jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J Eric Townsend) (05/14/91)
Why not have a Zorro III bus extension thingie? Like a cable from a ZIII slot to another cardcage (maybe stuck under a raised A3000 case). I know, I know, there's the speed of light and all that, but hey. Wouldn't it be neat? (Once again, I prove that I should only be allowed a soldering iron and other implements of electronical destruction only when I promise to do nothing but make serial cables.) -- J. Eric Townsend - jet@uh.edu - bitnet: jet@UHOU - vox: (713) 749-2126 Skate UNIX or bleed, boyo...(UNIX is a trademark of Unix Systems Laboratories). [As soon as my Amiga 3000 arrives, it'll be Skate Motorola time!]
daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) (05/15/91)
In article <1991May13.223251.29436@menudo.uh.edu> jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J Eric Townsend) writes: >Why not have a Zorro III bus extension thingie? Like a cable from >a ZIII slot to another cardcage (maybe stuck under a raised A3000 case). That wouldn't work. These things were reasonably doable with the original PC-XT bus, but a Zorro III bus transaction may be going 5x-10x faster than an XT bus cycle. That's not going to be too happy over ribbon cable. Aside from speed issues, there are signal issues. The XT bus is a "pure" bus; each slot is like the next, all wires are shared (eg, bused) from one slot to the next. The Zorro III bus isn't purely bused. There are three signals per slot that are unique to that slot and have to be managed by the bus controller, which on the A3000 is the Buster chip. >J. Eric Townsend - jet@uh.edu - bitnet: jet@UHOU - vox: (713) 749-2126 -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight" -R.E.M.
markv@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (05/16/91)
> The Zorro III bus isn't purely bused. There are three signals per > slot that are unique to that slot and have to be managed by the bus > controller, which on the A3000 is the Buster chip. Thats a question I've had. Is there any inherant limit on in Zorro III on the number of slots that can be addressed, and is the A3000 Buster limited to 4 slots, or does it have the silicon to deal with more slots given the right motherboard. Granted, the A3000 is pretty complete, but I'm looking at the maxed out machines of the (near) future. Four Amiga slots could still go fast, say more memory, a NIC, a 2610, a smart, heavily buffered SCSI board, and boom your slots are gone. Then you might still want to add a Toaster like board, or multi I/O, etc. That would even fill a 3000T. Especially if you want to use a 3000 as a Unix server, then your definietly needing slots for all the I/O support, etc. >>J. Eric Townsend - jet@uh.edu - bitnet: jet@UHOU - vox: (713) 749-2126 > > -- > Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" > {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy > "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight" -R.E.M. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mark Gooderum Only... \ Good Cheer !!! Academic Computing Services /// \___________________________ University of Kansas /// /| __ _ Bix: mgooderum \\\ /// /__| |\/| | | _ /_\ makes it Bitnet: MARKV@UKANVAX \/\/ / | | | | |__| / \ possible... Internet: markv@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) (05/21/91)
In article <1991May16.104804.30816@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> markv@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes: >> The Zorro III bus isn't purely bused. There are three signals per >> slot that are unique to that slot and have to be managed by the bus >> controller, which on the A3000 is the Buster chip. >Thats a question I've had. Is there any inherant limit on in Zorro >III on the number of slots that can be addressed, In theory, the only limit is based on the bus loading. Using F-series or equivalent loading rules, a Zorro III backplane could theoretically have around 30 slots, though I think in reality that many could run you into troubles with the length of the backplane. And some monster bus controller would be needed for all those SLAVEn*, BRn*, and BGn* lines. While Zorro II cards generally work in Zorro III backplanes, Zorro II was never required to use F-series loading rules, so the number of Zorro II cards that can be used in a Zorro III backplane is probably somewhere between 5 and 10. >and is the A3000 Buster limited to 4 slots, or does it have the silicon to >deal with more slots given the right motherboard. The A3000's Fat Buster can support 5 slots, as it does in the A3000T. >Mark Gooderum Only... \ Good Cheer !!! -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight" -R.E.M.