WinUAE 3.2.0 beta 6 - Late beta update for the best Amiga emulator!

After returning from a real life adventure, one I'll probably remember for the rest of my life, I was happy to see that Toni Wilen had once again released another Amiga emulator build of 'WinUAE 3.2.0 beta 6'. The previous beta was certainly an eye opener as it was the first release that featured a DOSBox CPU! Although I'm not sure if this meant you could play Dos games through an Amiga emulator (as I hadn't tested it), it was certainly nice to see. As for this big beta 6 it features many fixes and improvements that as always is worth upgrading to if you want the latest version.

Beta 6

- Bridgeboard floppy drive motor and click sound supported.
- x86 CPU status string was visible even when bridgeboard was not active.
- Added software readable A4091 DIP switches and Warp Engine SCSI jumpers to GUI. Note that default jumper state for Warp Engine is "No autoboot", you need to set all 3 jumpers to re-enable previous autoboot configuration.
- Even more Z2 and Z3 board address validation, do not map the board if OS attempts to map it over any existing mapped space. Some Z2/Z3 boards didn't use validating memory bank map routines.
- A590 XT drive emulation uses now generic "custom" HD emulation like all recently added MFM/RLL controllers. Automatic geometry fixing removed, it can cause problems.
- Fixed A590 XT random bug that tried to start DMA transfer middle of command phase in some situations.
- Remember last open Expansion panel expansion device, saved to config file.
- A2286 "The Real Time Clock has not been initialized." message is gone.
- A2386SX CMOS RAM size fixed, but BIOS still complains about invalid configuration and setup screen shows incorrect extended RAM size. (Why? Early boot phase extended RAM size counter is correct.) Floppy drive access also seems to stall for 5s+ regularly and then work normally again.
- Added x86 bridgeboard AT IDE drive emulation. Selection under IDE controllers. Only A2286 and A2386SX have BIOS support for AT IDE. At least fdisk and formatting confirmed working.
- Added IDE commands 0x40 and 0x41 (READ VERIFY SECTOR(S)), BIOS code uses it during formatting.
- Added support for XTIDE Universal BIOS (https://code.google.com/p/xtideuniversalbios/) See notes.
- Added supprtt for IDE emulation 8-bit data port width. (XT mode XTIDE Universal BIOS)
- Only show SASI harddrive types if selected controller uses SASI-like commands.
- Cirrus Logic hardware emulation text modes used graphics mode resolution when selecting host screen size. Larger than 8 pixel font width text mode was too narrow.
- Added x86 VGA board emulation (uses already existing Cirrus Logic emulation).

x86 bridgeboard VGA notes:
- Does not autoswitch, use END+F9 to switch between screens.
- Empty Amiga-side Janus PC window must still be open to enable keyboard input.
- It is not possible (at least not yet) to have Amiga RTG board enabled at the same time.
- VGA uses A0000-BFFFF, make sure bridgeboard "Address Sector" does not conflict. (Bad memories are starting to return from PC DOS era...)

RTG ROM configuration notes:
- Expansion panel has new "RTG board" category that currently lists 2 boards that need rom image, Picasso IV and x86 bridgeboard VGA ISA card.
- This selection is currently a special case: selected ROM gets automatically removed when RTG board is changed, always use RTG panel first to select the board, then Expansion panel to set the ROM.
- If Picasso IV ROM is not selected ("ROM disabled"): old rom loading method is used. In other words, you can ignore whole RTG ROM configuration if you are never going to use x86 bridgeboard VGA card.
- Probably any old ISA Cirrus Logic GD542x VGA ROM can be used, for example http://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/...ogic-cl-gd5420 or http://www.nongnu.org/vgabios/ seems to work.

XTIDE Universal BIOS notes:
- BIOS is loaded at 0xEC000 to guarantee it becoming last BIOS extension, it is required to make it work properly if there are other extensions (Janus handler/library). Make sure bridgeboard "Address sector" is not conflicting (D0000-DFFFF works fine, for some reason no BIOS checks A0000 to AFFFF region but it is documented as existing option in hardware).
- Uses Universal BIOS defaults (IO address base 0x300, no interrupt).
- A1060 and A2088 confirmed working.

Bridgeboard stuff is now mostly complete, only remaining problem is A2386SX stalls, possibly floppy controller/interrupt related.

Links :

1) Discussion
2) Download