ZZ9000 Compendium More than a modern Amiga graphics card Compiled by a ZZ9000 owner and enthusiast Updated: March 25, 2023 | ZZ9000 is © 2019-2023 MNT Research GmbH

Preface | Specifications | Requirements / Compatibility | Production / Shipping | Installation | Screen Modes
Add-Ons | Apps 'n ARMs | Benchmarks | Features | Support / Troubleshooting | F.A.Q. | Links | Contact

Updates

March 25, 2023: 1.13 (released on March 24, 2023) is here, mainly a stability and cleanup release. Remember to upgrade the driver package (LHA) and enjoy!

• Fix Z3 AutoConfig issues, including RAM on first boot.
• Improve Ethernet to Amiga IRQ.
• Fix Ethernet freeze on NetShutdown.
• Fix scaled sprite and split position.
• Fix split panning.
• Fix 320x200 mode.
• Fix 15-bit mode for real (remove hack).
• Add 1920x800 video mode.
• MHI/AHI mutually exclusive checks by Tom W.

October 19, 2022: The latest available firmware and driver version for all ZZ9000-supported Amigas is 1.12.1. Note: FW 1.12 had a slowdown bug that was fixed in FW 1.12.1 on 2022-10-19.

Changes/additions from 1.11 (new features contributed by Tom W.):

• MP3 streamed decoding support (via MHI).
• 10 band DSP EQ (via MHI).
• New p2d_rect implementation.
• copy_rect_nomask fix.
• NEOR minterm fix.
• BlitPlanar2Direct() fix, enable BIF_BLITTER support.
• Z2 RTG driver speedup by caching blitter registers.
• Unified RTG driver (from a tweet).

Also adds support for new black ZYNQ module with MotorComm YT8531S PHY, and fixes a FW 1.12 slowdown bug.

May 3, 2022: The latest available firmware and driver version for all ZZ9000-supported Amigas is 1.11:

Changes/additions from 1.10:

• Improves/fixes ZZ9000AX playback on many Amiga models through improved IRQ behavior (also improves Ethernet).
• Fixes spurious missed ARM register writes, improving stability on all platforms.
• Fix 128 MB mapping of framebuffer area on Zorro III.
• ZZ9000AX: Improved resampling (linear interpolation on ARM).
• ZZ9000AX: Programmable DSP, automatic Butterworth low pass filter, mixer.
• ZZ9000AX: New Audio Mode with Panning Flag (has different volume level).
• ZZ9000AX: Adjusted volume level for digital playback (to prevent clipping).
• ZZTop: Shows if ZZ9000AX is detected.
• ZZTop: Slider for ZZ9000AX low pass filter.
• ZZTop: More tests in "Bus Test".
• axmp3: Dynamic buffer location.
• ZZ9000AX and axmp3: Support for ENV:ZZ9K_INT2 setting to use INT2 instead of INT6 (via jumper J4).

April 12, 2022: Added current ZZ9000AX issues (no audio for Zorro III-based 68040 and 68060 Amiga users) to the Support / Troubleshooting page, and cleaned up several older bug reports that have since been fixed.

April 2, 2022: [Released Apr. 1, 2022] The latest available firmware and driver version for all ZZ9000-supported Amigas is 1.10:

Changes/additions from 1.9.1:

• Adds support for the ZZ9000AX audio expansion with native 48000 Hz, Stereo s16i playback and capture. Capture is not yet supported by driver/tools.
• Adds AHI driver for ZZ9000AX. Please note that only very fast Amigas can mix 48 kHz audio through AHI. If you have a 68020 or 68030, it's best to use 24 kHz for AHI.
• Adds MP3 decoding support on an ARM core of ZZ9000 powered by minimp3.
• The tool axmp3 in the drivers package demonstrates direct MP3 playback at 48 kHz, with very low Amiga CPU usage (not using AHI). The tool is open source.
• C code refactor splits out many modules from ZZ9000OS main.c for better maintainability.

January 13, 2022: Added a note from Lukas Hartmann to the Add-Ons page ("ZZ9000AX audio module", "Additional notes" section) confirming that no soldering is required to connect the Amiga's Paula audio to the ZZ9000AX 16-bit audio module, since the signal comes from the video slot. All that's required to complete audio setup is a simple cable connection.

November 4, 2021: Added two entries to the Support / Troubleshooting page: A fix (thanks to IRC user/dev _Bnu) for PAL-NTSC screen jumping/switching on Amiga 2000s (with rev. 6.2 and original PSU only). Fix was confirmed by IRC user tryphoncosinus. Also added a new bug report from IRC user my_pc_is_amiga regarding a split screen on the flicker fixer, when switching between RTG and flicker fixer in firmware 1.9.1.

October 30, 2021: An October 25th note from Lukas Hartmann regarding the ZZ9000AX: "Yes, there is already support for playback by ZZ9000AX, but not yet for sampling and updating the SigmaDSP. There will be another update." ^[source]

October 9, 2021: [Released Oct. 8, 2021] The latest available firmware and driver version for all ZZ9000-supported Amigas is 1.9.1:

Fixes issues from 1.9:

• PAL/NTSC/Interlace switching was sometimes unreliable, leading to garbage states if loading monitor driver after loading Workbench.
• Video formatter writes (esp. for sprites) could be interrupted with other video formatter writes by VBLANK/split interrupt, leading to undefined states and garbage or doubled screen when switching modes (esp. with RTG/native mode switching).
• ZZ9000Installer had a bug that would not rename the correct driver for Zorro II systems (A500/A2000).

Known problems:

• 256 MB AutoConfig^TM memory enabled only after first reset.
• Autoboot and AutoConfig^TM memory features can lead to problems with some special Amiga setups. Use alternative firmware versions to disable these. With Autoboot disabled, you can use zzusb.device from Extras drawer in the installer archive.
• USB storage can be crashy with CyberStorm MK1 accelerator.

Important:

• Requires new RTG driver version 1.9. Please download and install ZZ9000Installer1_9.lha from the list above on your Amiga.

October 7, 2021: [Released Oct. 6, 2021] The latest firmware and driver version for all ZZ9000-supported Amigas is 1.9:

Change log:

• zzusb.device now in ZZ9000 ROM (remove Devs:ZZ9000USBStorage.device!).
• Automatic discovery and boot from USB stick partitions (currently OFS/FFS only).
• "Turbo" method of setting up drawing registers now the default (helps with the CyberStorm MK1 accelerator, for example).
• Two different palettes supported for 8-bit P96 split screen (requires P96 3.1.4+).
• Support for new multi-monitor feature of P96 by setting DISPLAYCHAIN ToolType of ZZ9000 to NO (requires P96 3.1.2+).
• Horizontal Panning support in RTG modes.
• Ethernet negotiation doesn't block boot anymore.
• Native Capture: Fix rare Column Swap bug.
• Native Capture: Optional "Non Standard Sync" modes that are closer to the original refresh rate, enabled by setting ENV:ZZ9000-NS-VSYNC. Needs a tolerant display.
• Native Capture: Moved all switching (incl. NTSC/PAL) code to vblank interrupt, fixing some RTG/native switching bugs.
• INT6/INT2 interrupts reworked in ZZ9000Net.device to support interrupt sharing with other cards and ZZ9000AX.
• Fixes compatibility with some displays vs 1.8.
• New screen modes:
• 2560x1440@30Hz
• 1600x1200
• 720x480

Known problems:

• 256 MB AutoConfig Memory enabled only after first reset
• Autoboot and AutoConfig Memory features can lead to problems with some special Amiga setups. Use alternative firmware versions to disable these. With Autoboot disabled, you can use zzusb.device from Extras drawer in the installer archive.

Important:

Requires new RTG driver version 1.9. Please download and install ZZ9000Installer1_9.lha from the list above on your Amiga.

Thanks to Bnu for contributions!

Enhancements in v1.8:

• Split Screen / Screen Dragging Support (Requires P96 3.0 or later) (Beta).
• Adds 256 MB AutoConfig^TM Fast RAM on Zorro III machines.
• Accelerated drawing operations are now flushed in vertical blanks.
• Fixes spurious one-line wraparound at start/end of screen.
• Fixes compatibility with some displays vs 1.8-beta1 (sync pulses).

Important: Requires new RTG driver version 1.8. Please download and install ZZ9000Installer1_8.lha on your Amiga.

New features in 1.7.0 Beta 3 (Amiga 500/500+ and Amiga 2000 only!):

• Fixes AutoConfig^TM with Kickstart 1.3 and in turn makes the ZZ9000 scandoubler compatible with Kickstart 1.3.
• Fixes compatibility with the TerribleFire TF536 (and possibly other models) accelerator. This requires Kickstart 2.0+ to work (3.0+ for RTG)! The TF536 does not currently support Zorro enumeration with Kickstart 1.3.

Note: For A2000, use the "zorro2" firmware. For A500, one of the others, depending on if you have an A500+ or A500.

New features in Beta 2:

• Registers for monitoring two ZYNQ voltages: VCCINT and VCCAUX. Use with the updated ZZTop 1.1 tool. This allows you to verify that the 1.8/3.3V fix has been applied correctly. ZZTop 1.1 will show a correct ~1.79 voltage for VCCAUX instead of the incorrect 3.3V.
• [Not part of the official notes, but...] Firmware support for the new "A500plus" version for A500+ (or Super Denise) with ZZ9500CX Denise adapter has been added. This uses 4 MB address space.

New features since 1.6.2 (with more details to come):

• Core temperature monitor. Use with pre-release ZZTop tool v1.0 or later.
• Even faster P96 graphics acceleration (contributed by _Bnu).
• Reliability and speed improvements to USB and Ethernet (contributed by shanshe).

July 7, 2020 - Added a fix/workaround for ZZ9000 clashes on Amigas using the Prometheus PCI Zorro III card, and a link detailing how to activate the ZZ9000 on systems running AmigaOS 4.1 F.E. to the Support / Troubleshooting page.

July 1, 2020 - More page cleanups, and added some encouraging news from Individual Computers' website (posted on June 30, 2020) regarding an upcoming update ^{[archived image]} to P96 that should benefit all Amiga RTG users and developers:

"A new version V2.4.6 of P96 is available for all registered customers and those who want to become registered. A small bug when opening bitplaned modes has been fixed. These are rarely-used modes with graphics cards, and the bug was only triggered with intuition V46 or higher. There are more changes in the works: We're working together with graphics card manufacturer MNT Research GmbH [not MNTMN, which is Lukas Hartman's handle] and others [CS Labs?] on adding a new key feature to the P96 graphics software. Further, work on the Permedia2 driver has been started in order to improve it — we'll be able to offer a major update to P96 in the next few months that will also be useful to users of CybergraphX cards."

June 11, 2020 - Stable firmware 1.6.2 and drivers 1.6 are now available (Amiga 500 firmware coming soon). V1.6.2 replaces V1.6 and V1.6.1 which were tested in public and still had some problems with CyberStorm MK I and MK II. Also updated the Installation and Benchmarks pages.

Changes (since 1.5.1; Zorro II support added June 16, 2020; Amiga 500 support pending):

• Higher stability, esp. with 68060/CyberStorm. Better output signal. 1.5.1 for Zorro III had faulty FPGA timing. We finally figured out this was a Xilinx Vivado bug.
• Improved raw read/write speed.
• Improved speed on some P96 drawing functions, especially RectFill() Pattern.
• Fixes to network driver including the capability of switching to INT2 instead of INT6 in the event you have hardware conflicts. To do this, set the interrupt jumper on ZZ9000 to INT2 and create an empty file ENVARC:ZZ9K_INT2.
• Unified scandoubler ("videocap") code for Denise and Videoslot sampling with slightly better centering.

Changes (since 1.5 beta):

• Brings back Zorro II support with some bus timing fixes.
• Fixes "double vision" bug when switching from RTG to PAL/NTSC Interlace screen.
• Fixes bug where video capture position was offset/wrong after reset with 50Hz mode.
• Fixes "dark background wave" in video capture mode on A2000 due to sampling unconnected pins.
• Stability fix for USB Storage driver.

Changes (since 1.5):

• Faster GUI: All P96 drawing functions now accelerated and some bugs fixed (see details).
• Increased (~2x) write performance by using AXI DMA internally.
• Experimental USB Storage (USB Stick) support (ZZ9000USBStorage.device), tested with GiggleDisk and fat95. No hotplug yet! Insert USB stick before starting/resetting Amiga.
• New 320x256 screen mode for certain demos.
• Fixes demos that use panning for double buffering (like Melba/Appendix).

Changes (since 1.4a):

• Introduces Hardware Sprite (used for mouse cursor).
• Introduces automatic switch to 720x480 @ 60Hz mode for NTSC scandoubling.
• Fixes some blitting-related bugs.
• Slightly better interrupt handling for Ethernet.

Also added a note to the Pending Features page that an official ZZ9000 driver installation diskette is still planned on. This is mentioned in the "Software Installation" section (third paragraph) of the ZZ9000 manual: "3. Double click "Install ZZ9000" from the ZZ9000 Install package available from our website or on floppy disk from our online shop."