Macrodigital Omega

I didn’t realise that there were still (or ever) working Microdigital Omega machines out there. Does the ArmTwister technology now work so that it can run 26 bit software like Impression etc.? I decided not to proceed with my order for the Omega as networking wasn’t working at the time and I don’t think they had got ARMTwister working either at the time. So I lost my £250 deposit but didn’t throw good money after bad!

If RO 5 can be made to work – Aemulor for the RPC might work – was there ever a 32bit only processor card made / sold?

[Edit]
Didn’t someone get RO4.02 working under Aemulor on the Iyonix!

Is there a website that can hold these Omega only modules / Utils?

No but I’ll add to my thread on stardot.

Does RO6 softload ok?

Again no, not in my experience – fails completely.

What is the max RAM that a Omega can use – seem from StarDot – that you can fit 512Mb but only 256Mb can be seen/used.

1GB supported according to specs but 256MB seen/used.

The Omega can get a bit warm fitting some 1Gb cards.

It can also light up and fry itself. Not recommended.

Since the various Pi’s going up to 8Gb :-)

But 8GB not supported in RO.

I didn’t realise that there were still (or ever) working Microdigital Omega machines out there. Does the ArmTwister technology now work so that it can run 26 bit software like Impression etc.? I decided not to proceed with my order for the Omega as networking wasn’t working at the time and I don’t think they had got ARMTwister working either at the time. So I lost my £250 deposit but didn’t throw good money after bad!

It runs everything my RISC PC runs in 4.39, it was never AFAIK “32 bit only” like the Iyonix.

https://www.stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=423158#p423158

Added my Microdigital Utils module. 1.15f, if others wish to do the same with theirs…

I can also upload the “flash program” incase that needs explored.

1GB supported according to specs but 256MB seen/used.

The limit of 256K is as far as I can see due to the OS so with luck it won’t apply to OS 5. If you are putting 1Gb in your machine there are some limitations as to what can and can’t be used. There is documentation on this on my website.

http://www.iankarley.plus.com/iankorguk/omega/omega.txt

Also there is quite a bit of other technical information on the PCI interface including some example code there.

http://www.iank.org.uk

Which module handles the PS2 ports – no mention in PCI specs.

Which module handles the PS2 ports

“In RISC OS 3.6 the PS/2 keyboard module was renamed ‘PS2Driver’, and extended to support an IBM PS/2 compatible mouse.” from http://www.riscos.com/support/developers/prm/kbdmouse.html

See also https://www.marutan.net/db/modules.php?kModule=11024&kModuleVersion=28002

The IOMD in real RISC PC only had PS/2 keyboard support, but the integrated ARM7500 also supported PS/2 mouse, so it’s likely the Omega FPGA is emulating the latter’s kbd/mse interface. Indeed, from Ian’s notes: “Omega hardware has an emulated IOMD, in the 7500FE variant, ie with both keyboard and mouse using PS/2.”

I didn’t realise that there were still (or ever) working Microdigital Omega machines out there.

Erm, yes – https://rougol.jellybaby.net/meetings/2005/feb/index.html

Does the ArmTwister technology now work so that it can run 26 bit software like Impression etc.?

As others have pointed out, the Omega is a 26bit machine, it uses a StrongARM and runs RO4.×. It’s probably the best machine ever produced for running Impression!

Interesting info coming out :-)

It seems that later RO4.xx work but not six.
Softload RO 5 gets so far as *command but keyboard mouse not working – might need different Language set to get to Desktop.

How do you tell if the machine hasn’t locked up I wonder with no keyboard!

Does USB mouse work?

I wonder if the 26bit version of RO5 would work.

What sort of screen monitor Res do people use?

Remember using Aemulor module – you can use 26bit Impression on latest RPies :-)

[Edit]

It would seem that there was a software version of Memc done – there was talk on StarDot of doing something about 4 * Memc to make a more compact 16Mb upgrade to the Arc.

Things they have achieved like –
New A3000 motherboards and populated one.
Fitting a homegrown 16Mb daughter board.
HD floppy upgrade – very compact.
Memory cards for A540s.

How do you tell if the machine hasn’t locked up I wonder with no keyboard!

This was my interpretation the flashing cursor after the module is not 32 bit error!

Good it would seem RO5 is not stiffing the machine :-)

Is there any clue to which module is producing the 32bit error?

What is the Configured Language number?

Probably a different number between RO 4/5

Do the Modules get listed when RO 5 starts up?

Is there any clue to which module is producing the 32bit error?

Must be something from the boot sequence, not the RO5 ROM. Perhaps try *Configure NoBoot (in RO4, before softloading RO5).

Is there any clue to which module is producing the 32bit error?

Unfortunately not.

What is the Configured Language number?
Probably a different number between RO 4/5

That I am not sure about.

With luck I will get round to fixing my Omega soon and do some more tests.

What type of Super I/O chip is the Omega using? There are a few later machines that use the FDC37C669 instead of the FDC37C665GT, and it’s possible that the Omega is one of them.

I suppose you could use Rick’s (the one that chews forks) prog that records boot details.

I suppose you could use Rick’s (the one that chews forks) prog that records boot details.

More importantly, in this instance, it continues after errors¹ – assuming you’re into the disc resident portion of the boot.

NB. I’m impressed that someone actually had an Omega delivered and still has it.

¹ In this instance, it’s quite likely to be plural.

New A3000 motherboards and populated one.

Where on earth do they get the chips? Or are they all reconstructed with FPGAs?

(the one that chews forks)

?

Where on earth do they get the chips?

Motherboards destroyed by battery leaks, and I think there may still be some kicking around.

Have a gander: https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=416070&hilit=16mb#p416070 & https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=413704&hilit=8mb+a3000#p413704

The MEMC-in-FPGA never seems to have got off the ground, from what I can see.

Some info for the Archive msg :-)

Memc in software Omega!

https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=416070&hilit=16mb#p416070

Bloody hell. That’s going to be one of very few Acorn-era machines with actual floating point hardware…

Yep, I’ve seen Ian Jeffray’s 16MB A3000, he’s the guy who fixed my Omega haha.

Bloody hell. That’s going to be one of very few Acorn-era machines with actual floating point hardware…

Really ? I’ve got Two here, and space for a third. They’re not THAT rare, especially now the actual upgrade card can be made. I suppose it depends, its the actual FPA chips that aren’t exactly numerous.
R260 Arm3 and FPA10 on an Acorn CPU card, originally these were CPU only no FPA, at least mine was.
A3010 – Adelaide Arm 3 on a Simtec Arm3/FPA upgrade board with FPA10, originally Arm2 with no FPA, But the Board is a Simtec 1992 upgrade.
A5000 – Arm 3 socket for a FPA from Acorn

With the right upgrade card anything except Arm 250 machines and funnily enough the RPC (600/700 series cards/chips with FP support are rare as) can have Floating point hardware. There was also a Software workaround available to allow the FPU of a 486 PC card to be used. The benefits of this upon the release of Strongarm are debatable – the SA was so much faster.

Also the A7000+ had the ARM7500FE with Floating point came out from Acorn in 1997.
Their first stab was the Acorn AKA20 We32206 Floating Point Co-Processor Podule – came out in 1989 with the R140.

There was plenty of hardware but not a lot of software, games or anything else made much use of it. More fool me paying for 2 FPA10 chips. However a re-implementation would be interesting if it is even possible. The only real use is if you’re running Risc/ix.

So it depends how you look at it – Native hardware support on Machines: A5000, A540/R260 cpu card with socket. R140 with FPA Podule RPC with ARM/Fpa card. A7000+, or set top box with Arm7500 cpu
Native Support from upgrade boards – anything with an Arm 2 cpu.
3rd party software cludge : RPC With 486 CPU but not strongarm

Wildly off topic for this thread but that’s it as I understand it.

How things have moved on – 16Mb to 8Gb RAM!

When 16M was a dream:-)

How things have moved on – 16Mb to 8Gb RAM!
When 16M was a dream:-)

And “Bloody expensive” to quote an Acorn exec in 1990. 8gb is piffle now. 16+ or go home.