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#1
NeXT Work Logs / Re: Raspberry Pi 4 NFS/Samba F...
Last post by Nitro - October 02, 2023, 11:21:23 PMI purchased the Pi 4's soon after they were released, so that was before the shortage. The Pi 5 should be a nice upgrade.
#2
NeXT Work Logs / Re: Raspberry Pi 4 NFS/Samba F...
Last post by pTeK - October 02, 2023, 07:19:39 PM@Nitro When did you get your RPi 4G?
This Covid chip shortage has been nothing but a pain in the @$$. I was wanting to get a FRDM-KL25Z micro-controller board as it is Arduino Pin compatible, has ARM CPU and built in accelerometer to prototype for a drone and the availability on the web was always for the following year
I hope that RPi foundation gets the Rpi shortage sorted, would be cool if they were like NeXT and used RPis to control the manufacturing machines. Would be great publicity.
This Covid chip shortage has been nothing but a pain in the @$$. I was wanting to get a FRDM-KL25Z micro-controller board as it is Arduino Pin compatible, has ARM CPU and built in accelerometer to prototype for a drone and the availability on the web was always for the following year
I hope that RPi foundation gets the Rpi shortage sorted, would be cool if they were like NeXT and used RPis to control the manufacturing machines. Would be great publicity.
#3
The Lounge / How ASML, TSMC And Intel Domin...
Last post by Nitro - October 01, 2023, 09:20:02 PM #4
NeXT History / Steve Jobs’ NeXT Computer
Last post by Nitro - October 01, 2023, 05:35:07 PM #5
Intel White Hardware / Re: OpenSTEP boot process
Last post by pTeK - September 30, 2023, 08:09:55 PMChange the patch from 6 bytes to one byte in source i386/boot2/sizememory.c
all this does is that now when you press the Left Shift key at boot, instead of skipping the mem check, it now does the mem test.
When it skips the memtest it calls a BIOS function in i386/libsaio/biosfn.c. This calls memsize(1) which is a BIOS function Int 15, AH=88 which tests extended memory from 16MB->64MB max, which was the common function call at the time (The source code has (c)NeXT 1993) before later function calls became more popular. Another BIOS Int15 AH=0x88 page
openstep 4.2 Intel User Patch 3 boot (44,848 bytes)
-- Rhapsody DR2 Intel boot (39,616 bytes)
Thanks Rob.
Yeah this freezing problem is crazy, it only happens on my Inspiron 5150 straight after the memory scan. On my Dual core ASUS S200E laptop with 2GB from 2012 I still get keyboard input the memory scan completes the only problem is that there are no HDD driver for that unit. so 99% of NextStep 3.3 and OpenStep 4.2 (intel) users will not have to apply this
all this does is that now when you press the Left Shift key at boot, instead of skipping the mem check, it now does the mem test.
When it skips the memtest it calls a BIOS function in i386/libsaio/biosfn.c. This calls memsize(1) which is a BIOS function Int 15, AH=88 which tests extended memory from 16MB->64MB max, which was the common function call at the time (The source code has (c)NeXT 1993) before later function calls became more popular. Another BIOS Int15 AH=0x88 page
openstep 4.2 Intel User Patch 3 boot (44,848 bytes)
Code Select
; *** boot2/sizememory.c_START
; unsigned int sizememory(unsigned int cnvmem)
..
; printf("\nSizing memory...");
17D0 68 3A CB 00 00 push dword 0xcb3a
17D5 E8 26 53 00 00 call 0x6b00 ; printf();
; if (readKeyboardShiftFlags() & 0x2) /* left SHIFT key depressed */
17DA E8 85 01 00 00 call 0x1964 ; readKeyboardShiftFlags();
17DF 83 C4 04 add esp,byte +0x4
17E2 A8 02 test al,0x2
17E4 74 1B jz 0x1801 ; patch this line.
; printf("[aborted]");
17E6 68 4D CB 00 00 push dword 0xcb4d
17EB E8 10 53 00 00 call 0x6b00 ; printf();
*** this has to be changed only one byte to
17E2 A8 02 test al,0x2
17E4 75 1B jnz 0x1801 ; patched to 75.
; printf("[aborted]");
17E6 68 4D CB 00 00 push dword 0xcb4d
17EB E8 10 53 00 00 call 0x6b00 ; printf();
-- Rhapsody DR2 Intel boot (39,616 bytes)
Code Select
; *** boot2/sizememory.c
; unsigned int sizememory(unsigned int cnvmem)
..
; printf("\nSizing memory...");
1528 68 1E BD 00 00 push dword 0xbd1e
152D E8 3E 50 00 00 call 0x6570 ; printf();
; if (readKeyboardShiftFlags() & 0x2) /* left SHIFT key depressed */
1532 E8 85 01 00 00 call 0x16bc ; readKeyboardShiftFlags();
1537 83 C4 04 add esp,byte +0x4
153A A8 02 test al,0x2
153C 74 1B jz 0x1559 ; patch this line.
; printf("[aborted]");
153E 68 31 BD 00 00 push dword 0xbd31
1543 E8 28 50 00 00 call 0x6570 ; printf();
** patched to
153A A8 02 test al,0x2
153C 75 1B jnz 0x1559 ; patch this line from 74 to 75
; printf("[aborted]");
153E 68 31 BD 00 00 push dword 0xbd31
1543 E8 28 50 00 00 call 0x6570 ; printf();
--------Thanks Rob.
Yeah this freezing problem is crazy, it only happens on my Inspiron 5150 straight after the memory scan. On my Dual core ASUS S200E laptop with 2GB from 2012 I still get keyboard input the memory scan completes the only problem is that there are no HDD driver for that unit
. so 99% of NextStep 3.3 and OpenStep 4.2 (intel) users will not have to apply this #6
The Lounge / Re: Flyer: NeXTstep Release 3
Last post by pTeK - September 30, 2023, 07:48:10 PMThe transition to Intel at a very awful time: IRQ ports, jumpers, COM ports, different BIOS calls.
Intel was outperforming Motorola because they were shifting more units
Intel was outperforming Motorola because they were shifting more units
#7
The Lounge / The Retro Chip Tester Pro does...
Last post by Nitro - September 30, 2023, 05:57:47 PM #8
NeXT History / Excerpts From an Oral History ...
Last post by Nitro - September 30, 2023, 04:04:09 PM #9
NeXT Black Hardware / Re: SCSI.blue work/better than...
Last post by paolo.bertolo - September 30, 2023, 02:29:42 AMThe wi-fi is for Mac only, as it relies on some drivers for a specific SCSI to Enet legacy device which is now emulated. I'm using a v2.0 on 68k Macs and it just... works. Highly recommended.
#10
The Lounge / Re: How expensive the NeXT com...
Last post by pTeK - September 29, 2023, 10:37:03 PMOk I found the price for the original Amiga 3000UX ($4,000USD) which can be used as a base with NeXT.
This is from a article in Byte Magazine, December 1990
Amiga 3000UX Page 1
Amiga 3000UX Page 2
I'm not going to lie, I prefer NeXT Step to OpenLook
and the ease of Interface Builder compared to trying to build a X11 app...
This is from a article in Byte Magazine, December 1990
Amiga 3000UX Page 1
Amiga 3000UX Page 2
QuoteThe base Amiga 3000UX machine includes a 25-MHz MC68030, a math coprocessor, 8 megabytes of RAM, a 100-MB SCSI drive (optional 200MB), and either a high resolution monochrome display or the standard Amiga color display.
System includes Unix System V release 4 and the X window System including Level 1 Open Look. Bundled with the operating system are two C compilers (AT&T and the GNU optimizing compiler).
I'm not going to lie, I prefer NeXT Step to OpenLook
and the ease of Interface Builder compared to trying to build a X11 app...