Adaptec PowerDomain 2940UW files are no longer available :(

[mickeyratt]

Dear Friends

I would like to convert a PC firmware ADAPTEC AHA-2940/UW card to run under os9, but unfortunately the firmware update and powerdomain files are no longer available.
Does anyone have them saved?
Any of the following would be good:

17 Dec 1999    PowerDomain 2940UW firmware, version 4.1 - Binhex    2940UW Flash Utility 4.1 for the PowerDomain 2940UW in BinHex format
17 Dec 1999    PowerDomain 2940UW firmware, version 4.1 - MacBinary    2940UW Flash Utility 4.1 for the PowerDomain 2940UW in MacBinary format

Thank you in advance!
Best wishes: Csabi

[ssp3]

There you go.
Bear in mind that you will need a larger EEPROM for the Mac firmware. 512b vs. 1Mb IIRC.
Been there, re-flashed well over 10 cards back in the day 

[mickeyratt]

There you go.
Bear in mind that you will need a larger EEPROM for the Mac firmware. 512k vs. 1MB IIRC.
Been there, re-flashed well over 10 cards back in the day 

Thank You SSP3!!!

Thanks for the information as well, yes, I found information on this page:
https://web.archive.org/web/19991018203809/http://www.xlr8yourmac.com:80/tips/adaptecConvert.html

They also mentioned there some kind of modified firmware version that fits into the 512k EEPROM after the unused areas were removed, although I guess they had to adjust the addressing instructions, which is not an easy job

Also mentioned was the Power Domain Control Panel, which is also no longer available. If you have that available, could you share it with me?
Thank you very much!!

[mickeyratt]

There you go.
Bear in mind that you will need a larger EEPROM for the Mac firmware. 512k vs. 1MB IIRC.
Been there, re-flashed well over 10 cards back in the day 

Sorry, I see that PowerDomain Utilies is also included in the hqx file! Thank you!   

[ssp3]

You're welcome! 

That hack with the trimmed down Mac firmware to fit into smaller EEPROM was valid only for firmware version 2.5.
We, as in Mac Adaptec users, since moved to v3 firmware and then to v4 for various compatibility reasons.
Better get the new, empty EEPROM.

* I have the hacked 2.5 firmware somewhere very very deep in my archives, but believe me, it's not worth the trouble.

[mickeyratt]

You're welcome! 

That hack with the trimmed down Mac firmware to fit into smaller EEPROM was valid only for firmware version 2.5.
We, as in Mac Adaptec users, since moved to v3 firmware and then to v4 for various compatibility reasons.
Better get the new, empty EEPROM.

* I have the hacked 2.5 firmware somewhere very very deep in my archives, but believe me, it's not worth the trouble.

Thank you, you're right, it really doesn't make sense if only the old firmware has this 512k version.
I was just hoping I could save on soldering out the PLCC32 housing!
Fortunately, the card has the unpopulated U5 DIP socket location, so I'll put a socket there and it will be easier to replace there.

Thank You again!

[ssp3]

I never desoldered the PLCCs, I cut the pins close to the IC case with sharp Stanley knife and then desoldered what's left of the pins one by one. 
But you have to be very careful as not to damage PCB and have a steady hand when performing such stunt.

[mickeyratt]

I never desoldered the PLCCs, I cut the pins close to the IC case with sharp Stanley knife and then desoldered what's left of the pins one by one. 
But you have to be very careful as not to damage PCB and have a steady hand when performing such stunt.

Thank you for your further suggestions!

This is probably really the best solution.
I was thinking that it would be nice to save the original EEPROM as well, so that I could read the contents with an external EPROM reader and maybe later write the PC version into one half of a 2MBit EEPROM and the Mac version into the other half, then use a jumper to switch between PC/MAC, so you would have a universal SCSI card. But I'd probably never use that option

[joevt]

Maybe the firmware can be compressed?
 https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/7800-gt-with-64k-rom-no-go.2425522/post-33120443

[ssp3]

Sure. Why do it in a simple way if you can do it complicated. Let the mickeyratt become a full time programmer, learn about the compression method(s), learn how to debug the damn thing and then, maybe, possibly, pehaps one day that thing will work. But maybe not. 

All that instead of one empty EEPROM chip, soldering iron and about half an hour of work.

[joevt]

Or, you could ask me to do it, if you are willing to test a un-tested ROM.

You can probably get the PC rom using flashrom in OS X https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/question-how-powerful-of-a-graphics-card-will-work-in-a-beige-power-macintosh-g3.2303689/post-32937887
using the anypci option.

Which Mac rom do you need?

[ssp3]

joevt, I don't think it is worth it. 
It was looong time ago, but, if I remember correctly, flashing Adaptecs was "one way ticket". Protection or something like that.
Also, it looks to me that the firmware is already compressed. I moved the v2.5 rom part from resources to data, chopped off extras before Joy!peffpwpc, so that certain disassembler could recognize it as pef file, but was greeted with "illegal compressed data" alert. If you're curious, try it for yourself (attached).

* A bit OT. Can you help me with figuring out what kind of checksum method is used in one particular firmware file? It is ARM.

[joevt]

@ssp3, well I can't help with protection if it is a thing that needs to be considered.

To extract the ndrv PEF from an Open Firmware PCI option ROM, you need to first detokenize the ROM or convert it to Forth, because the ndrv is encoded as a series of hex strings with encode-bytes encode+ fcodes between each string.
The PEF you created has 45302 bytes but the correctly extracted PEF has 43029 bytes.

Only part of a PEF contains compressed data. The 43029 byte PEF can be compressed to 24457 bytes.

The entire ROM is 46080 bytes and can be compressed to 25762 bytes but this is the v2.5 rom (the stripped-down version?) and we want to work with the later unmodified rom.

I don't know about ARM firmware. Maybe there's some documentation somewhere? You can PM me the details.

[ssp3]

The 'Rom' resource in the v4.1 flasher is 64783 bytes.
There's 'Crc' resource that probably should be modified as well as 'cfrg' resource. Maybe something else too.
Even if you manage to hack the flasher and squeeze in compressed ROM, then there's PowerDomain control panel, that, I think, changes card settings in the ROM and not in some preferences file. It is uncertain whether the CP will play along with compressed ROM.

v4.1 flasher is attached to the 2nd post.

[joevt]

The 'Rom' resource in the v4.1 flasher is 64783 bytes.
There's 'Crc' resource that probably should be modified as well as 'cfrg' resource. Maybe something else too.
Even if you manage to hack the flasher and squeeze in compressed ROM, then there's PowerDomain control panel, that, I think, changes card settings in the ROM and not in some preferences file. It is uncertain whether the CP will play along with compressed ROM.

v4.1 flasher is attached to the 2nd post.

The Rom resources appear to be compressed. There's a mention of lzo compression in the PEF of the datafork so I'll try that.

[joevt]

The ROM resources use lzo1x compression.

What's the difference between the AV and the non-AV version?

The AV version has a 64KB (512Kb) Open Firmware PCI Option ROM (only one image).

The non-AV version has two 64KB Open Firmware PCI Option ROMs concatenated together. The second image is identical to the one in the AV version. Why would it need two separate Open Firmware images? What's the first image for? Does the card exist as multiple devices? Does it have a firmware switch? Both parts have the same device ID.

The first image is small and doesn't contain an ndrv.

The lzss compressor is unable to compress the second image to a smaller size but there's no point since the image is already < 64KB.

[ssp3]

What's the difference between the AV and the non-AV version?

How about double clicking "PowerDomain 2940UW v4.1 Readme"? 

[joevt]

What's the difference between the AV and the non-AV version?

How about double clicking "PowerDomain 2940UW v4.1 Readme"? 

Too much work...

AV refers to the Mac (7300, 7500, 7600, 8500, and 8600). You can't use the non-AV installer on an AV Mac but can you use the AV installer on a non-AV Mac? What's the downside? Is 9500/9600 not an AV Mac even though it's very similar to the other Macs listed?

[ssp3]

Is 9500/9600 not an AV Mac even though it's very similar to the other Macs listed?

No. 9500/9600 lack the AV board with audio and video inputs and outputs.

They also have 6 PCI slots and, IIRC, two PCI bridges, each for 3 slots. Adaptec 2940 is a busmaster card, so that also could be a reason why there was different firmware for different machines. Since 2940UW worked in G4 machines too, I think AV firmware was a special case. I don't remember much, but I think that video in AV Macs went thru PCI bridge and SCSI cards had to "play nicely" with everything else on the PCI bus.
I also vaguely remember that at some point Digidesign required Adaptec cards to be throttled down for compatibility reasons with ProTools (or was it Avid?) systems.