Sunrise ATA-IDE BIOS improvement?

Ascended (15187)

23-02-2003, 23:13

There are two topics on this wonderful IDE (or CompactFlash) interface from Sunrise. In both, suggestions for improvements are mentioned. So far we have

- Optimize BIOS for turboR
- Auto-enable R800 during disk read/writes (instead of running an external patch in BASIC)
- Incorporate FDE-emulation options (if possible??)

By Latok

msx guru (3929)

24-02-2003, 09:19

Nice topic, snout. I do believe speeds larger than 280-300kb/s should indeed be possible. And about this FDE utility. I tried it out yesterday, but I'm not too happy about it. It often doesn't work here. What about this START.COM from Xelasoft? Does it the same thing? And HDDEMU......That doesn't work with *.DSK-files, does it?

And about R800-DR.BAS, you do know there is also a DOS-program which enables R800 during diskaccess? It was published on some Sunrise Picturedisk or Clubguide and it was made by one of them Sunrise/Genic guys......Don't remember his name atm.....

By snout

Ascended (15187)

24-02-2003, 11:11

HDDEMU does work with .DSK images if you rename them properly. In the program, you can create your own disk images. Special information (bad sectors, extra tracks etc.) is stored in a separate header file, which makes HDDEMU run more soft than other emulators... FDE runs IllusionCity though

By Latok

msx guru (3929)

24-02-2003, 11:20

Yes, but those 2 files in HDDEMU, that's exactly what I mean. A .DSK-file is only one file, but HDDEMU NEEDS 2 files, right? I can't make that header file up, can I? Or will just renaming *.DSK to *.EM0 or something do the trick? So HDDEMU doesn't NEED this extra Header file to run the image?

By snout

Ascended (15187)

24-02-2003, 11:26

Just get a normal disk (without rotten sectors and such), make an image of it in HDDEMU and you can use that header file with any .DSK image. (After renaming ofcourse)

About R800-DR: I think everyone who has a turboR should run this patch. There is no reason not to run this patch, hence it should be in the BIOS and not be run as an external program IMHO.

By Latok

msx guru (3929)

24-02-2003, 12:28

My opinion is never humble! I refuse being humble!!!!!

By Algorythms

Champion (288)

24-02-2003, 16:16

Oi!

Another improvement could be to run .ROM games from the IDE flash. Is that possible?

-Dan Derpaux / www.algorythms.com

By snout

Ascended (15187)

24-02-2003, 20:25

Hmm it could be possible, but I think the IDE BIOS is a bit too risky to tamper that much with

By Grauw

Ascended (10713)

25-02-2003, 13:07

It's not possible. It can only run ROM-images custom-made for the IDE BIOS since it doesn't support the common game ROM mappers (ASCII/Konami mappers) nor does it offer the address range they often use.

~Grauw

By jpgrobler

Master (154)

25-02-2003, 20:13

A few ideas for improving the Sunrise bios:
1. Add fdisk310 to the bios so a hdd can be partitioned, formatted etc without booting into dos.
2. Add a customizable (or fixed) boot manager to the bios (boot uzix, msxdos, part ## etc)
3. Since the msx partition format is not dos / windows standard why not add names to the partitions it could make point 2 very easy.

JP
PS I love my HD interface

By snout

Ascended (15187)

25-02-2003, 23:17

I like all the suggestions of jpgrobler