What is the Guru ROM exactly ? What SCSI cards support it ?
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What is the Guru ROM exactly ? What SCSI cards support it ?
Dude, you could also regroup all your SCSI questions in one thread, but it is still a pleasure to help you :)
The Guru ROM is an optimized ROM for GVP and some Commodore controllers made some years ago by a german guy. It allows faster transfer and adds support for large disks, and is generally better than the genuine GVP or Commodore ROM. However, a special adapter is needed that goes underneath the ROM and it is hard to find by now.
If you have a GVP controller (as i read in your other thread), the latest GVP ROM should be fine for almost any usage and there is no real need for the Guru ROM.
Thanks . . Interesting stuff there, but yeah don't think i need it.
Cheers
The German guy is called Ralph Babel.
Without the Guru ROM you'll not be able to use disks that are bigger than 3.78Gib (that's true 3.78Gb, not the "scam" HD makers tell in the label).
So anything above this size of drive space will not be recognized unless you do a lot of software tricks.
The HD manufacturers didn't scam anyone, they elected to use a different measurement unit (and quite rightfully, I might add) from the one the OSes used to report capacity.
As for the 3.78 GiB figure, I don't get it. It should be exactly 4 GiB.
32 bit addressing is good for 2^32 = 4294967296 bytes = 4 GiB or ~4.3 "scam" GB.
Why would the limit be 3.78 GiB? Is that something specific to the default GVP ROMs?
Actually, i had a 4 GB SCSI drive working perfect with the 4.13 (not the latest 4.15) GVP ROM and SFS on my GVP Combo 030 board.
The link to Ralph's Amiga website is here:
http://babel.de/amiga.html
There are 2 different versions of the Guru ROM. One for GVP owners and one for A2091 owners. I think the 3.78 GB limit (for older GVP ROM's) was just an arbitrary limit which was much larger than the available hard drives. The C= 6.6 ROM's had a 1GB limit as I recall.
Hi all,
would anyone be able to post in here what Guru roms there are and what is the differences between the revisions?
I have had a look around and can find the files etc but no real information, i thought it would be nice to have a listing we can keep on here for future users?
cheers, Justin
The GURU ROM is designed and developed by Ralph Babel.
The Guru ROM is a combination device, that holds a firmware memory chip referred to OmniSCSI and a 28pin adapter PCB (to increase the available driver ROM space). you need both of these to make a Guru ROM.
The Guru ROM PCB adapter comes in two flavours, one for GVP range of SCSI implementations and one for the CBM A2091 - these are substantially different and cannot be interchanged between each other.
The GuruROM (OmniSCSI) provides full addressing to disks and improves disk transfer speeds
(stock speeds)
1.7 MB/s | GVP: DMA into Chip RAM
1.4 MB/s | A2091: bus adapter chip 33C93
(equipped with Guru ROM)
3.5 MB/s | GVP: DMA into on-board RAM (except accelerators)
3.2 MB/s | A2091: DMA to Zorro-II Fast RAM
these are approximate speeds as it does depend on your systems configuration, buffers, disk-speeds. Systems equipped with fast ram outside of the 24bit address space will not perform as fast.
I would humble suggest anyone wanting to know more about the Guru ROM and its abilites, please take some time to review Ralphs website
As a personal note, I believe that the Commodore varient of the GuruROM will work in the A590 (as this is a similar controller to the A2091), and possibly the A2090A (not to be confused with the A2090), however the A2090A has not been tested
There was already a thread started on this topic:
http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php...light=guru+rom
Now, if there were an easy way to merge threads on the same topic that would be nice!
hmmm pretty close, but i want to know what the differences are between the revisions, i know what a guru rom is, but what is the difference say between 4.11 and 4.15? etc
@Justin
The differences are explained on Ralph's website. Basically the later versions support >4GB partitions. Also, the 4.x versions are the GVP ROMs and 6.x are the Guru ROM's so be careful not to confuse them!
The latest revision for GVP is 4.15 which is in the box I have here for you
(sorry workmen finished late - hence a late dinner and thus passed out before I could sort out the courier!)
Do not be fooled with the 4.5 revision being the highest, as Ralph explains - in detail as to why this is an earlier version on his site.
sorry, i just can't see it on there, it talks about 4.15 but where does it tell you about the revision changes? it does mention the playcd bug but i can't see where it tells you the difference between the roms?Quote:
Originally Posted by SpeedGeek
how many rom revisions are there?
from what I know GVP shipped with rev 3.5, with 4.11 and 4.5 following - then a final release of 4.15.
From there its onto the GuruROM
in regards as to whats fixed / improved between the versions, you will need to ask Ralph if you cannot find it on his site.
@Zetr0:
I have a Guru ROM at home for the A2091, complete with box, manual, and adapter PCB (a rare item indeed) and I can confirm that the ROM works on the A590 as well as the A2091.
I don't believe that Ralph's documentation mentions the A590, I would have to look again to be sure. It makes sense though, the A590 is essentially a 2091 in a case with a form factor that works for the 500's side mounted edge connector.
I was unaware that it could be compatible with the 2090 controller though. I am getting ready to sell an A2090 setup complete with Miniscribe 20MB drive, software, manual and cables. Since I need to test that before I sell, I will test the GuruROM as well and let you all know what I find.
@drwho
no its not compatible with the A2090, but it MAYBE compatible with the A2090A
A2090
http://amiga.resource.cx/photos/photos/a2090.jpg
(stock photo: thanks to amiga.resource.cx)
A2090A
http://amiga.resource.cx/photos/photos/a2090a.jpg
(stock photo: thanks to amiga.resource.cx)
now, remember that word MAYBE!
@Zetr0:
Ah, I see. I guess I cant test it, my board is an A2090.
Thank you for the heads up my friend, you saved me a bunch of trouble as I would have been sitting there like a dolt trying to figure out where in the blazes the Guru plugs in! :Doh:
The GURU rom gives about 1 more megabyte per second in transfer; you can download the code and burn your own ROM but the female-dog-in-heat is the adapter board. They were made only for the GURU ROM and are impossible to find. I guess you could copy one of you were so inclined. They handled CD ROMs better too
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zetr0
mine says version 4.0AF?
It probably saysQuote:
Originally Posted by Justin
FASTROM 4.0
AFDC
GVP 1991
AFDC is the ROM checksum.
This is version 3.15 of the driver.
The latest one shipped officially by GVP is probably v4.13.
indeed it does, so 4.0 is actually version 3.15, that is good info to know:thumbsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by BLTCON0It probably saysQuote:
Originally Posted by Justin
FASTROM 4.0
AFDC
GVP 1991
AFDC is the ROM checksum.
This is version 3.15 of the driver.
The latest one shipped officially by GVP is probably v4.13.
thanks:)
@Justin
I think they used two "umbrella" release numbers, 4.0 and 4.5, each one encompassing various driver revisions.
At any rate, the actual driver revision can always be obtained by issuing:
version gvpscsi.device
at a shell prompt.
Here's a photo of the three chips I have, top left is obviously the same one you have (with v3.15), top right is a v4.15 one burned by a well known for this kind of work member, and on the bottom is a v4.13 GVP upgrade chip.
As I recall it was the Omniscsi.device
@bdb
Omniscsi (omniscsi.device) is the GuruROM driver, the official GVP driver is gvpscsi.device
I'm sorry, I thought the discussion was about the GURU ROM. I wondered why folks were talking about version 4.x; since Ralph list v 6.11 and 6.14 and states it is not compatable with either the A2090 nor A2090A; I guess I missed the change in the thread topic
6.10 is is the most common version of the Guru and it's also the most stable.
I have a few of these.
yes... to be fair the conversation has .... err...meandered a little. lol!Quote:
Originally Posted by bdb
Hello Buzzy,Quote:
Originally Posted by Buzzfuzz
have you tried the latest firmware updates from Ralphs site. if so on what hardware is proving unstable?
Sorry there is some confusion about version numbers of software. The convention is to drop the zero or zeros after the decimal point, so a file version of, let's say, 4.1 is the first version in the fours; version 4.5 is the fifth, version 4.15 is the fifteenth and so on. This has been a standard used for the software annotation (imbedded notes in the source code as comments) and should be used for the description/documentation of the program. It likely goes back to the 1950's, although I haven't searched the origin date; it was in place when I started programming in 1974
I wonder if the Guru Roms would work on a UX system. Babel's site mentions nothing about Unix compatibility.
I guess one could download the Amix OS (ADF's to nine DD floppies) and try it
Hi to all
GURU ROMs can work on GVP Impact A500 HD8+ Series II expansions?
As I understand it, yes. But make sure you get the right one.Quote:
Originally Posted by merlinkv
There are 2 listed; one for GVP, the other for A2091 and similar.
Mind you, if you have the guru rom adaptor, I suppose getting the actual roms burnt shouldnt be a difficult task.
@WonkeyDonkey
Hi mate,
Do you know where I can get detailed info? PCB schematics, EPROMs needed, ... ?
I've found this one http://babel.de/amiga.html but maybe more?
The PCB for the Guru rom adapter isnt publically available. You are supposed to buy them, the rom files available to download are updates for customers.
Oh! Thanks for the info :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Bad_Ad84
Time to open a "Wanted" Thread :lol:
They dont come up very often, but if you can get the adaptor, then the binary rom images at babel.de can be used for the actual rom itself.
Using the rom without the adaptor would not work.
This message on the site though :
Note 1: You do need the adapter board! If you don't have one, then buy one from one of the few Amiga dealers left. (Yes, these adapters are still available; you know how to use Google, don't you?)
Try finding one anywhere if you can; I think this is now incorrect.
Nope, had a 6.11 once and put that with the adapter on a GVP HC+8 Series II and was very unstable, read/write errors on the HDD.
Inserted the 6.10 back, no problems.
Another GVP HC+8 Series II same problems, 6.10 no problems at all.
Could have been a screwed up eprom, but I threw it away after testing.
And like he says, changes are minimal, not even worth it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zetr0
The previous versions dont appear to be available though. My existing one is 6.11 and that doesnt work so well either. :(
Edit : Ive just been reading another thread from a couple of years back that suggests the GVP and A2091 ones are different adaptors as well.
Can anybody confirm this, or know of a way to check which one you have ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by merlinkv
Hello my friend,
the GuruROM is a combination of small daughter board and omniscsi.device firmware
Please know that the adapter is a small PCB board with a GAL cpld that allows for a larger ROM to be installed. Because of this there are two distinct types of Adapter, one for the GVP series of products and one for the CBM series of products. Sadly these adapter boards are not interchangeable due to the programming of the GAL chip.
You must ensure that get the right adapter board for you SCSI card
Well that question is answered then.
I do remember giving mine a quick try when i first got it, but the drive that showed up, well it looked no diffierent to when I was using the 4.15 rom.
I thought this did allow for bigger capacity drives to be recognised, or have I misunderstood the point of it ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zetr0Quote:
Originally Posted by merlinkv
Hello my friend,
the GuruROM is a combination of small daughter board and omniscsi.device firmware
Please know that the adapter is a small PCB board with a GAL cpld that allows for a larger ROM to be installed. Because of this there are two distinct types of Adapter, one for the GVP series of products and one for the CBM series of products. Sadly these adapter boards are not interchangeable due to the programming of the GAL chip.
You must ensure that get the right adapter board for you SCSI card
@Zetr0
Hi my friend,
Thanks a lot for the info. I've opened a thread requesting for a complete set PCB+EPROM for my GVP.
I tought these adaptors are difficult to find but I will try to buy one.
Really I don't need it to work with big HDDs (at least 2GB or 4GB). I want it only because I read in some sites about the increased stability of these Guru ROMs.
In fact I'm planning to use 2GB or 4GB CFs mounted on CF-IDE-SCSI adapters like in my other Amigas.
Stability? I doubt it.Quote:
Originally Posted by merlinkv
Compatibility? Maybe certainly for larger devices.
Speed? Yes.
Given the price of these things you'd be better off getting 4.15 and seeing if that worked for you.
@alexh
Hi mate,
I don't have the possibility to test my GVP now, but this 4.15 can work with HDDs of 2G or 4GB? I think I can burn my owm EPROM based on 4.15 image.
2GB yes. 4GB maybe.Quote:
Originally Posted by merlinkv
AFAIK it doesn't have TD64 support so AFAIK cannot use drives larger than 4GB (but I may be wrong).
http://babel.de/amiga.html
Even if you have one of the "TD64" versions of the Guru ROM you still have to NSDpatch omniscsi.device to use >4GB partitions with FFS since it only supports NSD64. This means you need a <4 GB boot partition. However, you can use SFS or PFS if you want a >4GB boot partition.Quote:
Originally Posted by alexh2GB yes. 4GB maybe.Quote:
Originally Posted by merlinkv
AFAIK it doesn't have TD64 support so AFAIK cannot use drives larger than 4GB (but I may be wrong).
http://babel.de/amiga.html
Oh! if 2GB HDDs works it's OK for my new A500 project.
Basically is one A500 with 2MB chip and 8MB in the GVP plus KS 1.3 & 3.1
My idea? run on it WB 1.3 & CWB 68k (just changing the desired CF)
Thanks for your help guys :) Much appreciated :thumbsup:
Bumping this up. I have a GVP Impact A2000+HC8 Series II card on the way with a Guru ROM 6.10 installed. Does anyone have the manual in English? I only found the German version online. Also, does this ROM require any special drivers or software? Its going in an Amiga 4000 if that matters.
Hi mate, I should have the manual as pdf and the software as dms files, so please pm me, if you want them...