X-MASS, a mass-storage expansion for all CPC.

[TotO]

The X-MASS don't buffer anything using 16-bit.
Instead, when the CPC boot or Reset, the CPLD force the CPC reset signal and send commands to the DOM to set it in 8-bit mode.
Next, the data bus is connected to the CPC and the reset signal is released to allow the CPC the be usable.
From that, you can start to access it using ATA commands through the given ports.

[arnoldemu]

The X-MASS don't buffer anything using 16-bit.
Instead, when the CPC boot or Reset, the CPLD force the CPC reset signal and send commands to the DOM to set it in 8-bit mode.
Next, the data bus is connected to the CPC and the reset signal is released to allow the CPC the be usable.
From that, you can start to access it using ATA commands through the given ports.

What are those commands? Are they ATA ones?

EDIT: I see. The device must support the "CFA feature set".
Writing 01 will put it into 8-bit PIO mode.

I wonder what the symbiface 2 does?? probably something similar...?

@Ast:

ATA PIO Mode - OSDev Wiki

This describes more. It uses the PC ports, but we can substitute those for the CPC ports.

[TotO]

Using the SET FEATURES 01h command to ENABLE 8-BIT DATA TRANSFERT.

[arnoldemu]

Using the SET FEATURES 01h command to ENABLE 8-BIT DATA TRANSFERT.

Great. Thanks

So in theory I could set it into 16-bit mode and read half the data? 

[Prodatron]

I wonder what the symbiface 2 does?? probably something similar...?

The SYMBiFACE II is working in 16bit IDE mode, so it does exactly this:

2. buffer the 16-bit data from the device so we can do 8-bit reads on cpc.

[arnoldemu]

The SYMBiFACE II is working in 16bit IDE mode, so it does exactly this:

@Prodatron: Do you know how this works exactly?

Does it hold 16-bit at a time or does it hold an entire buffer?

Does it support a specific ATA specification or can I use both "old" and "new" ide devices (e.g. an ide drive from 1997 and an ide drive from a few years ago)

[TotO]

So in theory I could set it into 16-bit mode and read half the data? 

Yes... But, you only acces the half size of the device. 
And, it only work if you directly access data without supporting any form of file system that require to not miss "FAT" bytes. 

[Prodatron]

Does it hold 16-bit at a time or does it hold an entire buffer?

It only holds one 16bit word at the same time, so that it's possible to send two 8bit bytes one after another to the CPC.
Most IDE devices don't support 8bit mode (at least it was like this in the past), so it is/was necessary to do it in this way to support all kind of harddiscs, CF cards etc.

Does it support a specific ATA specification or can I use both "old" and "new" ide devices (e.g. an ide drive from 1997 and an ide drive from a few years ago)

It doesn't care about any ATA specific stuff. It is just an interface between the CPC and the controller inside the IDE device. So you do all ATA specific stuff on CPC side (like using CHS mode, LBA 28bit addressing, LBA 48bit addressing etc.). You could also use it for connecting ATAPI devices like CD-ROMs or ZIP drives if you develop an ATAPI driver for the CPC. These devices work in a different way, they are using SCSI-like packets for the communication.

[arnoldemu]

Thanks ToTO and Prodatron. 

I will be working on implementing both in Arnold and I wanted to make sure I got the details correct.

I am planning to try and implement almost all the ATA specifications from 1-8 and writing more tests.

I've got a symbiface 2 and 8 old ide drives which i'll be trying with it. I'll get an x-mass in a few months when I have time to use it 

[arnoldemu]

disk-on-module. it is like an ssd for a cpc! 

[TotO]

disk-on-module. it is like an ssd for a cpc! 

Yes, it is.

[HAL6128]

Hi TotO,
if I apply the "Identify Device" Command on the X-Mass I receive a proper model number on word 27-46 ("IQP IDE Secure DiskOnModule"), but the datas for number of cylnders, heads and sectors seems to be by random (either &D0 or &D8).

Do you know what does it mean?

(Edit: If I connect the DOM via USB directly to PC and attach it to WinApe then the "Identify Device" put out the right datas for cylinder, heads and sectors.)

HAL6128

[MacDeath]

I went to visit Ast and we tested his X-MASS...

quite bluffing to have an "SSD" on CPC/PLUS.
Had to use SymbOS.

Was quite a pain to install properly actually.
I there a right method to get it to work from ROM and X-MASS ?

are some content needed to be put into specific folders ?

Basically we had to :
>>install the ROMs.
>>Launch it with the floppies for Apps and SymbOS (2 disks) (used an HxC of course)
>> "mount"/create the C: as the X-Mass.
>> do a setup then save it.
>>copy the .ini on the c:

the hardest part was when we tried to put the apps and utilities/OS on the X-Mass... the control panel created some sort of issue.
basically we copy pasted the contents of the system disk and apps disk into folders on the X-Mass.
then used the desktop links function to given ew addresses to the links.

Big issue was that while you can set some new address to control panel's link/shortcut, it is basically just a folder but you can't assign new addresses to the apps inside... Date and Time, desktop... couldn't open them anymore... had to anticipate and create them in the start menu, after checking the files to see their names and new address.

Does it work better if you create new links then suppress the old ones ? instead of editing the old links/icons/shortcuts ?

"apps" in the control panel are those functions or real apps ? why can't you set their adresses in some settings for the "control panel" application/folder ?
when you copy the control panel, does it corrects the addresses of the apps/panels "inside" it ?


Else SymCommander and Symshell are nice.

Symshell could use a few more mnemonics/options... hard to check a long list of files, no "dir /w" ?
But text interface is great when you don't have a good working mouse...

Symcommander is  nice but could not find all the shortcuts (are there any ? oh ok found them... ) so can be a bit painfull with a joypad. but the dual screen with it is top notch and quite modern actually.



very impressed to see SymbOS launched in 3-5 seconds and just some LED light from the X-MASS card...


Also : those pron videos seems nice but how can I put 9megs of Mode1 aerobic porn from a PC into X-MASS ?

I know you can plug the 128k Flash into a PC but is there some specifications for the files/formats ? what/how do you copy ? need some convertions ?

Does SymbOS handle the Minibooster with USB/Bluetooth into the PC ?



Tried to load some porn... err Herotic GFantasy art/photos in SymSee... had errors... those 4colours "SGX" files wouldn't work.




But Ast was quite bluffed by symbOS actually... or to have some eSSD on his amstrad too...

[TotO]

Hi TotO,
if I apply the "Identify Device" Command on the X-Mass I receive a proper model number on word 27-46 ("IQP IDE Secure DiskOnModule"), but the datas for number of cylnders, heads and sectors seems to be by random (either &D0 or &D8).

Do you know what does it mean?

(Edit: If I connect the DOM via USB directly to PC and attach it to WinApe then the "Identify Device" put out the right datas for cylinder, heads and sectors.)

I really don't know if it is significative in LBA... I have pushed the question to SyX.

[TotO]

I there a right method to get it to work from ROM and X-MASS ? [...] I know you can plug the 128k Flash into a PC but is there some specifications for the files/formats ?

The X-MASS DOM is FAT32 formated by default. So, You should use directly from SymbOS after adding it as Primary partition.
By the way, it should be fine that SymbOS allow to format the drives by itself, like all OS does when a drive look to be not initialised.
(i.e. that will avoid problems when testing first BDOS)

[arnoldemu]

Hi TotO,
if I apply the "Identify Device" Command on the X-Mass I receive a proper model number on word 27-46 ("IQP IDE Secure DiskOnModule"), but the datas for number of cylnders, heads and sectors seems to be by random (either &D0 or &D8).

Do you know what does it mean?

(Edit: If I connect the DOM via USB directly to PC and attach it to WinApe then the "Identify Device" put out the right datas for cylinder, heads and sectors.)

HAL6128

Check the version of the ATA specification support. It is one of words in the identify device.
New devices don't report cylinders, heads and sectors and are always LBA. They should report the max sector that can be used in LBA.

Perhaps this is why you see random values here.
There are two cylinder, head and sectors values. One is configured with an ATA command, the other I think is the max value.

[dodogildo]

I got my X-MASS last week and found out that the HDD is somehow not formatted so I couldn't install Symbos. (I tried both regular, and patched versions with no luck)

So I formatted the HDD using Bdos. Now I'm able to load save from within Basic, lacking Symbos compatibility.

(After exchanging PMs with TotO I learned that Symbos is not compatible with Bdos formatted file system.)

Now I have to format the X-MASS HDD to Fat. I know I can do it using some 2.5 inch hdd to usb connector and a PC/Mac.

Is there a more convenient way to do formating with my 6128?

I wish there was a hard disk format utility in Symbos.

[Audronic]

@Tot0 & @SyX


Is it possible to release a Format/Partition tool for the X-Mass prior to releasing The ACMEDOS rom.
It would be appreciated.


Thanks   Ray

[TotO]

The actual format tool is expected to initialise the X-MASS to be used as "unparted FAT".
But... It not properly work for me, so it was not actually released.

By the way, have you tried to set the X-MASS using "Unparted" into SymbOS to override its content? (not sure that work)
The best will be that each OS allow to format their drives.

[Prodatron]

I there a right method to get it to work from ROM and X-MASS ?

For SymbOS 2.1 I recommend the following way:
- install the ROMs
- boot SymbOS with |SYM
- start the control panel from floppy disc and setup the IDE device as drive C
- change the boot drive in control panel/"system" to drive C
- save the settings -> the SYMBOS.INI is now written to the IDE device (drive C) and will be loaded from there as well, when you boot SymbOS again later with |SYM

Not sure if I got your problems with the shortcuts exactly. When adding or editing shortcuts (control panel/"desktop links") you can either specify the full path of the file or add % at the beginning, which is the placeholder for the "system directory". The system directory is specified in control panel/"system" and should always end with "\" (or the Unix way "/").
For some fixed system apps like the control panel, SymbOS will always try to load them from the system directory.
E.g. you create a directory "symbos" on drive C and copy the control panel and other applications into it, after this you set the system directory to "c:\symbos\" and start all stuff from there.
The control panel is currently splitted into 3 parts (display properties, date/time, all other stuff), so not all icons in the main window will launch an additional app.

For more details about the system directory (starting from page 21) and shortcuts (starting from page 35/37) you can have a look into the new manual:
http://www.symbos.org/download/symbos3-0.pdf
It isn't 100% finished yet but most topics are already included. Though some CPC specific stuff is currently missing.

I am planning to add a setup utility for the CPC version of SymbOS 3.0 which can be started after booting the first time, which will do all this automatically.

Also : those pron videos seems nice but how can I put 9megs of Mode1 aerobic porn from a PC into X-MASS ?

The actual SymbOS version is able to access the SD card of the HxC directly. I used this to copy large files from the SD card to the X-MASS. Here is an old preview package, which already includes the new driver:
http://www.symbos.org/download/preview-package.zip

Tried to load some porn... err Herotic GFantasy art/photos in SymSee... had errors... those 4colours "SGX" files wouldn't work.

That's strange. Usually it should all work (also 16 colour graphics, which will be downrendered). What exactly happend?

[Prodatron]

I wish there was a hard disk format utility in Symbos.

In the past I didn't see the need for such a tool. One reason for the native FAT12/16/32 support was the ability to exchange data storage with a PC directly in a fast and simple way, so you could use your PC to do the FAT formatting. Now I realize that it could make sense if you are hardly able to connect the device to a PC like the X-MASS dom. It shouldn't be a big task. Unfortunately I still have a long ToDo list, let's see when I can start this.

[HAL6128]

I tried following thing:
I erased every sector of the DOM (filled with &00) until the sector where the data sector starts (at offset / LBA 545).
Then I copied from a fresh formatted drive the sectors of LBA0 (Bootsector), LBA1 (FAT1 table), LBA257 (FAT2 table), LBA513 (Root-Directory) to the DOM.
I transfered the sector datas onto a CPC disc then via RSX onto the X-MASS.
It works somehow, but I don't know if it's correct or if I missed something.
SymbOS recognised the X-MASS as a FAT16 drive.
My X-MASS has a capacity of 108MB.
HAL6128

[Prodatron]

SymbOS recognised the X-MASS as a FAT16 drive.

That's a very useful solution!
Could you post the sector data here?

[Ast]

Hi,

Could you tell me if LBA513 is 513th byte read ?
I can't imagine this "new" kind of storage...

[Prodatron]

LBA513 means the 513th logical sector on the drive.
You don't have sectors/tracks/heads anymore but just plain sectors from 0 to the maximum.