Sil3112 flashing (SATA)

[MacJunky]

Protocol7 and I traded quite a few PMs on this one.

Summary:

** There is macbootable Sil3112 firmware. FirmTek SeriTek/1s2 is the card. aka Sonnet Tempo SATA (TSATA). These cards can boot pre-G3 PowerMacs and boot 7.6.1.

See here:

http://www.sonnettech.com/support/kb/kb.php?cat=343&expand=_a2_b37&action=b206#b206

206 The Tempo SATA card does not seem to work properly in my Power Mac G4. Do I need different firmware? Apr-25-10
Some customers have experienced problems with the current version of the firmware in older G4 machines. Sonnet suggests downgrading the firmware to the Version 5.13, which can be found at http://www.firmtek.com/download/SeriTek1S2_513.zip

** newest recommended FirmTek firmware (5.13) is 136k. This is too big to fit on any Sil3112 card currently tested and also a crossflashed Sil3512 based card. FirmTek firmware 5.11 is 131k, still too big.

Either need to find a bigger chip to solder onto the card or reduce the size of the firmware or find a card that has a bigger chip already. Protocol tried multiple times to reduce 5.13 it but no luck yet. Not sure if he tried with 5.11 since then though.

(The Silicon Image updates are 128k, Weibetech's are only 64k, but we need the FirmTek one)

** There was an OS9 flasher mentioned in a MacGuru article. It has not been located yet.(hoping that it might come with a smaller fimware file)

Props to Protocol7 for his legwork searching the vast internet and editing the ROMs.

And RIP to the new-in-box 3.5" floppy disk I seem to have killed with all the flashing activity.

Protocol7, if I have missed anything or if you have updates please post it.

To others, if you want to try to reduce a firmware or have a card that can take a full-size FirmTek firmware please let it be known.

 

[protocol7]

There's also a Japanese card that uses the Sil3112 and appears to only have a 512kbit eeprom (64kB firmware file). Finding a firmware from that would be immensely helpful. I can't say with any degree of certainty that the Mac cards are otherwise identical to the PC ones. It'll take a suitable firmware file to find out for sure.

 

[trag]

What is the Flash on these cards? Is the flash chip distinct from the main controller chip? If so, is it a tiny little serial flash (eight pin SOIC) or is it a larger parallel flash chip? What are the markings on the cards with too small capacity? On the stock card where it works?

Get me that info and I bet I can find a replacement flash easily enough. That might not be enough to make it work, but it might and if it is a serial flash, those things really aren't that hard to remove and replace.

 

[trag]

I just picked up this card on Ebay for about $9:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/290674393057?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

I haven't tried any conversions on it yet, but it has its Flash chip in a socket and the capacity of the chip is 4Mbits or 512Kilobytes.

Unless there's some gotcha in the boards wiring, this should be ideal for experimenting. The flash is four times as large as some others, and it's in a socket.

 

[MacJunky]

Awesome! Please keep us updated.

 

[Bunsen]

The last lot sold out (I bought a couple myself) but they have been relisted.

 

[defor]

any news here yet?

I grabbed a couple cards as well- I also have an original sonnet i can try dumping the retail FW from its eprom of we get nowhere on the downgrader...

 

[Renegade]

I bought a few cards as well and couldn't wait to give these a try.

I flashed the SeriTek/1s2 v5.13 firmware to one card using the DOS utility

It returned the 0 code, which means successfull flashing.

I then installed that card in my QuickSilver.

The QS boots* but...

The flashed card is listed as a SCSI controller with the name "Athena_3112" but as you can see below, no driver is loaded.

For comparison, here's how system profiler shows an unflashed card:

*(it won't boot with a flashed Sil3512 variant)

 

[turnkit]

Could someone who has bought the large flash Sil3112 try using the http://www.wiebetech.com/webtech.php?sfid=133&pcode=TC-PCI firmware?

Could you let me know if it works?

 

[Renegade]

Wiebtech's flasher refuses to flash that card because of the "unsupported eeprom".

Should be possible to flash wiebtech firmware using UPDFLASH.EXE on a PC, but I don't see the point in trying that.

Any Sil3112 based card theoretically works with this small fimware.

 

[max1zzz]

did anyone try just putting a bigger flash chip on one of the cards? i assume there's no reason it shouldn't work. may buy a few cheapo cards and try

 

[trag]

Using a hex editor, I paged through the TSATA firmware file which can be extracted from one of the updaters and it looks like every ninth byte is a blank which needs to be removed. Except the pattern is not that simple.

My guess is that when the updater software writes the firmware file to the TSATA card, it removes the extraneous material from the firmware file during the process. However, simply copying the firmware file to a Flash chip doesn't look like it is going to work.

The firmware needs to be obtained directly from a flash chip on the TSATA card, not from the updating software package.

 

[max1zzz]

Just brought a dirt cheap sil3112 card (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180796383734) my plan is to try and put a bigger (2mbit or bigger) chip on the card, my only worry is weather the card will work without a firmware on the chip? since i have no external programmer i need to program it in place (or possibly if the chips are compatible with those on a old dual bios gigabit board i have solder the chip on there and hope the bios flasher on there has no integrity checks)

 

[Renegade]

Wiebtech's flasher refuses to flash that card because of the "unsupported eeprom".

Well, Wiebtech's flasher actually accepts to flash that 4mbit-eeprom card, but it doesn't turn it into an usable card :



:?:

 

[Gil]

Bumping this thread because I plan on testing this on my Sil3112 card. I've had this card for ages and am gonna try it in a G4. I googled the flash chip and apparently it has a 1 Mbit capacity.

 

[CC_333]

Google always leads me back here!

I have made a mistake, and I'm trying to fix it.

I downloaded the wiebetech flash utility, which supports my card (supposedly), but it keeps producing a bus error.

Are there any command arguments I can enter which would allow flashing to proceed?

Also, once I flash the card with this firmware, would I be able to reflash properly using the proper (SeriTek) firmware for this card?

c

p.s. I'm sorry for hijacking this thread!

 

[max1zzz]

intresting that it throws a error, never seen the wibie flasher do that

what i would do is replace the firmware file in the webie flasher with the SeriTek firmware, i have done that to flash sil3112 cards with the SeriTek firmware before

if it fails you will just have to try the dos flasher (i personally have never done this, so can't help you there)

 

[CC_333]

I figured it out -- Unsupported EEPROM.

Anyway, I guess I'll try taking the firmware from the updater, and use a DOS flasher in a PC to put it on the card.

Does anyone have this very same card (Sonnet Tempo SATA)? If so, perhaps one could kindly "lend" me the firmware (off the forums, of course).

c

 

[trag]

I'm pretty sure that the TSATA ROM is munged in some way so that simply lifting a copy and programming a chip with just won't work.

I don't know whether the Sonnet programmer has a little routine built in to decode/demunge the ROM code as it programs the TSATA chip, or whether the Flash on the TSATA actually has some of its pins swapped around in odd ways.

In either case, I'd be surprised if a simple programming job gets it working again.

Ultimately, one of us needs to desolder the flash from a working TSATA card, compare the contents to the resource used from programming the card, and check the connections between the Flash and controller chip on the circuit board to see if it matches reference designs.

I have it on my list, but that list has only gotten longer in the last four years and never shorter.