[bit.listserv.i-amiga] Bridgeboard query

JCUNNINGHAM@UPEI.CA (John Cunningham) (01/18/90)

From: <JCUNNINGHAM@UPEI.CA>

Hello fellow amigos. I'm presently in the market for a new computer, and my
choice is leaning (bending) toward an Amiga 2000. I have been amazed by the
machines since I saw my first A1000 about 3 years ago, and I've been following
the machines' development ever since.

Two things are bugging me, tho. My worst computer nightmares have always been
involved incompatability. I am wondering if this strikes the Amiga world much.

The bridgeboards, for instance. I've heard conflicting rumors as to their
compatability with the MSDOG world. I would be a very unhappy camper if I was to
find myself in a situation where I absolutely *HAD* to have MSDOG (for whatever
reason...), I go out and buy the $1700 A2286 AT-bridgeboard, plug it in, and
*boom* it isn't compatable! My question is this: *ARE* the bridgeboards (A2088
& A2286) *TOTALLY* MSDOG (and/or OS/2 wrt the A2286) compatable with the big
blue? Anyone have any major problems, and if so, what?

I also am starting to hear problems with compatability between Amiga models.
When the 1Meg enhanced chip set memory becomes the standard, does this mean new
programs written on the 1Meg chip machine will not operate properly on the
older 512k chip RAM machine (and vice versa?) If so, I forsee problems in the
future!

Finally, do any Canadians students on the list have any information of
Commodore's student packages, if any? The Americans apparently have a very
appealing package for students down there. I wrote Commodore Canada twice, but
have received no reply or awknowledgement for some reason. Maybe they don't
want new programmers???

Thanks in advance for any helpful information anyone can supply.

                                -jc

DCR3567@RITVAX.BITNET (DCR3567) (01/18/90)

 BridgeBoards: As far as I know, they are totally compatible. (some errant
programs might crash, but the mainstream is definately compatible.) I think
some problems occur when you put in SOME expansion boards that need
specific address space or themselves (which the bridgeboard takes for itself)
  But that is for an owner to answer.. they were made to be 100% compatible.

Chips:  Old programs will run with 512k chip memory.. they might be slower,
or you might run out of memory for some things (you can't have more than
1 640*400*4 screen in DPaint, and have a Music Program with digitized sound
playing in the background.. there just isn't the memory. 1 Meg chip ram
fixes this)  Not many programs will REQUIRE the 1 meg chip.. it's just that
some will work better/faster with it in.. automatically, no jumpers/tests
needed.  Some other features will also just be extensions (the 31kHz
"productivity mode" of the new Agnes, 1280*400 resolution of denise) of the
OS, and be options in programs... most won't REQUIRE it.

                  -Daniel Richardson
                   Rochester Institute of Technology

KILLIAN@UNCG.BITNET (The Mad Doctor) (01/19/90)

>The bridgeboards, for instance. I've heard conflicting rumors as to their
>compatability with the MSDOG world. I would be a very unhappy camper if I was t
   o
>find myself in a situation where I absolutely *HAD* to have MSDOG (for whatever
>reason...), I go out and buy the $1700 A2286 AT-bridgeboard, plug it in, and
>*boom* it isn't compatable! My question is this: *ARE* the bridgeboards (A2088
>& A2286) *TOTALLY* MSDOG (and/or OS/2 wrt the A2286) compatable with the big
>blue? Anyone have any major problems, and if so, what?

From what I've heard from people who've used both, the bridgecards are
EXTREMELY compatible with their IBM counterparts.  Commodore, when last I
checked, knew of no bugs with them.  Of course, that doesn't mean that bugs
don't exist, but no one seems to know of any.

(BTW--check around, I think you can find the A2286 for a bit less than $1700.)

>I also am starting to hear problems with compatability between Amiga models.
>When the 1Meg enhanced chip set memory becomes the standard, does this mean new
>programs written on the 1Meg chip machine will not operate properly on the
>older 512k chip RAM machine (and vice versa?) If so, I forsee problems in the
>future!

Ok...the new chip set should be fully compatible with all old programs.  The
only exception being one very bad programming habit where the programmer,
instead of checking for existance of FastMem, already writes to FastMem if the
machine has over 512K.  So if you have a meg and it's all chip, the program
will look at "more than 512K" and then try to write to FastMem, which isn't
there.  I don't know how popular this is to do, but I don't think there are
THAT many bad programmers out there.

The other way round is a different story.  I'm not sure how the new chip set is
set up, so this is a guess.  The most you should get is an Out Of Memory error
when it tries to access FastMem as chip.  There is a bug in Sonix where you may
be able to look at available memory and see 530K or so, try to load a sampled
instrument and it says "Can't load instrument from disk!" because of
insufficient chip memory; I'm assuming this is from trying to directly access
FastMem as chip.

>Thanks in advance for any helpful information anyone can supply.

Well, like I said, I'm guessing, but I hope it dies help.