miner@dino.cpe.ulowell.edu (Rich Miner) (10/27/87)
In article <5634@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>(Mike (My watch has windows) Meyer) writes: > [ His feeling on the A2000-A1000 form factor change ] > While DEC is in general giving their customers a much nastier time than >CBM, they *still* provided a facility so that old peripheral controllers >will work on the new hardware. We have recently acquired the bus-adaptor that Micro-Botics has come out with to allow the star-board II to be placed in the A2000. It works nice for their RAM and can be used for disk controllers and other peripherals. We actually just got Amiga Live! working in the A2000 with the adaptor. Since micro-botics only intended the device to be used for their RAM it does not bring up all of the 86 lines used by A1000, just the ones they needed. I am not sure if this was a poor design decision or a marketing decision. The result is that for a few lines you might need to add some jumpers. But you _can_ get many A1000 side-mounts to work this way. As I mentioned, we have Live! working fine in the A2000. It required us to add the CDAC, -5V, and +12V lines to the microbotics bus adaptor, but it works. Now we can finally process images with real video input, using our coprocessor!! >Sure, the internal bus is nice. But there's no way to put (expensive) >old cards into it. Wrong! I would suggest if all you have is one or two side mounts that you should seriously consider the upgrade, while it is still available. The bus adaptor costs around $30, it's a bargain! -- Rich miner@ulowell.edu 617/452-5000x2693 ULowell CPE Imaging Research Lab
mwm@eris.UUCP (10/28/87)
In article <1778@dino.cpe.ulowell.edu> miner@dino.cpe.ulowell.edu (Rich (My watch band broke and they discontinued the line) Miner) writes:
<We have recently acquired the bus-adaptor that Micro-Botics has come out
<with to allow the star-board II to be placed in the A2000. It works nice for
<their RAM and can be used for disk controllers and other peripherals. We
<actually just got Amiga Live! working in the A2000 with the adaptor.
Yeah, I know about the Microbotics adapter card. So how do I plug a
Zorro I card into it? Or do I plug my entire rack into it? Better yet,
now do people with microforge racks and/or cards plug them into it?
<>Sure, the internal bus is nice. But there's no way to put (expensive)
<>old cards into it.
<
<Wrong! I would suggest if all you have is one or two side mounts that
<you should seriously consider the upgrade, while it is still available.
<The bus adaptor costs around $30, it's a bargain!
No, I'm right. The microbotics adapter is a neat thing. But it doesn't
help people who followed Perrys advice (and it was good advice) and
bought a rack. And that's where the problem is.
The SOTS stuff was tagged as being problematical all along. That it
can be used in the A2000, while the Zorro I (the way CBM said you
should go) stuff won't is almost funny. If I didn't have Zorro I
hardware, I'd probably not have used the "almost."
<mike
--
[Our regularly scheduled .signature preempted.] Mike Meyer
The Amiga 1000: Let's build _the_ hackers machine. mwm@berkeley.edu
The Amiga 500: Let's build one as cheaply as possible! ucbvax!mwm
The Amiga 2000: Let's build one inside an IBM PC! mwm@ucbjade.BITNET