Slow A1200 IDE speeds with Blizzard 1260 and IDEfix Express / FastIDE1200

  • Thread starter Thread starter keropi
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 42
  • Views Views 1783
Amigaz said:
Just the maprom jumper in the 1260? I could never get that to do it's sexy thing on my 1230 MKIV so I had to use MUFastROM from the MMULibs pack.
1.7 MB/s is if I understand correctly the max you can get out out the A1200 built in slow assed IDE interface :cautious:

Hehe, started messing here also and burning dough just like old times :LOL:
I sold off alot of exotic Amiga gear ages ago but kept some "nice to have's" which I am glad I did back then
Click to expand...

maprom + blizkick as it is also needed to do the actual maprom function - the jumper alone does nothing but without the jumper set then blizkick does not work
my exotic amiga stuff is long gone and I kept almost nothing , what I have is thanks to mfilos that gave me his spare A1200 and A600 and I started building upon them
luckily I do not feel the need to go big-box again and tbh with the current prices it's not even possible :censored:
 
keropi said:
maprom + blizkick as it is also needed to do the actual maprom function - the jumper alone does nothing but without the jumper set then blizkick does not work
my exotic amiga stuff is long gone and I kept almost nothing , what I have is thanks to mfilos that gave me his spare A1200 and A600 and I started building upon them
luckily I do not feel the need to go big-box again and tbh with the current prices it's not even possible :censored:
Click to expand...
Yes, you're right. I had forgot how that stuff worked when I started using Amiga's again .. you can forget alot after 15+ years 😅

Awesome that mfilos could reach out and help, even A1200's have become quite expensive.
Remember when we were messeing with those big box, soaped up Amiga's? Flaky, sanwhiced expansion hell and buggy software on top of that. I don't miss it either but it was fun to have tried it out at least. I kept two big box Amiga's only ... I wish I had kept my A3000 .. it's a really nice machine with a sexy chassi also
 
Amigaz said:
Yes, you're right. I had forgot how that stuff worked when I started using Amiga's again .. you can forget alot after 15+ years 😅

Awesome that mfilos could reach out and help, even A1200's have become quite expensive.
Remember when we were messeing with those big box, soaped up Amiga's? Flaky, sanwhiced expansion hell and buggy software on top of that. I don't miss it either but it was fun to have tried it out at least. I kept two big box Amiga's only ... I wish I had kept my A3000 .. it's a really nice machine with a sexy chassi also
Click to expand...

heh yeah I have forgotten MANY stuff as well! but I am asking around and helpful people come to the rescue :D
mfilos is a good friend, he gave me that stuff some 5 years ago or something - upgraded too - but only recently I started seriously messing again
and ofcourse I remember the ppc-powered discussions :D the A3000 is a great looking machine to have but back then I only cared about the AGA machines - needed to have the best :LOL:
 
Back in the day I used Blizkick to load in extra modules, it was indeed tricky to setup but made quite a difference.
 
fitzsteve said:
Back in the day I used Blizkick to load in extra modules, it was indeed tricky to setup but made quite a difference.
Click to expand...
Yeah, Now I remember 😀 That was a hot thing back then ... when the Phase 5 and DCE made accelerators was the thing
I built my own ROM's files back then with modules of choice and used BlizKick to load the file into RAM
 
at least for basic ks->ram functionality things are simple: C:BlizKick * QUIET
(or replace * with the full path of a custom rom image in the hdd , ie C:BlizKick devs:custom.rom QUIET )
and you are done!
 
Funny, i have the exact same problem these days.

I have one of my A1200 (blue case, recapped 1D4 mobo) with an usual slow IDE access.
The system is the clone of another A1200 with same hardware (Blizzard 1260, Indi MK3, Subway or Freeway), except the blue one has an AmiblasterCP and a Gayle adapter.
The blue one is unusually slow with 1,2 MB or 1,4 MB/s with two different SD adapters and SDHC of good brands, and 1,6 MB with a m2 SSD and IDE adapter.
The original A1200 has 2,5 MB/s out of mSata SSD and IDE adapter.
Software wise, they are the same ON KS3.1 OS3.1 with maprom, with LoadV43scsidevice, NDSPatch and IDEfix97.

Until now, i can't find the issue. Unless the Gayle adapter has something to do with this, or that the recap process has changed something.
Original one runs at 50 MHz whereas the blue one is at 56 MHz but normally the faster the CPU the faster the IDE.
 
The Gayle adapter what is it? Part of an idefix-express like device? In my case it did gave a speed boost - both with the original idefix express and the Amiga kit fastide controllers
I cannot see how a recap can affect ide speed, there is something else going on
What if you use the exact same drive with OS, what happens then?
 
Just to add. Maybe down to the Filesystem being used. I find PFS3 has the edge over FFS. Although the whole point of the Blizzard 1230, 1240 & 60 cards was to use the SCSI add-on card to gain DMA and faster speeds.
 
Boing-ball said:
Just to add. Maybe down to the Filesystem being used. I find PFS3 has the edge over FFS. Although the whole point of the Blizzard 1230, 1240 & 60 cards was to use the SCSI add-on card to gain DMA and faster speeds.
Click to expand...
Yeah, PFS3 has a small speed boost advantqge compared to FFS
With the small footprint with a ZuluSCSI RP2040 compact it should be possible to use it internally and hook it up to the SCSI kit IV.
 
I use SFS myself. I haven’t swap disks between the computers so far because it is too much of a hassle and one of them has worn out screw holes i don’t want to damagae more.


The gayle adapter is a clipon addon which severak functions. Corrects pcmcia bug, gives reset pins, gives pcmcia activity led, gives interrupt pins for a clockport expander and gives an onboard clockport. I use it to have a second clockport.

About using scsi, i agree it is better but bluescsi mounte internally has been a epic failure to mee (see mu thread).
 
Internal IDE with ACA1260, and a full weekend trying to remember all the little A1200 tricks :p

View attachment 2521787

Not all CF cards I've tested perform this well with reads (and conversely, some of the "slower" cards perform better in other metrics) but... not bad! The IDE speeder is still being actively tweaked so I'd guess that values are subject to change. Something like DiskSpeed is of course way better for testing changes once you're in the ballpark.
 
The ACA1260 seems seriously optimized but i don’t want it. Price is insane and there is a so called licence to pay on top of that. People complain about the fan and i don’t like the design of the card protubering underneath the computer. There are plenty of other boards now and just the Vampire V2 does better by a large amount for a small price (yes 68080 is great).
 
Yeah, the choice we have now is ridiculous compared to 15 - 20 years ago. I'm more interested in nostalgia, so it's Motorola under the hood, and seeing how well it can run when the surrounding hardware is dialed in. For me the A1200/060 was all about demos, so this card ticked the right boxes. The IDE speeder is just a bonus, though I was surprised to see 7.5 MB/s without Gayle adapters or anything.

Price is insane and there is a so called licence to pay on top of that. People complain about the fan and i don’t like the design of the card protubering underneath the computer.
Click to expand...

I didn't think the price was insane at all, but I bought the '040 card and upgraded it. The Blizzard 1260 was also expensive when I bought it new (wish I'd kept it 🤦‍♂️), even more with inflation, and especially the fact I was early 20s then and broke. The licensing doesn't bother me, it makes sense considering each core is tailored. Fan noise is negligible here, but I don't expect silence with any fan let alone a small one. I like that the CPU faces down otherwise all that heat is dumped into the case, then I'm tempted to add 40mm intake/exhaust fans in addition to the one on the CPU (but then there's dust ingress, noise, a bunch of extra wires and fiddly BS, etc etc). I actually grew to appreciate the Blizzard over the Apollo for that reason, and since I already keep the Amigas on thin cork tiles so I can slide them around the desk for easy cleaning, the small extra height is a non-issue for me.

I have to say I find all of the accelerator cards interesting to some degree or another, and if I had more time and cash to burn (and Amigas to put them in) I'd probably grab a Vampire, a Trinity, and maybe hunt down another Blizzard 1260 🙃
 
TF1230 or 1260 produce a lot more speed on their IDE connector trough the lide driver.
These cards like Ripple IDE use the same driver https://www.amibay.com/threads/ripple-ide-controller.2446843/

Thing is, I've seen what PiStorm 32 can do and will do with more development and I have one now, still need to build it in, but once it's in there, I don't think I want to go back to regular cards.
Don't get me wrong here, I will keep the TF1230 and Blizzards's 1230, but I have no need for a 060, might be nice to have a Trinity if they ever come in stock, as I have 2 XC060's laying here, but I'm not going to pay hunderds of euro's for an 71E41J compared to the cost of a full PiStorm set, which new lies around the 250 euro mark.

And I've been there, done that, literally, I've owned all the greats, Cyberstorm PPC, MKIII and I, Blizzard 1260, Blizzard PPC upgraded Stachu edition 60/330, Blizzard 2060 and on and on.
Since Kickstart 3.2.2 every Amiga 1200 I have, has a 128GB SD card on the internal IDE and as most of you know, that won't go past 1,6MB sec, even bufferd.

But owning every model and possible configuration, I've learned that even with all that firepower, it won't be a match for an A1200 with PiStorm, yes it's emulated, but hey, with that price, you just can't beat it.
And I get the purists around here, I've been one myself, but I am content with my few 1200's and 500's and a 2500/30.
And yes, if all goes well, I'll will have a new 4000T board build and if that case that Ordyne is building https://www.amibay.com/threads/a4000t-replica.2448054/
becomes a reality, then I'll have a big box Amiga again, which will never go, cause I'm fairly certain a Pistorm for the 3000/4000 will come soon
 
Hijacking the thread a bit, but.... Any tips for getting the FastATA working with OS3.2? I have two (original MK1 from my towerised 1200, plus a MK1 Gold) but neither seem to play nicely - the attached disk/CF card behaves exactly as on the internal IDE. However, the tool does seem to detect the FastATA and allow me to set PIO modes etc, but just doesn't seem to actually do anything.
 
ctrlbreak said:
Hijacking the thread a bit, but.... Any tips for getting the FastATA working with OS3.2? I have two (original MK1 from my towerised 1200, plus a MK1 Gold) but neither seem to play nicely - the attached disk/CF card behaves exactly as on the internal IDE. However, the tool does seem to detect the FastATA and allow me to set PIO modes etc, but just doesn't seem to actually do anything.
Click to expand...

I seem to recall that the older software on the FATATA cards are the issue rather than the hardware. For some reason If memory serves, if you put the settings in, they don’t save.

Found this, apparently try the “USE” rather than “SAVE”. Other bits about the FastATA driver:

Formatting 40Gb - Page 1

Formatting 40Gb - Page 1
forum.amiga.org
 
Last edited:
I have a Blizzard 1260. When I use the SCSI.device from Amiga OS 3.9 or kickstart 3.1.4 and higher, then the internal IDE controller become very slow.
When I use Kickstart 3.1 then my IDE controller is faster. I also get when starting SysInfo 4.4 is getting a delay before the program starts in AmigaOS 3.2.2. The latter I also get when using a TF1260.
On My Cyberstorm MK1 I don't have this problem.
 
I remember skipping the scsi.device update when running 3.9 on the A1200 for the same reason, and sticking with the 3.1 device with IDEFix. There are some alternate/patched scsi devices you can try (Doobrey's or this one), though they might add a little boot delay.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom