A1200 PiStorm Question

[maw2k]

On a scale from 1 to 100, how compatible is the 68020 cpu option compare to a real 68020 cpu card? So compatibility for demos and WHDLoad. I am wondering currently if I should go that road with my A1200 which is currently naked with no cpu/mem expansion at all.

I read somewhere "This is the most complete and compatible CPU for the emulator."

Thanks for any insight.

 

[btp]

For PiStorm32-Lite (the model that is compatible with A1200) the best option is to go with Emu68. This gives you an emulated CPU that identifies as 68040 but in reality it does not try to be an exact clone of the 040. Still the latest available version has much improved compatibility and plays very well together with Whdload. Not sure where you read about 020 emulation? Unless you are talking about Musashi which can indeed emulate an 020 but is not maintained any more and has its own compatibility issues. Taking into account all other PiStorm goodies (RTG, tons of RAM, super fast hard disks) and it's unbeatable price imho you have a true winner.

 

[Watson]

I am not going to give a scale out of 1 too 100, but I will say, running a pistorm32 with EMU68, purely setup as an accelerator board (cpu and fastram only), is your best bet, forget rtg and the hard drive setup on the raspberry, use the ide on the a1200.

This is my 2 cents from real experience.

 

[Bladejack]

What Watson said

 

[Boing-ball]

I am not going to give a scale out of 1 too 100, but I will say, running a pistorm32 with EMU68, purely setup as an accelerator board (cpu and fastram only), is your best bet, forget rtg and the hard drive setup on the raspberry, use the ide on the a1200.

This is my 2 cents from real experience.

Sorry to disagree. Running 2 of these badboys with Pi4B 4GB with the overclocking option. 1 with Mediator SX, Voodoo3, Spider-II USB and RTL8139 NIC. The other with what was once known as Caffeine OS using RTG. These things in my opinion are at 100 mark. Don’t forget though it’s still in development phase with EMU68. So check for the updates for this. But if you are into some RTG gaming such as Quake, Doom and Star Wars Dark Forces… Then this will make it a lot more of a enjoyable experience for you You also get 2GB of FastRAM! The max the Amiga can handle.

As for the IDE side. I use the built in SD card on the Pi and get 28MB/sec read write speeds. 22 MB/sec Not over clocked. So wouldn’t bother with the Amigas built in slowwwwww IDE of 1.6MB/sec…

 

[maw2k]

Not sure where you read about 020 emulation?

here: https://tech.webit.nu/pistorm-basic-configuration/

CPU type​

The easiest one, leave this at “68020”. This is the most complete and compatible CPU for the emulator.

 

[maw2k]

This gives you an emulated CPU that identifies as 68040

I cannot chose a different CPU?

 

[btp]

With Emu68 you cannot change / choose the type of the emulated CPU.
The guide you referenced is talking about Musashi on the original PiStorm.
As I explained development on Musashi has stopped for a long time now.
Emu68 is actively developed and considerably more compatible.

 

[Watson]

@Bong-ball no apology required. To each their own. I tried both the full Caffeine OS experience and went back to the basic setup.

 

[btp]

With regards to the use of RTG I suppose one big annoyance is the need to use 2 displays or keep switching between the 2 video outputs on a single display.
However this is soon going to change since Claude Schwarz (PiStorm creator) and Michal Schulz (Emu68 creator) are near finishing an addon that will pass through the RGB video in the HDMI output of the RPi and allow seamless switching between the two video signals.

Latest demo video:

 

[maw2k]

With Emu68 you cannot change / choose the type of the emulated CPU.

thank you for the clarification.

 

[Boing-ball]

thank you for the clarification.

No point in sticking with a 68020 only option. Don’t see the point. A 68040 is still compatible with all things. It’s when you hit 68060 that things can get a bit more sticky. Never looked back and very happy with the speed you get with a PiStorm and EMU68, especially with the overclocked option set If you want to stick with original speed but run Whdload for games and demos, just stick to a low end accelerator with FastRAM and possibly a FPU option.

 

[maw2k]

Somehow I got the idea that I can change the CPU on the fly based on my use case. So if I want to do a demo/game night I select 68020, if I want to do something more I select 68040 etc. ...and I began to love the flexibility of this idea ...regardless it is still a great accelerator tho.

 

[Boing-ball]

Somehow I got the idea that I can change the CPU on the fly based on my use case. So if I want to do a demo/game night I select 68020, if I want to do something more I select 68040 etc. ...and I began to love the flexibility of this idea ...regardless it is still a great accelerator tho.

Technically you can still do that. By disabling the PiStorm. But will mean just 68020 with 2MB chip only. Or you can possibly change the emulation in the FAT32 partition. EMU68 for 68040 speed. Mushashi for 68020. Will mean removing the SD card and cut and pasting files…

 

[maw2k]

so there is no way just getting ram (, rtg etc) without the cpu?

 

[miggymad]

so there is no way just getting ram (, rtg etc) without the cpu?

Simple answer? No.

More technical answer? Highly unlikely.

 

[miggymad]

If you only want extra RAM with no frills then a basic 8mb board from places like Amigakit, amigstore.eu, etc will do you fine. That should give you near as 100% compatibility with games and demos written for the A1200 and it's 68020 CPU. Bear in mind that some older games may be fussy from floppy disk and might require something like Relokick to be pre-loaded first (the original Bubble Bobble is one of those). Fortunately those are few and far between these days now that software like WHDLoad is doing all the heavy lifting for you.

TBH, the 68030, 040 and 060 CPU's are just turbo versions of the 68020. The compatibility factor is still mostly there, they just have a faster and better way of handling the instruction set and memory that can cause hiccups with badly written software.

So ...

If you want turbo-nutter speed and oodles of RAM, the PiStom is your "man" ... but be advised, there are still some issues with some software titles so bear that in mind.

If you want speed, compatibility and up to 128mb of Fast RAM, give the TF1230 or TF1260 a go. They also come in 64mb versions too if you don't need the full 128mb and they really give your A1200 a kick up the trapdoor (if you know what I mean).

 

[8bitplus]

You can underclock the Raspberry pi to lower the speed if needed on EMU68. You can do this on the config file on the fat32 partition, or by commands from the emu software. I did this for an A600 Pistorm I didn't want running at 500mips all the time.
Pistorm in both the A600 and A1200 have been very stable for me even running WHDload.