dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) (04/04/91)
Just after starting to read the new A3000T article I came up with an excellent idea to increase productivity. Every co processor slot is used to accelerate an Amiga, and some people who have large tasks to do use more than one Amiga o get the job done. Wouldn't it be great if one of those unused expansion slots (not the coprocessor slot) could be used to hold all of the Amiga chips necessary to run a second system? If an entire A500 could be mounted on an expansion card, minus floppy drive and expansion ports, it could be used to multitask with an A2000 or A3000. If all of the CPU is crunching 3D images for a few days, you could switch to the expansion card and work off f a totally uninhibited Amiga without a noticable loss in speed. In other words, make an A500 Bridgeboard. Make two Workbench screens; one for the host machine, and one for the A500 Bridgeboard. Any programs launched by either CPU will only slow down one CPU, and the other is free or more serious work or for patching up. Finally it would also be possible to multitask hardware-specifac games, or something like AMAX. Not only do I think this is a great idea, but I think that it could RETAIL for less than $400. It could be designed to accept A500 accelerator boards, such as Mega Midget or AdSpeed. It could also contain an additional 9 megabytes of ram! Well, is it feasable? Keep in mind that it should operate on only one video screen, although two separate screens could be an option... David Tiberio :) -- David Tiberio SUNY Stony Brook 2-3481 AMIGA DDD-MEN -- Any students from SUNY Oswego? Please let me know! :) -- Looking to buy a used 68000 CPU and 1.3 Kickstart
blgardne@javelin.sim.es.com (Blaine Gardner) (04/04/91)
dtiberio@eeserv1.ic.sunysb.edu (David Tiberio) writes: Hmm, this one is a few days late for April Fools, but I'm generally gullible, so I'll bite. (Massive paraphrasing to follow.) > [Why not make an add-in Amiga for the existing Amigas?] > If an entire A500 could be mounted on an expansion card, minus floppy >drive and expansion ports, it could be used to multitask with an A2000 >or A3000. Ok, but WHY? The Amiga already multitasks doesn't it? > If all of the CPU is crunching 3D images for a few days, you >could switch to the expansion card and work off f a totally uninhibited >Amiga without a noticable loss in speed. Ahhh, so you're worried about speed. A reasonable concern, but have you used an A3000? In about 10 months of use, nearly everything I've thrown at it has been done "without a noticable loss in speed". I'm sure it's possible to bring the A3000 to its knees, but everything I've tried that used to slow a 7 MHz Amiga to a crawl is hardly noticed by the A3000. >In other words, make an A500 Bridgeboard. Why a pokey old A500 if you're worried about speed? A 32 bit CPU and matching memory would be the way to go on any co-Amiga board. >Finally it would also be possible to multitask >hardware-specifac games, or something like AMAX. I can see what you're getting at now, but isn't this the ultimate kludge for fixing software bugs in hardware? Wouldn't fixing the software be a more reasonable approach? > Not only do I think this is a great idea, but I think that it could >RETAIL for less than $400. Never. Anything you'd save on not having a case, power supply, keyboard, etc. would be eaten up by development costs for the new hardware and software required. >It could be designed to accept A500 >accelerator boards, such as Mega Midget or AdSpeed. It could also >contain an additional 9 megabytes of ram! Again, why? If you want speed, build it in. Any of the A500 internal expansions are designed to fit in the A500 casework, and don't stand much of a chance fitting into the Zorro II form factor. It's an interesting idea, but the A3000 already exceeds it in CPU power, disk speed, address space (18 megabytes not enough? Just wait for the Zorro III RAM cards that are probably in the works). If you really need a second CPU, don't settle for a mere 7 MHz 68000, add another 68030 or a 68040 to the A3000's co-processor slot. And if all you want to do is run Amax or brain-damaged games, buy a cheap used A500. It will be a lot cheaper than any co-Amiga board. -- Blaine Gardner @ Evans & Sutherland 580 Arapeen Drive, SLC, Utah 84108 blgardne@javelin.sim.es.com or ...dsd.es.com!javelin!blgardne DoD #0046 My other motorcycle is a Quadracer. BIX: blaine_g 28 miles to go....
news@bnr-rsc.UUCP (User for news) (04/05/91)
new style of bridgeboard to go in a normal expansion slot. From: humenuk@bcarh168.bnr.ca (Gary Humenuk) Path: bcarh168!humenuk > If an entire A500 could be mounted on an expansion card, minus floppy >drive and expansion ports, it could be used to multitask with an A2000 >or A3000. I would buy one, AND, since I only have a pair of A1000s I would also buy a A2000 or A3000 to put it in! It could be made even better with an optional second keyboard interface.
mikep@hpmwtd.HP.COM (Mike Powell) (04/09/91)
I would buy one too.... in a heartbeat. Ever since I moved to the A3000, I have lost some compatibility... and I could see the A500 card surviving the parent machine re-booting! That would be great! (and vise-versa).... :-) -Mike-
kcampbel@uafhp.uark.edu (Keith Alan Campbell) (04/17/91)
Ever since we started playing with DSP56001's a year ago when developing the SunRize 16 bit digital audio system, we wondered if 56001's (plural) might be usable as specialized graphics coprocessors. A friend is going to move some of the math routines from DBWRender over to 56001 asm to test the concept. Common sense would imply that for fixed point operations they should be at least as fast as an '882 at the same clock speed, if not faster. With multiple DSP chips the system could subdivide images into chunks that could be rendered simultaneously, achieving significant speedups by using parallel processing. If this idea can be proven successful, we will try to see if any of the commercial renderers would be willing to test some of their code on the system. I could forsee a 4 DSP board very easily... Don Kennedy Vision Quest Systems