", so that you have your hardware at home, and can follow the ongoing development and have to flash the machines more often until they act as "real Ataris".

So we now decided, to talk about this issue and the possibilities with you together - as you are mainly concerned about this discussion. ;)

We like to be clear what the status is, and discuss the possibilities now.

Didier wrote a tool for doing these flashing tasks, and Henk was able to build it as ColdFire application. But there is maybe still the possibility to trash the complete software. So several developers told me, it would be better to do further tests and have an aditional delay, instead of making an offer to ship immediatly to advanced users, and maybe have to return some FireBees back to Medusa subsequent to killing the EEPROM configuration.

Here are some parts of our internal development forum regarding the absolute necessary flash software:


Vincents explenations from today:

---------

The FireBee has 2 updatable components:

1) The Flash (what I often call the EEPROM).

It can be updated either:
a - Via the BDM interface, using the CF-Flasher tool on a Windows computer. I do that all the time. This solution always work, even if everything else is trashed.
b - Via a ColdFire program. This can be dBUG (reading the software from another computer through Ethernet), Didier's flash tool running on FireTOS or EmuTOS (when debugged), or some other future program.

Currently, the Flash contains the following software:
- the BaS or dBUG (not both - but should be improved)
- the FPGA software
- EmuTOS for ColdFire
- FireTOS (cannot work from the Flash yet)
All these software components could be updated as described above.

2) The PIC

It can be updated either:
a - Via the JTAG interface, with external hardware. Currently, only Fredi and Alan have such hardware (I don't).
b - Via some software. Alan has enumerated the potential methods (none currently works):

So really, we should wait to have something updatable and at least a bit usable before thinking to ship something.

---------


Alans explenation about the PIC programming options:

----------

There are three options for PIC programming....

1. Directly from FPGA as it has directly attached to the PIC programming circuit.

2. MCF via the serial port at 115200 baud. This is the code that Fredi has already implemented in the PIC but untested.

3. FPGA via software UART. Not currently working, and waiting for code from Fredi to prove that connection is working.

No. 1 is the best option as it doesn't matter whether there's any code in the PIC or not as it can be completely reflashed. But Fredi should be able
to confirm if this is possible and how to access from an application as I'm not sure how it's implemented in the FPGA.

No. 2 should be testable in a short space of time, but it's hard to say a time I'm afraid.

No. 3 non-functional.

------------



So what do you think about this issue? I know there are several poeple at this mailinglist who have the knowledge for flashing the FireBee by themselves - what do you think?


regards

Mathias




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https://lists.lnxnt.org/mailman/listinfo/atari-coldfire




--- Ende Zitat ---

Heinz Schmidt:
Hallo Mathias,

ich habe die Infos auf der Mailinglistegerade erst gelesen. Wenn ich das richtig verstanden habe, ist zum Flashen derzeit noch zusätzliche (recht teure) Hardware nötig. Da ich mir die im Moment eh nicht leisen kann, warte ich gerne auf die Fertigstellung der Flashsoftware.

Gruß Heinz

Mathias:
OK Heinz. Deine Posititon ist soweit klar.



Die Grundsatzfrage lautet:

Die Hardware eher bald ausliefern, und Allen Vorbestellenden die Möglichkeit geben die Weiterentwicklung der Software selber mitzuerleben, auch wenn die FireBee derzeit noch nicht wirklich einsatzfähig ist? Oder wird das eher frustrierend, und eine Auslieferungsverzögerung ist sinnvoller?


Die Spezielle Frage für Dezember lautet:

An technisch versierte Atari-User (z.B. solche die JTAG Hardware besitzten), schon demnächst ausliefern, auch wenn mit der noch nicht viel getesteten Falsh-Software die Möglichkeit besteht sich die komplette Softwarekonfiguration komplett zu zerschießen? Oder ist es auch in diesem Fall sinnvoll generell erst verspätet auszuliefen, um z.B. Rücksendungen an Medusa wegen fehlender Flash-Hardware zu vermeiden?

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