New board: MonSTer

[alanh]

MegaSTE has a VME bus which takes out some of the RAM range possibilities.

Yes, IDE can take master/slave, so you'd have 4 IDE devices.

[MegaSTEarian]

Thanks

I take it there are no plans for GPU add-on or integration.

How can I tell if Blitter in the MegaSTE will need soldering? Is it a motherboard revision that I can post, a photo or?

[alanh]

GPU's would be a lot of work.

As for blitter.....

See if these IC's are socketed....

U001A/U1

and

U006/U6 or U011/U11

[saulot]

@MegaSTEarian mega ste has less ram, because of part of address space is occupied by vme, so full 8mib cannot be used.

[MegaSTEarian]

Thanks allanh and saulot.

[czietz]

But at least the address space for the VME bus is not wasted if you install add-on cards for graphics and/or USB.

[MegaSTEarian]

Nice

Stripped MegaSTE and apparently U6 is socketed but U1 is not.

[frank.lukas]

The Nova VME ISA Adapter works great with the Lightning VME USB Interface ...

-> viewtopic.php?p=398384#p398384

-> http://wiki.newtosworld.de/index.php?ti ... ing_VME_En

[MegaSTEarian]

I have yet another question. I understand that STE and Mega STE boards won’t appreciate any RAM greater than 4MB to be installed on the on-board SIMM adapter. The monster then comes with 8MB which total to 12MB rather than the full 16MB the 68000 can address -ok, 14 on the STE/Mega STE. Can it be possible that Monster comes with more ram or can the gap be filled by installing say 6 or 8MB on board?

I think the 68000 will appreciate the extra RAM, won’t it? And it can probably be used, when idle, for IDE caching.

[czietz]

The ST/STE's memory controller (MCU) can only manage 4 MB of RAM. The MonSTer (like the Storm ST or the Magnum ST/STE) adds so-called alt-RAM (alternate/alternative RAM) to the system. Alt-RAM is RAM not managed by the MCU which means it cannot be used by for certain purposes. E.g., it cannot be used as screen memory or for DMA transfers. However, well-written / modern applications can make use of alt-RAM. (There is a bitfield in the header of PRG/TOS/... program files that tells TOS whether the program can use alt-RAM.)

[MegaSTEarian]

I understand the MCU part. My question is if MonSTer can come with more RAM to fully utilize 68000 potential (or even a possible 020 in the future).

[joska]

It is possible to have RAM in the 12-14Mb address range too, but is it worth it? You would either need another SRAM or a bigger SRAM, which will increase the price. Also, the 12-14Mb address range is often used by graphics cards.

[MegaSTEarian]

Add-on graphics cards share memory in the 12-14MB range? Didn’t know that.

[joska]

Most, if not all, graphics cards have memory mapped registers and framebuffer. Since the 68000 ony has a 24 bit address bus, the graphics card needs to use some of that 16Mb address range. And as you know the upper two Mb's are used by the TOS ROM's and various hardware registers.

[frank.lukas]

For the Atari Mega STE the Ram max are at 10MB because of the VME Bus like the Atari TT at the ST Ram is the max 10MB too.

The Nova VME ISA Adapter works at 10MB to 14MB. 1MB ET4000 or W32i or 2MB ATI MACH32. A MACH64 work with a Atari TT only.


I have a Magnum STE with a 8MB PS/2 Simm and have 4MB ST Ram and 6MB Alternate Ram so in total 10MB. The MonSTer MSTE works with 6MB too.

[MegaSTEarian]

I have yet another question. How do you install Monster? Does it need soldering skills? I got a 1040STE to compliment the MegaSTE and I’m interested to know about both machines (well, I know about the blitter on MegaSTE).

[alanh]

No soldering if your processor is socketed. If not, then you'll need to desolder the processor and put a socket there.

[umberto1st]

No soldering if your processor is socketed. If not, then you'll need to desolder the processor and put a socket there.

Do you any available for the mste?

[kerobaros]

Also interested in one of these, if they're still available. How's the install in an STE?

[alanh]

Pop the CPU out and stick it into the MonSTer, then plonk the MonSTer into the CPU socket. Connect the IRQ cable for the IDE interface and that's it.

[Kroll]

I also interested one of those. I have Mega STE with the original VME card (Mega Vision 300). What is the cost of purchase ?
Moreover, I want to describe it in my Atari Fan magazine in the Hardware section. I think it will be valuable.

[alanh]

Soldering setup up and running.

Having to find all the parts I still have. But I have started soldering again and will ping again soon.

Will take some pics to prove it

[Fujiyama]

That's great news Alan!
Will you be providing the STe version as well?

[GokMasE]

Cool, really good to hear that you are getting back on track with soldering again!

I have MonSTer powered my STe as well as the MegaST, it is a very nice piece of hardware

[MegaSTEarian]

Great news. Let us know when we can order some.