turk@tree.uucp (Rob Turk (1-1-90)) (07/14/90)
I am looking at possibly getting a bridgeboard. After hearing how
slow both the XT and AT BBs are, I am interested in information on
the accelerators for them that work. The ones I have heard
mentioned are the SOTA 286i and SOTA 386i. Are these for the XT BB?
Or is the 386i for the AT model of the BB? My knowledge about the
bridgeboard(s) is limited. I would like to at least have 286
compatibility so I could help my brother with his business.
So, what do these accelerators cost? What speed do they run at?
How "compatible" are they? How do they work?
Any other questions I should be asking?
Are there any recommended by Commodore?
I have a 3 meg B2000 with a HardFrame/Q80 if that matters.
Used XT BBs have been selling really cheap so I am just exploring some
options.
P.S. This is a repost of a message sent several months ago. It elicited
no replies, or more likely none that reached me via e-mail.
Please reply publically and educate us all.liberato@drivax.UUCP (Jimmy Liberato) (07/19/90)
turk@tree.uucp (Rob Turk (1-1-90)) writes: >I am looking at possibly getting a bridgeboard. After hearing how >slow both the XT and AT BBs are, I am interested in information on >the accelerators for them that work. The ones I have heard >mentioned are the SOTA 286i and SOTA 386i. Are these for the XT BB? Amouse and Atime do not appear to work with the SOTA 386si board. Otherwise it is an excellent product. The 16-bit memory daughter card is not stable yet. Without it performance is not very dazzling. Attempt to establish a path to this site or send a floppy to address below for more info on the SOTA that I have archived. Does anyone have any idea why Amouse would be incompatible with an accelerated BB? Is this a product specific problem? It would be nice to be able to use the Amiga mouse on the PC side. -- Jimmy Liberato liberato%drivax@uunet.uu.net {uunet|amdahl}!drivax!liberato Box DRI, Monterey, CA 93942
a774@mindlink.UUCP (Wayde Police) (07/20/90)
While I am not using a Sota386 in my Bridgeboard, I am using a Sota286i.
Initially I had problems with Jlinking, and with Atime and Amouse. It is easy
to get the 'turbo' BB to operate properly though. A command called Sota286i
came with my Sota that allows toggling on/off various system caching. If you
set up a batch file to turn off System Bios Caching (ie. Sota286i /noBios) and
then execute the various Janus/BB utilities, it will work. At the end of your
batch file simply restart system bios caching (ie. Sota286i /Bios). The Janus
utilities seem to be very timing critical.
A few extra comments here ...
generally my Sota286i works great! It even ran Windows 3.0 with Amouse
rather nicely!
give at least 16k of DOS memory to hard drive caching if you have a
hard drive, if not, your HD performance will actually go down.
call all janus setup utilities (amouse, atime, jlink) within a batch
file ... see above.
it seems to help to run PCDisk, AMouse, and TimeServ (on the Amiga
side) after the BB is fully booted, too early seems to confuse matters.
use the Sota286i.sys device driver instead of the toggle switch.
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