Marc Barrett <BARRETT@owl.ecil.iastate.edu> (08/24/90)
Some time ago, I wrote on the net that I had, at one time, partly
developed a crude piece of hardware which would allow an IBM PC or PC/AT
style of card to be used in an Amiga 2000 or 3000. My intention was
to find a way to allow IBM SVGA cards to be used in an Amiga, driven
by Amiga software.
Several people said that they would be willing to write the software
for such a device, if it was developed. Well, it appears that it has
been developed.
A couple of years ago, I heard about an expansion box for the A500
and A1000 called the AX-S (from Spirit Tech.) which would allow IBM
cards to be used with these systems. At first, I considered using this,
but the price tag (over $1000 at the time) was much too pricy. It
also wasn't as flexible as I wanted: I wanted something simple for
the A2000 instead.
I hadn't heard anything about this thing for a long time, so for a
while I assumed it was vaporware. It appears that it is not vaporware
after all. The price on the thing has been reduced somewhat, and
there is an ad for it in the September 90 issue of AmigaWorld.
Anyway, to all the people who offered to write the software to drive
an IBM SVGA card in an Amiga, I'd like to ask you to support this
product. The A2000 version seems to do exactly what my device would
have done, and in ways that are almost definately a lot less kludgy.
Perhaps someone can write some drivers to drive several different kinds
of SVGA cards from AX-S, for people who need a high-resolution 256-color
display on their Amiga. For the time being, the Amiga still does not
have inexpensive graphics boards for it, so getting SVGA cards to
work on Amigas using AX-S could help this somewhat.
-MB-jandreas@pro-graphics.cts.com (Jason Andreas) (08/28/90)
In-Reply-To: message from BARRETT@owl.ecil.iastate.edu
We are using the AX-S card for our i860 accelerator/frame buffer. I have a
unit since the World of Amiga in New york. I had wished more code had come
along with the board other then just software for reading an electronic meter,
but after long hours, it is a rather useful piece of hardware that has saved
us over $60,000 in developing an Amiga specific card. The person to get ahold
of is Mel Williams. His number is (I believe) (918)834-2509. He's at 8345
East Fifth Place. Tulsa, Oklahoma 74112. When i interface a Targa+ 64 card
to the amiga withit, I will release most of the code, but the i860 APX is not
mine to give away (Even though i've ported it).
ProLine: jandreas@pro-graphics
UUCP: ...crash!pro-graphics!jandreas
ARPA/DDN: pro-graphics!jandreas@nosc.mil
Internet: jandreas@pro-graphics.cts.com