gary@ssc-vax.UUCP (Gary J Albert) (03/20/86)
I have a question concerning hardware expansion for the Amiga. In the back of the hardware manual it says that no standard for the form factor of the expansion chassis and cards had been decided on. I am curious whether this has been resolved yet. I am seriously considering putting together a homebrew memory expansion and would like to conform as much as possible to any standards (de facto or otherwise) that may have arisen. If anybody can pass on any information on this to me it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Gary Albert Boieng Aerospace Co. ssc-vax!gary
bmw@aesat.UUCP (Bruce Walker) (03/25/86)
> I have a question concerning hardware expansion for the Amiga.
And I have a couple more...
Where in the documentation does a description of the boot process (from
power-up) appear? I'm talking low-level details of the REAL ROM here,
and I don't mean the so-called "Kernel ROM" (which of course isn't a ROM
at all). I need sufficient info to enable me to attach a hard disk to
an Amiga and actually boot from it directly.
I have a copy of the "ROM Kernel" and the "Hardware Manual" from which
I have discovered that there is a hook for developers to add additional
I/O devices into the memory space and there is a description of how the Amiga
boots from the floppy. But there is no more info than that. Is there
a manual called "TOP SECRET -- The *Real* Hardware Manual" ?
Bruce Walker {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!aesat!bmw
"I'd feel a lot worse if I wasn't so heavily sedated." -- Spinal Tapneil@amiga.UUCP (Neil Katin) (03/30/86)
In article <660@ssc-vax.UUCP> gary@ssc-vax.UUCP (Gary J Albert) writes: > > I have a question concerning hardware expansion for the Amiga. > In the back of the hardware manual it says that no standard for > the form factor of the expansion chassis and cards had been > decided on. I am curious whether this has been resolved yet. I > am seriously considering putting together a homebrew memory > expansion and would like to conform as much as possible to any > standards (de facto or otherwise) that may have arisen. If > anybody can pass on any information on this to me it would be > greatly appreciated. > > Thanks in advance, > Gary Albert > Boieng Aerospace Co. > ssc-vax!gary OOPS. Yet another developer caught by the infamous 1.0 "expansion architecture" document. In brief, the document is WRONG! An internal only copy was printed in the manual without any of the engineers knowing about it. There is a CORRECT document available from Commodore-Amiga. It has been distributed to many hardware developers, and is available for the asking. It consists of specifications and schematics for boards and backplanes. It also has mechanical specifications. There also is an alpha release of software that configures these boards and binds software to them. To get a copy, call Commodore-Amiga (408-395-6616) and ask "Bubbles" for a copy of the expansion architecture document. Neil Katin pyramid!amiga!neil