1.11 AMD Athlon Issue

[alexian]

OK -- Just trying to confirm something. I've seen some posts of other AMD Athlon users that could not get 1.11 to work. I'm just trying to assess whether this is a problem generic to all Athlons or perhaps some unrelated problem.

If you own a PC with an AMD Athlon chipset, feel free to download either the Linux or Windows pSX version 1.11 and try to get it running. Please use your best debugging skills to try to run it before posting.

In Windows, 1.11 just died for me. I get a Sigkill in Linux. However, the 1.10 Windows version ran just fine for me in Windows, and I was able to get it to run with just a little fiddling through Wine in Linux.

If you have an Athlon and can get 1.11 working, please pass along any hints you may have for the rest of us. If you cannot get it to run, feel free to also post, perhaps sending along some PC specs.

(I'm away from my home PC right now -- I'll add PC specs later)

Good luck!

result of cat /proc/cpuinfo in xubuntu linux:

processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 6
model : 4
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) Processor
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 1195.820
cache size : 256 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr syscall mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow up
bogomips : 2392.96
clflush size : 32

[Paratech]

I couldn't get it or the new beta version to run, I tried running it in its own folder, and in the "Playstation" folder and it crashed in both instances.
I wonder if it uses SSE instructions as my Athlon doesn't support SSE?

Or if it's just because it's an Athlon? Mine is an Athlon Duron 900mhz processor.

;)

[Xtreme2damax]

I'll try it tomorrow and get back to you, I have an AMD 64 X 2 3800+ @ 2.0 Ghz.


This just may be an issue with older Athlon Chipsets though, and may not be related to mine as my chipset supports MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, 3DNow, x86-64

To the op:

What is your exact AMD Chipset? Is it Dual Core, Single Core, x86, x86-64, I know it's an Athlon by your post, but what's the number that usually follows after the processor name, such as 3200+, 3800+ ..... and so on.

Details like this would help a bit more for the Authors of pSX to pinpoint the problem and fix it possibly;)

[Paratech]

No it's an Athlon 900, as in 900mhz, it's an old CPU! ;)

[Melanogaster]

@Paratech: I guess Xtreme2damax was aiming at alexian on the question about the exact AMD chipset being used...

[alexian]

Mine's not much newer than Paratech's. Bios claims it as an AMD K7 Athlon 1200 Mhz. Hope this helps.

I will point out -- this suspicion of issues with Athlon PC's started with a couple other posts on another forum...

pSX emulator - Problems with pSX on Kubuntu 7.04 (http://psxemulator.proboards54.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=support&thread=1175198138&page=1)

pSX emulator - pSX won't start :( (http://psxemulator.proboards54.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=support&thread=1173720883&page=2)

pSX emulator - pSX v1.11 released (http://psxemulator.proboards54.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=news&thread=1172347386&page=5)
This post is very interesting as it seems to have comments from people involved with the coding of pSX. It indicates that the latest version has some new optimization that causes problems on older Athlon's, while implying such optimization isn't really necessary for PS1 at all! There is some talk of the last pre-release WIP *not* including such optimization. Boy, if there's still copies of such a Linux WIP around, I would love to get my hands on such a thing! Perhaps they could post it on the project website, and put notes indicating that 1.10 and the WIP were the last versions that worked with older Athlon PC's. I'll also post in the other forum.

[pSXAuthor]

There seems to be some confusion.. to clarify:

pSX uses SSE (1 and 2) in its PS2 emulation code. But this is not necessary for the PS1 emulation which uses only MMX.

GCC is a bit lame when it comes to controllng SSE support... it is all or nothing. So... the original Linux WIP builds were compiled with SSE support enabled. However... this causes GCC to use some SSE instructions in parts of the PS1 code which means it won't work on Athlons.

To fix this I rewrote/rearranged some code so that SSE is only enabled for the PS2 parts (this was not possible before because of some stuff in header files).

So... the release version (v1.11) should only require MMX unless you enable PS2 emulation in which case it requires SSE 1 and 2.

I am not sure why some people are having problems with v1.11 on Athlons... it definately works for some people I know with Athlons, so I don't think it is the same problem as the one detailed above.

[Paratech]

But does it work on Athlons that don't have SSE support?
I tried unzipping PSX1.11 into it's own folder, with just the bios, and it crashed, if I replaced it with 1.10, it works...

I'm clueless to what differences there are between 1.10 and 1.11 that'd make 1.11 crash on my PC...

[pSXAuthor]

Yes, as I have just explained - in PS1 mode it only requires MMX.

You seem to be talking about the Windows version though... there was never a v1.10 for Linux... nothing to do with MMX/SSE has changed in the Windows version.

How are you running it? There is a known problem with v1.11 where it will sometimes crash if you start it with the -f switch - could it be that?

[Paratech]

I don't start it with a switch, I just double click the .exe or from a shortcut I've made.

I don't include any parameters.

It just won't start...

[Exophase]

There seems to be some confusion.. to clarify:

pSX uses SSE (1 and 2) in its PS2 emulation code. But this is not necessary for the PS1 emulation which uses only MMX.

GCC is a bit lame when it comes to controllng SSE support... it is all or nothing. So... the original Linux WIP builds were compiled with SSE support enabled. However... this causes GCC to use some SSE instructions in parts of the PS1 code which means it won't work on Athlons.

To fix this I rewrote/rearranged some code so that SSE is only enabled for the PS2 parts (this was not possible before because of some stuff in header files).

So... the release version (v1.11) should only require MMX unless you enable PS2 emulation in which case it requires SSE 1 and 2.

I am not sure why some people are having problems with v1.11 on Athlons... it definately works for some people I know with Athlons, so I don't think it is the same problem as the one detailed above.

What is this about PS2 emulation? I noticed EE debuggers in the debug options but other than that... there's no documentation for it, I don't see any way to "enable" PS2 emulation, do you mean as a compile time flag? I don't think anyone had any idea that there actually was any code for PS2 emulation in pSX, I know I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere.

Maybe it works out easier for you to have one source tree for emulating PS1 and PS2, but this all sounds very sudden and mysterious...

[Luengo]

PS2 emulation has been enabled for several versions already, you just have to start it with the -2 command line switch, and of course you need to have a PS2 BIOS. I dunno how well it works, I remember I tested it just to see it boot and show the Sony copyright and the Playstation logo.

[alexian]

Sorry -- been away from the discussion a bit. Started one in the main 1.11 forum:

pSX emulator - 1.11 Aging Athlon Issue (http://psxemulator.proboards54.com/index.cgi?board=support&action=display&thread=1176721595)

The basics -- from my own experience, 1.10 works just fine on my Athlon PC in Windows. In the other post, patrickp included a set of early Linux WIP's. The 2nd WIP from the collection worked. 1.11 (Win or Linux) and the later Linux WIP's will crash shortly after being fired up. It won't even get so far as asking me to select my language. Crash information is supplied in the other forum.

Notice that, from those that have chimed in on various forums, Athlon XP's and later are not affected. Only the Athlon Classic and Athlon Thunderbirds. (Basically -- if there's no plus sign or other indicator after the speed number, and if the speed is 1400 or less. Like my Athlon 1200) No disrespect intended ... I realize that psxauthor has claimed that SSE / SSE2 is not a factor here, but the Classic / Thunderbirds had a partical SSE implementation. The XP's were the first to have full SSE implementation. And, for some reason -- 1.11 works on XP's. We're still waiting to hear from anyone who's been able to get 1.11 to work on the older Athlons.

Cheers