SATA controller for Amiga computers?

[jcanodk]

Head over to the DickeOlga project - the 030 board for A2000. It has m.2 and sata directly on board ... So it's definitely possible, just no interest in developing it on a Zorro or accelerator board.
Remember that most hardware development is made by a few enthusiasts and they hardly ever get paid anything.

 

[8 Bit Dreams]

We have more SATA soon


This is full size Z2/Z3 Network card with IDE 40pin, 44pin, CF Card Slot, and SATA / M.2 NVME SSD...
(SATA connector is on the backside)

This card is in betatest phase currently, we really hope to get it working in full Zorro3 mode before it'll be released..

 

[Boing-ball]

If you own a Elbox Mediator Daughterboard, there are drivers available to use PCI VIA SATA cards. Although I don’t think you will be able to boot from them.

Driver can be downloaded from here:

Elbox: Downloads

Visit www.elbox.com for the latest products for 68k/ColdFire/PowerPC Amiga computers.

www.elbox.com

 

[cloverskull]

I'd be curious to see performance numbers for both of these solutions. My assumption is that for actual good performance, the SATA or m.2 or whatever controller would need to be on the CPU card itself, no?

 

[jcanodk]

I'd be curious to see performance numbers for both of these solutions. My assumption is that for actual good performance, the SATA or m.2 or whatever controller would need to be on the CPU card itself, no?

It doesn't really matter... For me at least, the issue is sourcing aging pata drives or stacking adapter on adapter just to have a bootable disk. If any cheapo m.2 can be used - then I'm happy

 

[8 Bit Dreams]

I'd be curious to see performance numbers for both of these solutions. My assumption is that for actual good performance, the SATA or m.2 or whatever controller would need to be on the CPU card itself, no?

Of course it'll make whole thing much faster. Remember these thumb rules:
Z2 Maximum is 3.5MB/s raw data
Z3 Maximum is 6.5MB/s raw data

So, You can't get more than Zorro is capable to transfer..

 

[cloverskull]

6.5mb/s is decent but I'm sure if things were built onto CPU cards we could get blazing fast speeds. I don't know how much it would make a difference but I love near instantaneous opening of folders in Workbench

 

[JHanna]

We have more SATA soon

View attachment 2510377
This is full size Z2/Z3 Network card with IDE 40pin, 44pin, CF Card Slot, and SATA / M.2 NVME SSD...
(SATA connector is on the backside)

This card is in betatest phase currently, we really hope to get it working in full Zorro3 mode before it'll be released..

THIS IS THE PRODUCT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR MANY YEARS FOR!!

Please excuse my excitement

 

[8 Bit Dreams]

6.5mb/s is decent but I'm sure if things were built onto CPU cards we could get blazing fast speeds. I don't know how much it would make a difference but I love near instantaneous opening of folders in Workbench

Well, we are using SATA translator chip that translates IDE signals to SATA and back. unlike SCSI - IDE transfers depending on the CPU is used. 060 can do more than 030... We have approx. 10MB/s on Fat Olga, and it's 030..

 

[JHanna]

Well, we are using SATA translator chip that translates IDE signals to SATA and back. unlike SCSI - IDE transfers depending on the CPU is used. 060 can do more than 030... We have approx. 10MB/s on Fat Olga, and it's 030..

Ah.

So it's not native SATA then?

 

[8 Bit Dreams]

Of course not... Amiga does not support SATA natively..
So You need to convert IDE signals to SATA standard somehow... It is more like IDE with SATA adapter on the PCB, however, thanks to LIDE Bootrom it can make Longword transfers, hence it is faster than standard A4000's IDE

 

[Lakrits]

I've been waiting for something like this. Just because SATA drives, HDDs and optical ones, are avaliable to buy new while PATA drives are not. At least not around my parts of the world. So, I'm very interested in getting one of those cards for my 4000.

 

[Xanxi]

We have more SATA soon

View attachment 2510377
This is full size Z2/Z3 Network card with IDE 40pin, 44pin, CF Card Slot, and SATA / M.2 NVME SSD...
(SATA connector is on the backside)

This card is in betatest phase currently, we really hope to get it working in full Zorro3 mode before it'll be released..

Awesome! But i suppose it can't be made as a half size Zorro card to not waste the inline ISA/PCI?

 

[JHanna]

Of course not... Amiga does not support SATA natively..
So You need to convert IDE signals to SATA standard somehow... It is more like IDE with SATA adapter on the PCB, however, thanks to LIDE Bootrom it can make Longword transfers, hence it is faster than standard A4000's IDE

What I'm saying is, is there no way to bypass the whole IDE stage and go from a SATA controller straight to the Z3 bus so we can get around 13MB/sec or what ever future Busters can provide?

(I realise this might mean the SATA will need custom ROMs or something to make it bootable)

 

[8 Bit Dreams]

Well... Short answer is "No!"
No one will design HW based on something that doesn't match standards - that's total waste of time, and will not work on the native system... Absolute maximum for Z3 are 6.5MB/s raw data with standard chipset.. You can't do any magic and override that. Only accelerator card with controller on board can avoid this limitation.. Like Pistorm32 for Bigbox - it reaches appropriately 18MB/s...

 

[JHanna]

Well... Short answer is "No!"
No one will design HW based on something that doesn't match standards - that's total waste of time, and will not work on the native system... Absolute maximum for Z3 are 6.5MB/s raw data with standard chipset.. You can't do any magic and override that. Only accelerator card with controller on board can avoid this limitation.. Like Pistorm32 for Bigbox - it reaches appropriately 18MB/s...

Ah I thought Z3 could hit around 13.5MB/Sec.

Oh well

 

[qz3fwd]

6.5mb/s is decent but I'm sure if things were built onto CPU cards we could get blazing fast speeds. I don't know how much it would make a difference but I love near instantaneous opening of folders in Workbench

That is if the Motorola can support "blazing" fast speeds.

 

[cloverskull]

I meant that as relative to other storage solutions on the Amiga.

 

[Xanxi]

Frankly, there is more difference on the Amiga between a floppy based system and a hard drive at 2,5 MB/s than between harddrives at 2,5 MB/s and 15 MB/s.
Seems more important to me to have a half zorro card rather than those maxi size 340 mm.

 

[Lakrits]

Well... Short answer is "No!"
No one will design HW based on something that doesn't match standards - that's total waste of time, and will not work on the native system... Absolute maximum for Z3 are 6.5MB/s raw data with standard chipset.. You can't do any magic and override that. Only accelerator card with controller on board can avoid this limitation.. Like Pistorm32 for Bigbox - it reaches appropriately 18MB/s...

Is there a Pistorm32 avaliable for Bigbox yet, or is it just testing so far?