PicoMEM Project : Pi Pico on an ISA Board.

[jdredd]

Hi, did you get EMS working reliably on the Book8088? I missed where you used the LoTech driver. I was able to get the PicoMEM driver to load and do something but the system has a hard-lock or 'divide overflow' within a few seconds of booting DOS (if it even finishes booting). UMBs are working great but It'd be really neat to see an XT showing >1MB RAM just for fun or to try running Doom8088. Which PicoMEM BIOS settings are you using (EMS port, etc) and what config.sys/driver arguments? thx

I am on an IBM Model 30 / 8086.

EMS on port 2A8 let me use the PMEMM.exe and to get 4mb to show up.

Just did

Device=C:\drivers\ltemm.exe

I have not messed yet with anything UMB related. As haven't had a need yet...

I did get an odd divide overflow error with PMMOUSE once or twice.... My issue is i can't use the PS2 mouse on the system with the PicoMem card installed.

 

[docangle]

I am on an IBM Model 30 / 8086.

EMS on port 2A8 let me use the PMEMM.exe and to get 4mb to show up.

Just did

Device=C:\drivers\ltemm.exe

I have not messed yet with anything UMB related. As haven't had a need yet...

I did get an odd divide overflow error with PMMOUSE once or twice.... My issue is i can't use the PS2 mouse on the system with the PicoMem card installed.

Did you try using the regular/non picomem version of ctmouse 1.9? Try turning off USB Host/Mouse in settings.

 

[jdredd]

Did you try using the regular/non picomem version of ctmouse 1.9? Try turning off USB Host/Mouse in settings.

Yup. I have it reported on github.

Right now using a 1000yr old 3 button serial mouse I found and using CTMouse for now with it.

 

[sqpat]

Hi, did you get EMS working reliably on the Book8088? I missed where you used the LoTech driver. I was able to get the PicoMEM driver to load and do something but the system has a hard-lock or 'divide overflow' within a few seconds of booting DOS (if it even finishes booting). UMBs are working great but It'd be really neat to see an XT showing >1MB RAM just for fun or to try running Doom8088. Which PicoMEM BIOS settings are you using (EMS port, etc) and what config.sys/driver arguments? thx

I don't think Doom8088 is going to need EMS or all that extra upper ram. It should run fine in 640k. I think it will use your EMS page frame (without any actual pagination) as UMBSs if you have it, though.

Look into DOSMAX and USE!UMBS drivers in addition to your EMS driver in general to max out your XT's memory for DOS. You should be able to get like 640,000 bytes free or something ridiculous in general.

You want a config that is something like this for a page frame in E000 and UMBs in D000

DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\XT\USE!UMBS\USE!UMBS.SYS D000-E000
DEVICE=C:\XT\DOSMAX\DOSMAX.EXE
REM DEVICEHIGH=   ems driver in E000 goes here

REM optional
REM DEVICE=C:\XT\DOSMAX\SHELLMAX.COM C:\COMMAND.COM

 

[jdredd]

I did get a USB OTG adapter for a USB mouse.... Using PMMOUSE it "works" .... sorta... I can move mouse cursor left and right. It detects left / right / middle wheel clicks... but it won't go up or down.
Tried a few mice and same issue.

 

[sampson]

I don't think Doom8088 is going to need EMS or all that extra upper ram. It should run fine in 640k. I think it will use your EMS page frame (without any actual pagination) as UMBSs if you have it, though.

Look into DOSMAX and USE!UMBS drivers in addition to your EMS driver in general to max out your XT's memory for DOS. You should be able to get like 640,000 bytes free or something ridiculous in general.

You want a config that is something like this for a page frame in E000 and UMBs in D000

DOS=HIGH,UMB
DEVICE=C:\XT\USE!UMBS\USE!UMBS.SYS D000-E000
DEVICE=C:\XT\DOSMAX\DOSMAX.EXE
REM DEVICEHIGH=   ems driver in E000 goes here

REM optional
REM DEVICE=C:\XT\DOSMAX\SHELLMAX.COM C:\COMMAND.COM

Ah, thanks, I can see my error now. I had UMBs and the EMS page both occupying E000 range. I will try again

 

[FreddyV]

Hi, did you get EMS working reliably on the Book8088? I missed where you used the LoTech driver. I was able to get the PicoMEM driver to load and do something but the system has a hard-lock or 'divide overflow' within a few seconds of booting DOS (if it even finishes booting). UMBs are working great but It'd be really neat to see an XT showing >1MB RAM just for fun or to try running Doom8088. Which PicoMEM BIOS settings are you using (EMS port, etc) and what config.sys/driver arguments? thx

Hi,

EMS Does not work on the Book8088 at 8MHz

The PicoMEM is not able to drive IOCHRDY fast enaugh on the RAM access so far.

 

[Betamax80]

This is interesting - I've been using the PicoMEM EMS driver and have been able to get 4mb!
I've also been playing with USE!UMB - this has been very fiddly on the Book8088 and has certainly caused some hangs - I've now got it working but as I have the VGA card there is very little net benefit to using it.

OK I must be missing something then. I'll look again. I mean, it registers as installed.

 

[sampson]

Hi,

EMS Does not work on the Book8088 at 8MHz

The PicoMEM is not able to drive IOCHRDY fast enaugh on the RAM access so far.

Ok I thought I read this on one of your wiki pages but couldn't relocate it. I did manage to get it detected but the system hung when enabling turbo. UMBs with the fast RAM does work great though and I'm booting up with 10KB of conventional memory being used. Maybe I'll swap in my PicoGUS and and have dual-pico - what an amazing time! Now we need a legit SW defined graphics card to emulate the popular cards from before the 3d era!

 

[FreddyV]

Ok I thought I read this on one of your wiki pages but couldn't relocate it. I did manage to get it detected but the system hung when enabling turbo. UMBs with the fast RAM does work great though and I'm booting up with 10KB of conventional memory being used. Maybe I'll swap in my PicoGUS and and have dual-pico - what an amazing time! Now we need a legit SW defined graphics card to emulate the popular cards from before the 3d era!

Yes, EMS and UMB using PSRAM as both need IOCHRDY to work (To slow down the cycle)

 

[sampson]

Yes, EMS and UMB using PSRAM as both need IOCHRDY to work (To slow down the cycle)

no worries, it's still awesome. I got some DACs so I'll have one of my kids solder one on the card, and play with that next. Thanks for your contributions, Freddy! take care

 

[h2ospa]

It would be fun if PicoGUS and PicoMEM cards are available as PCI cards as well.

I don't know much about hardware so I am not sure if it is even feasible.

 

[docangle]

It would be fun if PicoGUS and PicoMEM cards are available as PCI cards as well.

I don't know much about hardware so I am not sure if it is even feasible.

Freddy would need to chime in, but the Bus Speeds are so much faster, I can see an issue with memory emulation, HD, Floppy, Audio, and network shouldn't be a problem

 

[FreddyV]

Freddy would need to chime in, but the Bus Speeds are so much faster, I can see an issue with memory emulation, HD, Floppy, Audio, and network shouldn't be a problem

Hi,
I don't really see why PCI based computers can need a PicoMEM
To add 128Kb of slow RAM on a Pentium

 

[h2ospa]

Hi,
I don't really see why PCI based computers can need a PicoMEM
To add 128Kb of slow RAM on a Pentium

For the slow RAM, no.
But for the other emulations and features, yes.

(Thinking out loud, like, if a PCI-era computer can emulate Gravis Ultrasound, or anything that only available on old computers.)

 

[FreddyV]

Hi,

PicoMEM last firmware was just released.
I also added the BIOS source code.

ISA-PicoMEM/firmware at main · FreddyVRetro/ISA-PicoMEM

PicoMEM Doc and Firmware. Contribute to FreddyVRetro/ISA-PicoMEM development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Plus, I finalized the design of the Low Profile PicoMEM : To be used with the Amstrad PC20, or Sinclair PC200
If you think about other PC model where a low profile board can be usefull, just tell me

 

[docangle]

Hi,

PicoMEM last firmware was just released.
I also added the BIOS source code.

ISA-PicoMEM/firmware at main · FreddyVRetro/ISA-PicoMEM

PicoMEM Doc and Firmware. Contribute to FreddyVRetro/ISA-PicoMEM development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Plus, I finalized the design of the Low Profile PicoMEM : To be used with the Amstrad PC20, or Sinclair PC200
If you think about other PC model where a low profile board can be usefull, just tell me

View attachment 1283149

1000ex and 1000hx with ISA adapter.

 

[jdredd]

Did firmware update on my v1.11 board. Went fine!

EMS settings are saving!
I think some odd sounds I heard once in a while in Rail Road Tycoon are now gone with the adlib update?

So far so good.

 

[jdredd]

Well... I turned system on today. and EMS memory setting is gone again.

I think i saw a message "memory change : reset the ram config"

and now EMS was disabled again.

 

[sampson]

I think I see this same issue occasionally. I originally thought it was due to swapping it into different systems, but maybe not. Hasn't been often enough to be an issue really. My 11yo soldered the audio DAC onto the card so we can play with that now as well. Using it mainly in a Book8088 v2 for UMBs and disk images has been pretty much flawless.