Commodore Amiga CD32 late Prototype

The PCB seems to be the same revision and build standard as this one that's on Wikipedia:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/CD32mobo.jpg

Judging from the datecodes on the chips, the one in the Wikipedia photo is newer (week 34, '93 on the boot ROM - although that's socketed. The newest date code on a soldered in part is week 27, '93 on the CPU).

The latest datecode I can see on Jackhead's board is week 21, '93 (on the Lisa chip - CBM ignore the industry convention and put the week first). Obviously, all this does is establish the earliest date before which it couldn't have been made, but it does suggest it's early production. It's also possible I missed something because there were quite a few parts that were not legible in that fairly low-resolution photo.

Also, both of the boards have the same (single) ROM arrangement, and an empty site for the second ROM.

My guess is that it's an early production PCB (I.E. full retail spec) that was used for software testing.

 

Anyone can say more about the 40.16 kickstarter rom? 40.60 retail, so anything before will be for testing?
Any special features? I will release it as soon as it can be dumped.

 

well, you got a doozy alright, best i could find was versions '40 - 41' via wiki! (oddly, seemed a bit more detailed than some other places, now THAT's something)
as for features/differences, i swear, i haven't the foggiest!

dump the bitch and compare it to the others...
seriously, turning up blanks here!
tried searching the 'english boards' but found plenty related but not direct!
...
found a reference to your version, but beyond that..?

(WHDload)

 

Grab the attachment on this post, it is the only detail I could find on 40.16. Please speak to tosec.

 

Will be great when someone try to analyse it and post the results here.

 

Some progress:





Edit:

This is correct, however I have just found a resistor in the incorrect place - so the CXA was being fed the wrong frequency. I have just changed it (and removed another incorrectly placed resistor) and.....

 

Only did simple emulator run test - works fine with FS-UAE 2.5.1 and up and requires at least 4Mb of chip memory, with default CD32 config it won't boot any game, just AmigaDOS window with "LOADER: not enough memory available" error. With 4Mb and up it at least runs Super Stardust. So it looks like beta hardware had more memory than retail one.

 

It only has 2MB chip ram, no amiga had more than 2mb.

 

Maybe the bios boots only debug discs but i dont think so. Superb work and many thx to Bad_Ad84. Very happy see the board is back on life.
Cant wait to get it back

 

In emulator that BIOS boots retail games but only with 4+ megs of RAM, it's either debug hardware has more RAM or BIOS itself eats too much memory.

 

Amiga cd32 cool i have recapped one of these one time i done smelled like a game gear.

 

It's 2MB. I have it sitting right here after all.

 

i bought microcosm pal, so i will try it out soon with a retail game.

 

So it's either earlier BIOS (or better to say OS) eats too much memory, or it just doesn't work well with retail hardware which is emulated in this case.

We will see it then, if it's just an emulation bug or system software really leaves not enough memory to run retail games.

 

Out of curiosity, I tried using the 40.16 Kickstart ROM for an emulated A1200 in WinUAE 2.6.1 and it works fine:



...although that's about all I can add to the discussion, as I'm not too knowledgeable about ex. the KS internals. I guess comparing the libraries and devices inside this KS to those in the retail CD32 and/or A1200 Kickstarts might be interesting, to see how "beta" the software-side of this system really was?

 

some news about the cd32. I got it back form Bad_Ad84 (many thanks again).
First thing i try out is booting my cd32 pal game. On that point i notice that the unit not boot up with connected display board. So i disconnect the display board cable from the mb and the unit starts up.
CD Drive spinns up try to boot after the cd32 screen, but nothing goes on.
So i try a music disc an the cd 32 play it fine! Audio output is also fine. So i think the cd drive is ok, but not sure it boots retail, maybe the disc is damaged.. got it loose and very cheap.
At this point the only problem will be the display board. Here some high res pictures of it:

http://picload.org/image/licgicd/img_0117.jpg

http://picload.org/image/licgica/img_0116.jpg

Well the cd playback ui is also different to the retail one.


Prototype:



Retail:

 

^^ AWESOME! :smile-new:
the prototype looks better than the original does! (good show @ Bad_Ad84 for the repairs)
and thanks a lot for dumping the rom os, didn't see the link before, i have it now! :cocksure:

 

You never know, the CD interface code (or at least the backdrop) might be in the same location & taking up the same space in both roms.
'no chaos' corrupter should be able to get you started

 

sorry, i was referring to images posted by Bad_Ad84, should've said that first time.
...
just to be clear, i have ZERO skills in coding, or payload editing.
honestly, i wouldn't know what i was looking at or doing, ripped the rom for emu use when a near 1/1 job is ever gets released.
my a1200 got it's expansion card burnt out, WB 3.1 was the os for loading an alternate rom on bootup. (and some WHDload/JST games asked for some rom os's dumps to be at some locations, been a while last played with)
ANY amiga-to-PC emu (to date) has let me down vs original hardware, i miss the soundtrackers. (no disrespect to the devs who slave at creating emus)
if i ever get my a1200 back up to spec, or a decked out cd32 (or reliable emu) i can use this, added it to my kickstart rom set, didn't have it before Jackhead kindly shared it. (thanks again for this)
...
appreciate the tip, but decoding the matrix is WAY beyond my capacity, just a CBM fan at heart and seriously would like to see that cd32 back in the fold! :smile-new: