From: jbono@tension.UUCP (John Bono)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.emulations
Subject: Re: EMPLANT - anyone got it running ?
Date: 21 Nov 92 15:53:34 EST
Organization: High Tension BBS

In article <jdrew.0jrk@cryo.rain.com>, jdrew@cryo.rain.com (Jim Drew) writes:
>
>> >What's JD's setup? Is it and accelerated 2000? A 3000? Have UU
>> >seen a 4000? a Resolver? Firecracker or Ham-E ???
>> 
>> Yes, mine's running on an A2000 with A2630.  Although it required the new
>> software update before it started working.  So in effect, it's also true
>> that they probably shipped a product that at the time, no one could use.
>> 
>> I think JD's setup is A2000 with VXL-30.
> 
>Not true.  The machines that we used consisted of A500's, A1000's, &
>A2000's (no A3000's here, hence our A3000 dilema).  We used the VXL-30
>mainly as well as the Hurricane and MegaMidget racer.
> 
>The problem is this:  the MAC II (256K OS) series is not 32 bit clean. 
>Just ask A3000 owners how many Euro games crash on their system...same
>problem with the emulation.  The MAC II uses the upper 8 bits of a
>longword as flags.  So, if a memory location is accessed, it must be in
>the 24 bit address region and must ignore the upper byte of the address. 
>The MAC II's hardware handles this by masking off the upper 8 bits with
>it's PMMU or MMU (depending what system you are running with).  We
>*never* noticed a problem because the accelerators that we were using
>MIRROR'd the memory throughout the full 32 address range.  So, basically,
>if the MAC was writing a byte to $200000 and the flag byte was set to
>$F0, then the MAC would really be writing to memory location $F0200000. 
>Obviously, this could cause serious problems *if* the memory was not
>mirror'd.  This is the case with the GVP accelerators, one that we did
>not have for testing purposes.  The solution to this problem was to make
>a MMU table that simply mirrors memory whenever our task is running
>(hence the fix called 'empfix24.lha').
> 
>We did not release the product KNOWING this problem existed.  It worked
>on all of the machines that we used.  Remember, there is only two people
>working on this entire product, and we don't have the financial backing
>of MicroSoft to allow us the luxary of one of everything made for the
>Amiga.  We also can't trust beta testers (at least not all of them) as we
>are suing a company in England for stealing the software/hardware for
>Super-Card Ami II (even left my copyright message and my name in the
>code).  We did sell our houses and pratically everything else that we own
>to get enough capital to produce boards.  The EMPLANT deluxe model costs
>us a little over $150 just to make, not including labor.
> 
>Please believe me that our intentions were honest from the start and have
>not changed.  The product worked as far as we knew, there were problems
>(which have been corrected), and now it is time to get on with the MAC II
>SI/CI/LC support.  I appreciate those of you who believed in the product
>and stuck it out with us....someday, this is going to make an
>unbelievable book...
> 
>
>
>Jim Drew - Vice President, Utilities Unlimited, Inc.
>           1641 McCulloch Blvd. Suite #25-124
>           Lake Havasu City, AZ  86403
>           (602) 680-9004     (602) 680-9006 FAX    (602) 453-9767 BBS
 
Just remember one thing, you developed a hardware product and wrote software
for it for an OS that in a very short time, will no longer be supported *at
all*.  Considering that the price of A3000s are under $1500, there is no excuse
as to why Emplant wasn't tested on an A3000.  There is even less of an excuse
as to why Emplant wasn't tested on 2.0.  Most Amiga users today who plunk down
the $$ for peripherals of any kind most likely already have upgraded to 2.0
some time ago.  An informal survey of our User Group showed about 70% of all
the users ran 2.04.  These are the same users who are willing to pay for things
like accelerators, hard drives, RAM, and *Emplants*.  Maybe you didn't know the
problem existed.  Fine.  However, you *should* have anticipated this sort of
problem.  Had you bought an A3000 and tested the software on an A3000, most of
the compatibility problems that have occurred with accelerators, Hard drives,
2.0, etc., would have been cured.  I *was* going to buy an Emplant for my
A3000, and I *wasn't* screaming on the net about how Emplant had failed to
deliver, but now that it is shipping, I see that Emplant is incapable of
running on 2.X/A3000 systems, and as a result, I won't buy it.
 
John
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.emulations