3 Jan
2002
3 Jan
'02
2:29 a.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ben Franchuk [mailto:bfranchuk@jetnet.ab.ca]
OK what was the AMIGA that ran both AMIGA and PC
software ... (286 +
68000 )
cpu cards on a PC style box. Did that have a special software to write
PC disks?
I saw one once - but it was sure slow!
That was the 2000, I think. Slow or not, I've been after one for a while, myself. :)
Well, actually any amiga that's newer than my 1000... ;)
Regards,
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl
Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
3 Jan
3 Jan
2:46 a.m.
> OK what was the AMIGA that ran both AMIGA and PC
software ... (286 +
> 68000 )
> cpu cards on a PC style box. Did that have a special software to write
> PC disks?
> I saw one once - but it was sure slow!
On Thu, 3 Jan 2002, Christopher Smith wrote:
That was the 2000, I think. Slow or not, I've
been after one for a
while, myself. :) Well, actually any amiga that's newer than my
1000... ;)
There was a software only PC emulation that ran on the 1000. It was VERY
slow, but it PASSED the "acid test of PC compatability" (PCW 1?/84 "How
the clones stack up")
For a while, they gave it free with the purchase of the external
5.25" drive. I'll look this weekend, but I don't think that I can find
it.
4:17 a.m.
"Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" wrote:
That was the transformer software, and it was only semi-compatible with
the PC
Gary Hildebrand
> OK what was the AMIGA that ran both AMIGA
and PC software ... (286 +
> 68000 )
> cpu cards on a PC style box. Did that have a special software to write
> PC disks?
> I saw one once - but it was sure slow!
On Thu, 3 Jan 2002, Christopher Smith wrote:
That was the 2000, I think. Slow or not,
I've been after one for a
while, myself. :) Well, actually any amiga that's newer than my
1000... ;)
There was a software only PC emulation that ran on the 1000. It was VERY
slow, but it PASSED the "acid test of PC compatability" (PCW 1?/84 "How
the clones stack up")
For a while, they gave it free with the purchase of the external
5.25" drive. I'll look this weekend, but I don't think that I can find
it. 
3:52 a.m.
--- Gary Hildebrand <ghldbrd(a)ccp.com> wrote:
I never used it, but I don't recall hearing good things. Later, a
third-party company (the makers of "CrossDOS") came out with Cross-PC,
a reasonable software approximation of a real PC... some of the versions
even supported real ISA cards over the GG2 Bus+. Kinda neat, really...
a fake PC with real hardware - like hanging a Unibus off your PC and
running E-11.
-ethan
__________________________________________________
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Send your FREE holiday greetings online!
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"Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" wrote:
>
> > > OK what was the AMIGA that ran both AMIGA and PC software...
> > > ... (286 + 68000 ) cpu cards on a PC style box. Did that have a
> > > special software to write PC disks?
The hardware solution you are probably referring to is an A2000 and
Commodore Bridge card. The first models were the A2088 with an 8088,
the later model, the A2286, had the '286. Third-parties produced
cards that were faster. They were called bridge cards because they
bridged the Zorro bus (68000-side) to the ISA bus that was present
in every A2000 (and A3000...) but inert. I produce the GG2 Bus+
bridgecard which has _no_ CPU, but makes the ISA bus available directly
in 68000-address space (shameless plug off...)
As delivered, the A2088 (and A2286) came with an internal 5.25" floppy.
You would mount the floppy in the one-and-only 5.25" hole in the A2000
and cable it to the bridge card - that's your A: drive. The provided
software allowed you to display the contents of the display memory
on the bridge card in a window (there was a well-documented interface
between the A2088 and the Zorro bus). You had several ISA slots available,
so you could put in a hard disk controller, a network card, whatever
you wanted. I think you could override the internal emulated display
and put in an ISA video card, but if it was possible, it was not a
common arrangement, partially because you were still limited to using
the A2000's keyboard through the bridge card software, over the Zorro
interface (no external keyboard connector).
There was also a device driver you could buy (later licensed with the
OS) to read/write PC floppies - CrossDOS. I've used it for 720K and
1.44Mb floppies (with a C= 1/2-speed HD drive). They also produced
CrossMac for reading/writing Mac floppies (HD only, not 400K/800K).
Essentially, it was a filesystem handler and a couple of mount scripts.
The Amiga is friendly when it comes to adding new devices/filesystems.
You get OFS in ROM always, FFS in ROM sometimes and other filesystems
as you desire to add them; completely unlike DOS/Windows.
> > > I saw one once - but it was sure slow!
Yes. For as expensive as they were, they were never at the top end of
the PC performance curve.
On Thu, 3 Jan
2002, Christopher Smith wrote:
There was a software only PC emulation that ran on the 1000. It was
VERY slow, but it PASSED the "acid test of PC compatability" (PCW
1?/84 "How the clones stack up")
For a while, they gave it free with the purchase of the external
5.25" drive.
That was the transformer software, and it was only semi-compatible with
the PC
6:41 a.m.
On Thu, 3 Jan 2002, Ethan Dicks wrote:
I guess that I'm the only one who liked it.
That was the
transformer software, and it was only semi-compatible with
the PC
I never used it, but I don't recall hearing good things. Later, a
third-party company (the makers of
"CrossDOS") came out with Cross-PC,
Was that "CentraL Coast Software"?
6:58 a.m.
I have a Commodore 2088 Bridgeboard in my 2000. You needed Janus
(named after the 2-faced god) to use it or one of several other european
programs I found. I also have an MFM drive in it and what I finally figured out
was a MSmouse card. I've yet to find the time to get it functioning. I am
curious tho as to what's on the PC HD. I guess the original boot-disk had
Janus and other configuration data on it. Other than ignoring the 2088 the
2000(not HD model) runs fine.
I have a spare 2088 that unless Doc or SuprDave want it, is up for trade.
Lawrence
--- Gary Hildebrand <ghldbrd(a)ccp.com> wrote:
I never used it, but I don't recall hearing good things. Later, a
third-party company (the makers of "CrossDOS") came out with Cross-PC,
a reasonable software approximation of a real PC... some of the versions
even supported real ISA cards over the GG2 Bus+. Kinda neat, really...
a fake PC with real hardware - like hanging a Unibus off your PC and
running E-11.
-ethan
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send your FREE holiday greetings online!
http://greetings.yahoo.com
Reply to:
lgwalker(a)mts.net
"Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" wrote:
>
> > > OK what was the AMIGA that ran both AMIGA and PC software...
> > > ... (286 + 68000 ) cpu cards on a PC style box. Did that have a
> > > special software to write PC disks?
The hardware solution you are probably referring to is an A2000 and
Commodore Bridge card. The first models were the A2088 with an 8088,
the later model, the A2286, had the '286. Third-parties produced
cards that were faster. They were called bridge cards because they
bridged the Zorro bus (68000-side) to the ISA bus that was present
in every A2000 (and A3000...) but inert. I produce the GG2 Bus+
bridgecard which has _no_ CPU, but makes the ISA bus available directly
in 68000-address space (shameless plug off...)
As delivered, the A2088 (and A2286) came with an internal 5.25" floppy.
You would mount the floppy in the one-and-only 5.25" hole in the A2000
and cable it to the bridge card - that's your A: drive. The provided
software allowed you to display the contents of the display memory
on the bridge card in a window (there was a well-documented interface
between the A2088 and the Zorro bus). You had several ISA slots available, so
you could put in a hard disk controller, a network card, whatever you wanted. I
think you could override the internal emulated display and put in an ISA video
card, but if it was possible, it was not a common arrangement, partially because
you were still limited to using the A2000's keyboard through the bridge card
software, over the Zorro interface (no external keyboard connector).
There was also a device driver you could buy (later licensed with the
OS) to read/write PC floppies - CrossDOS. I've used it for 720K and
1.44Mb floppies (with a C= 1/2-speed HD drive). They also produced
CrossMac for reading/writing Mac floppies (HD only, not 400K/800K).
Essentially, it was a filesystem handler and a couple of mount scripts.
The Amiga is friendly when it comes to adding new devices/filesystems.
You get OFS in ROM always, FFS in ROM sometimes and other filesystems
as you desire to add them; completely unlike DOS/Windows.
> > > I saw one once - but it was sure
slow!
Yes. For as expensive as they were, they were never at the top end of
the PC performance curve.
On Thu, 3
Jan 2002, Christopher Smith wrote:
There was a software only PC emulation that ran on the 1000. It was
VERY slow, but it PASSED the "acid test of PC compatability" (PCW
1?/84 "How the clones stack up")
For a while, they gave it free with the purchase of the external
5.25" drive.
That was the transformer software, and it was only semi-compatible with
the PC 
8:49 a.m.
Ethan,
I produce the GG2 Bus+
bridgecard which has _no_ CPU, but makes the ISA bus available directly
in 68000-address space (shameless plug off...)
How much are these?
Ethan Dicks wrote:
--- Gary Hildebrand <ghldbrd(a)ccp.com> wrote:
I never used it, but I don't recall hearing good things. Later, a
third-party company (the makers of "CrossDOS") came out with Cross-PC,
a reasonable software approximation of a real PC... some of the versions
even supported real ISA cards over the GG2 Bus+. Kinda neat, really...
a fake PC with real hardware - like hanging a Unibus off your PC and
running E-11.
-ethan
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send your FREE holiday greetings online!
http://greetings.yahoo.com
"Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" wrote:
>
> > > OK what was the AMIGA that ran both AMIGA and PC software...
> > > ... (286 + 68000 ) cpu cards on a PC style box. Did that have a
> > > special software to write PC disks?
The hardware solution you are probably referring to is an A2000 and
Commodore Bridge card. The first models were the A2088 with an 8088,
the later model, the A2286, had the '286. Third-parties produced
cards that were faster. They were called bridge cards because they
bridged the Zorro bus (68000-side) to the ISA bus that was present
in every A2000 (and A3000...) but inert. I produce the GG2 Bus+
bridgecard which has _no_ CPU, but makes the ISA bus available directly
in 68000-address space (shameless plug off...)
As delivered, the A2088 (and A2286) came with an internal 5.25" floppy.
You would mount the floppy in the one-and-only 5.25" hole in the A2000
and cable it to the bridge card - that's your A: drive. The provided
software allowed you to display the contents of the display memory
on the bridge card in a window (there was a well-documented interface
between the A2088 and the Zorro bus). You had several ISA slots available,
so you could put in a hard disk controller, a network card, whatever
you wanted. I think you could override the internal emulated display
and put in an ISA video card, but if it was possible, it was not a
common arrangement, partially because you were still limited to using
the A2000's keyboard through the bridge card software, over the Zorro
interface (no external keyboard connector).
There was also a device driver you could buy (later licensed with the
OS) to read/write PC floppies - CrossDOS. I've used it for 720K and
1.44Mb floppies (with a C= 1/2-speed HD drive). They also produced
CrossMac for reading/writing Mac floppies (HD only, not 400K/800K).
Essentially, it was a filesystem handler and a couple of mount scripts.
The Amiga is friendly when it comes to adding new devices/filesystems.
You get OFS in ROM always, FFS in ROM sometimes and other filesystems
as you desire to add them; completely unlike DOS/Windows.
> > > I saw one once - but it was sure
slow!
Yes. For as expensive as they were, they were never at the top end of
the PC performance curve.
On Thu, 3
Jan 2002, Christopher Smith wrote:
There was a software only PC emulation that ran on the 1000. It was
VERY slow, but it PASSED the "acid test of PC compatability" (PCW
1?/84 "How the clones stack up")
For a while, they gave it free with the purchase of the external
5.25" drive.
That was the transformer software, and it was only semi-compatible with
the PC
6:39 a.m.
> There was a software only PC emulation that ran
on the 1000. It was VERY
> slow, but it PASSED the "acid test of PC compatability" (PCW 1?/84
"How
> the clones stack up")
On Thu, 3 Jan 2002, Gary Hildebrand wrote:
That was the transformer software, and it was only
semi-compatible with
the PC
I thought that the compatability was pretty good!
It did a pretty fair job of emulating the BIOS (at least Int 10h and Int
13h)
I was able to run XenoCopy-PC on it.
8390
days inactive
8390
days old
7 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
csmith＠amdocs.com -
erd_6502＠yahoo.com -
ghldbrd＠ccp.com -
lgwalker＠mts.net -
vze2mnvr＠verizon.net