5 Dec
2005
5 Dec
'05
7:56 p.m.
I've also got an Amiga 4000T, and I just had a *weird* thought (and coming
from someone who knows almost nothing about Amigas,
that could be a *bad*
thing...)
It looks like there's 1 slot on the 4000T motherboard that might be an ISA
slot - is it? If so, will a plain-jane NE2000 compatible network card work
on the thing? (I would think there's drivers for something like that... but
who knows at this point.)
Here's the *even* weirder idea: I have access to an ISA-based PCMCIA kit,
which gives you to front-accessible PCMCIA slots. Are there Amiga drivers
for any PCMCIA ethernet kit? (I'm also thinking of using it to access
Compact Flash drives... ;-)
IIRC, I have AmigaOS 3.5 on the thing. I looked it up quite a while ago,
but as the box has very little on it WRT software & whatnot, no way to back
it up (beyond floppy, and I ain't doin' that), and no easy way (other than
burning CDs) to get stuff on it, I've not really been "motivated" enough to
diddle with it as of yet.
Anyway, just an odd thought...
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger | "Profile, don't speculate."
SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers | Daniel J. Bernstein
zmerch at 30below.com |
10:29 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ryan Brooks" <ryan at hack.net>
To: <General at rouge.hack.net>
Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 3:23 PM
Subject: Re: Hrm... Weird Amiga Idea...
Roger Merchberger wrote:
You need a bridgeboard CPU card in the Amiga to work with ISA cards ( I
don't think that there is DMA available to the ISA cards either).
There is a utility that allows the Amiga side to use a NE2000 compatible
network card on the ISA bus as long as you have a bridgeboard setup and
running, but I have yet to try it on my A2000 (cheap ISA card with jumpers
is installed just have not got around to testing it).
I mostly use Amiga Explorer 5.0 (newer versions still being sold in the
Amiga Forever package) to send and receive files from my PC server and A2000
at 19,200 BPS serial speeds.
I've also got an Amiga 4000T, and I just had
a *weird* thought (and
coming from someone who knows almost nothing about Amigas, that could
be a *bad* thing...)
Sorry- the ISA slot is just powered, it's not got signals.
-Ryan 
11:07 p.m.
Teo Zenios wrote:
I mostly use Amiga Explorer 5.0 (newer versions still
being sold in the
Amiga Forever package) to send and receive files from my PC server and A2000
at 19,200 BPS serial speeds.
Same here, but at 57600. Increase the buffer size to 4K and it should work
okay as long as you've got a 16550 (or better) on both ends.
--
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
8:32 p.m.
On 5/12/05 19:56, "Roger Merchberger" <zmerch at 30below.com> wrote:
It looks like there's 1 slot on the 4000T
motherboard that might be an ISA
slot - is it? If so, will a plain-jane NE2000 compatible network card work
on the thing? (I would think there's drivers for something like that... but
who knows at this point.)
It IS an ISA slot but you also need a Zorro bridgeboard to activate the
pins, on a stock motherboard there's only power and ground lines available
to let you run passive things like fans.....I've never seen an ISA
bridgeboard :) As for the drivers I guess google is your friend.
Here's the *even* weirder idea: I have access to
an ISA-based PCMCIA kit,
which gives you to front-accessible PCMCIA slots. Are there Amiga drivers
for any PCMCIA ethernet kit? (I'm also thinking of using it to access
Compact Flash drives... ;-)
Don't the later amiga clones use compact flash etc as storage? Also, the
A1200 has a PCMCIA slot that likes 16 bit cards....I was told here last week
that certain PCMCIA network cards will work so at least there's some hope.
it up (beyond floppy, and I ain't doin' that),
and no easy way (other than
burning CDs) to get stuff on it, I've not really been "motivated" enough
to
diddle with it as of yet.
Get yourself a copy of Cloanto's Amiga Explorer. It's about $20, runs over a
standard serial cable and puts your Amiga into the winduhs Explorer window
so you can have instant access to drives and folders etc. I use it to
transfer stuff all the time.
Www.cloanto.com
(no relation to them, etc)
Cheers
--
Adrian/Witchy
Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator
Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer
collection?
9:14 p.m.
Rumor has it that Adrian Graham may have mentioned these words:
Although they *can* because CF can emulate IDE and (at least) the 4000T has
IDE on board, it's not hot-swappable, and you'd have to tear into the case
to [un]hook the adapter to the IDE bus. I was rather hoping for something a
little easier... ;-)
Unless you're talking something later than the 4KT -- that I wouldn't know
about.
.....I've never seen an ISA bridgeboard :)
Would one of the '286 or '386 emulator cards also include said bridgeboard?
It seems those are more readily available -- it kinda sucks to power a
whole 2nd computer (that I'd not plan on using) just to get ISA
compatibility, but like I always say: If it's stupid but works, it ain't
stupid. ;-)
(I'm also
thinking of using it to access Compact Flash drives... ;-)
Don't the later amiga clones use compact flash etc as storage? Also, the
A1200 has a PCMCIA slot that likes 16 bit cards....I was told here last week
that certain PCMCIA network cards will work so at least there's some hope.
And that was my hope as well... if I could get PCMCIA working on a 4KT,
then *maybe* that would open the door to expansion without trying to find
Zorro-based schtuff.
Get yourself a copy of Cloanto's Amiga Explorer.
It's about $20, runs over a
standard serial cable and puts your Amiga into the winduhs Explorer window
so you can have instant access to drives and folders etc. I use it to
transfer stuff all the time.
Www.cloanto.com
Hrm... Interesting. I'll have to keep that in mind...
Thanks!
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers
zmerch at 30below.com
What do you do when Life gives you lemons,
and you don't *like* lemonade?????????????
6 Dec
6 Dec
4:25 a.m.
At 8:32 PM +0000 12/5/05, Adrian Graham wrote:
On 5/12/05 19:56, "Roger Merchberger"
<zmerch at 30below.com> wrote:
In this case, Ethan Dicks might be the person you want to talk to.
I think he owns the rights to the main Bridgeboard (or was it the
only bridgeboard product).
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
It looks like there's 1 slot on the 4000T
motherboard that might be an ISA
slot - is it? If so, will a plain-jane NE2000 compatible network card work
on the thing? (I would think there's drivers for something like that... but
who knows at this point.)
It IS an ISA slot but you also need a Zorro bridgeboard to activate the
pins, on a stock motherboard there's only power and ground lines available
to let you run passive things like fans.....I've never seen an ISA
bridgeboard :) As for the drivers I guess google is your friend. 
7:01 p.m.
On 12/6/05, Adrian Graham <witchy at binarydinosaurs.co.uk> wrote:
On 5/12/05 19:56, "Roger Merchberger"
<zmerch at 30below.com> wrote:
> It looks like there's 1 slot on the 4000T motherboard that might be an ISA
> slot - is it?
Yes, but as many others have observed, it has power only, no signals.
It's like the ISA slots in an A2000 or A3000, but really only designed
for a single-slot bridge card.
> If so, will a plain-jane NE2000 compatible
network card work
> on the thing? (I would think there's drivers for something like that... but
> who knows at this point.)
Not without some way to attach it to Zorro space.
It IS an ISA slot but you also need a Zorro
bridgeboard to activate the
pins...
Right, like a Commodore A2286 card.
I've never seen an ISA bridgeboard :)
What, like the GG2 Bus+ (GoldenGate II Bridgecard)?
http://www.penguincentral.com/GG2/
I have to admit they haven't been popular in a few years, but I still
have new ones on the shelf.
The largest drawback these days is that because of how cacheing was
implemented between the Zorro bus and most '060 cards, they don't play
nice in fully-loaded machines. The GG2 Bus+ lives in Zorro II memory
space (the 8MB chunk) to be able to map ISA memory space over to the
68K in the Amiga. Because C= intended for memory to live there, it's
cached by default on machines like the A3000 and A4000. While there
are workarounds with C= processors (Enforcer disables cacheing in
Zorro II space because C= expect you to be using 32-bit RAM), by the
time the '060s started coming out, things got more difficult due to
the design of the '060 cards. It's possible to write an app to do the
same, but I don't think anyone ever did.
So personally, I only recommend the GG2 Bus+ to stock A2000, A3000,
and A4000 owners. I can't recommend it to anyone who has or who wants
an '060-based machine. Back in the day, those people could afford an
A2065 or Ariadne anyway, so they weren't my prime customers.
-ethan
7:20 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ethan Dicks" <ethan.dicks at gmail.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 2:01 PM
Subject: Re: Hrm... Weird Amiga Idea...
that... but
How well does it run on A2000 with 68030/40 processor cards (Geforce 030
Combo by GVP)? How much do you sell them for?
On 12/6/05, Adrian Graham <witchy at
binarydinosaurs.co.uk> wrote:
> On 5/12/05 19:56, "Roger Merchberger" <zmerch at 30below.com>
wrote:
>
> > It looks like there's 1 slot on the 4000T motherboard that might be an
ISA
> slot - is
it?
Yes, but as many others have observed, it has power only, no signals.
It's like the ISA slots in an A2000 or A3000, but really only designed
for a single-slot bridge card.
> > If so, will a plain-jane NE2000 compatible network card work
> > on the thing? (I would think there's drivers for something like
> who knows
at this point.)
Not without some way to attach it to Zorro space.
It IS an ISA slot but you also need a Zorro
bridgeboard to activate the
pins...
Right, like a Commodore A2286 card.
I've never seen an ISA bridgeboard :)
What, like the GG2 Bus+ (GoldenGate II Bridgecard)?
http://www.penguincentral.com/GG2/
I have to admit they haven't been popular in a few years, but I still
have new ones on the shelf.
The largest drawback these days is that because of how cacheing was
implemented between the Zorro bus and most '060 cards, they don't play
nice in fully-loaded machines. The GG2 Bus+ lives in Zorro II memory
space (the 8MB chunk) to be able to map ISA memory space over to the
68K in the Amiga. Because C= intended for memory to live there, it's
cached by default on machines like the A3000 and A4000. While there
are workarounds with C= processors (Enforcer disables cacheing in
Zorro II space because C= expect you to be using 32-bit RAM), by the
time the '060s started coming out, things got more difficult due to
the design of the '060 cards. It's possible to write an app to do the
same, but I don't think anyone ever did.
So personally, I only recommend the GG2 Bus+ to stock A2000, A3000,
and A4000 owners. I can't recommend it to anyone who has or who wants
an '060-based machine. Back in the day, those people could afford an
A2065 or Ariadne anyway, so they weren't my prime customers.
-ethan
6976
days inactive
6977
days old
8 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
ryan＠hack.net -
teoz＠neo.rr.com -
trixter＠oldskool.org -
witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk -
zmerch＠30below.com