drysdale@cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Drysdale) (02/27/91)
In article <9440@hub.ucsb.edu> psycho@cs.ucsb.edu (Scot Kellan Forbes) writes: >In light of the educational discount price on the 2286 AT bridgeboard >and the removal of the restriction requiring a CPU purchase, I've had >renewed interest in buying one of these. Before I do however, I'd >like to get some questions answered/facts verified. For a starving >student, even $479 is a large sum to be spending on something that >ultimately will not serve its purpose. > >1) First of all, do I have my discount price correct: $479 for the AT >bridgeboard, at least until April 1. What version of the Janus >software is included, or is this a separate purchase? What else is >included besides the 1 Meg and the drive? you'll get janus 2.0 software, msdos 3.3, manuals and drive cable :) >2) I've heard mention of the fact that accelerater boards do not work >with the board. If this is true, could someone tell me why? Is it >related to the Amiga's CPU speed? I'd like to get a 386 accelerator >in the future. I'm thinking specifically of the 386SX board from >Microway. I'd probably be running some Windows software on the IBM >side and an 8Mhz AT is simply too slow (the 20Mhz AT with 2 Meg I use >at work is too slow). I have Commodore's 68020 board, will the two >run simultaneously? (Guru Haynie?) nobody's had much luck with 386 accelerator boards and the bridgeboard. i'm not sure why (we don't have any here to play with). there's no problem running the bridgeboard in a fast amiga. >3) Has anyone successfully used a syquest drive with both the IBM and >Amiga sides? Can a single cartridge be formatted with a partition for >each? I'd settle for separately formatted cartridges as long as it >works for both. there are a couple of ways you could do this. first, you could get a SCSI controller for the pc side and physically move the drive between pc and amiga, and format a cartridge on the pc using the normal ibm tools and then read it on the amiga using crossdos. the other way is to use the drive only on the amiga side and create a "fake ms-dos" partition (which you can boot the pc off of) on the cartridge. the "fake ms-dos" parition stuff basically creates a large amiga file which is manipulated by the bridgeboard. there are no tools at the present time to directly read these "partitions" from the amiga (you have to read them from the pc side and transfer the files to amiga disks using the aread/awrite utilities). >4) Which of the amiga ports (including mouse) can be used from the IBM >side? I have that info somewhere, but asking is easier than trying to >find it in this room. you can use the amiga's mouse with ms-dos and windows 286 applications. there is currently no support for windows 3.0 mouse emulation. you can have stuff written to LPT1: go out the amiga's parallel port. serial port (com2:) emulation hardware is in there, but it doesn't work well enough so it's not supported. >5) Will the board work with the 3000? If not, is it expected to work >with the 3500 (I'm patiently waiting...personally looks don't bother >me, you're supposed to look at the monitor anyway, not the CPU case :) it will work on the 3000, but you'll only have 2 useable slots after installing the bridgeboard. under 2.0 on a 68030 or higher you must also disable data caching, since the bridgeboard is essentially a chunk of shared memory. >Thanx in advance for any and all information. I'm particularly >interested in info about accelerating the board (hacks are perfectly >acceptable). Please Email, I'm having a hard time catching up in this >group... > >Scot Forbes >psycho@cs.ucsb.edu --Scotty -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Scott Drysdale Software Engineer Commodore Amiga Inc. UUCP {allegra|burdvax|rutgers|ihnp4}!cbmvax!drysdale PHONE - yes. "Have you hugged your hog today?" =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
anderson@mrcnext.uiuc.edu (Brent James Anderson) (02/27/91)
drysdale@cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Drysdale) writes: >>2) I've heard mention of the fact that accelerater boards do not work >>with the board. If this is true, could someone tell me why? Is it >>related to the Amiga's CPU speed? I'd like to get a 386 accelerator >>in the future. I'm thinking specifically of the 386SX board from >>Microway. I'd probably be running some Windows software on the IBM >>side and an 8Mhz AT is simply too slow (the 20Mhz AT with 2 Meg I use >>at work is too slow). I have Commodore's 68020 board, will the two >>run simultaneously? (Guru Haynie?) >nobody's had much luck with 386 accelerator boards and the bridgeboard. >i'm not sure why (we don't have any here to play with). there's no >problem running the bridgeboard in a fast amiga. I know you work for Commodore so I mean no disrespect when I say that there appears to be counter evidence to your statement that _no-one_ has had "much" luck with 386 accelerator boards and the Bridgeboard(s). The following BB compatibility list is from Compuserve. Obviously it's not very recent, so the companies listed may no longer exist (I hope not because I have an A2088 that I intend to turbocharge up to a '386 if possible this summer) but each of the three '386 boards are all listed with "positive satisfaction" (albeit, a highly interpretable phrase :-). BridgeBoard Add-On Product Compatibility List 7/11/90 - Steven D. Kapplin, CIS 70055,1021 If you have additional information, please send me EMAIL at above CIS ID on CompuServe. Your contributions are appreciated. Type Make Model Manufacturer A2088 Compat A2086 Compat Price Satisfaction Suppli ---------------------- --------------------- ---------------------- --------------------------- ----------------------------------- --------------------------------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------------------- ------ Accelerator SOTA 386si State Of Art Technology Yes Yes $400 Yes J & R Accelerator 286 Shortcut286 Tallgrass Technologies Yes 399 Yes Accelerator 386 Sota386i Sota Yes Yes Most P Data Acquisition Digital I/O - A/D IBM Yes Yes Digitizer Tablet MM-1218 Summagraphics Yes Yes EMS Exp. Memory Maxi-Magic Yes Yes Ethernet None 5010 Micom Yes Yes Ethernet None 5210 Micom Yes - Conflicts With Exp. Memory Yes - Conflicts With Exp. Memory Expansion Chassis Memory Machine Peachtree Technology Yes Yes - Mfg. Out Of Business Fax Complete Fax 4800 The Complete PC Yes Yes $200 Yes Graphics Card VGA-Wonder W/512K And ATI Yes Yes ~310 Yes Elek-T Graphics Card VGA Plus Paradise Yes Yes Graphics EGA EGA Wonder ATI Tech Yes Yes Yes Most P Graphics VGA VGA Plus Paradise Yes Yes Yes Graphics VGA VGA Wondercard No No No Graphics VGA Video-7 VEGA ? Yes ? ? Graphics VGA Paradise Compatible Ultra Hires Yes But No Color Partial Hard Card Kardisk KDK 30 BSM Yes Yes $299 Yes SoftWa Hard Drive 8225 RLL Miniscribe Yes Yes Yes Any HD Hard Drive Controller Above Board 1002-27ax RLL Western Digital Yes Partial $300 With Drive Yes Most P Hard Drive/controller ST-157R Pair Seagate Yes Yes 699 Yes HD Controller MFM Western Digital Yes 100 Yes Local HD Controller WDX1 Western Digital Yes Yes 60 Yes Most P Host Adapter Wordsync Supra Corp Yes Yes Yes Memory Above Board EMS 3.2 Intel No Partial Limited J & R Memory Intel Above Board Intel No No Memory OverAchiever Above Board Intel No No Memory Rampage 2 AST Yes Yes Memory Thesys EMS 3.2 Thesys (Out Of Bus. Yes Yes Yes J & R Memory Board Above Board + I/O Intel Yes Yes $450 Yes Elek-T Modem Internal 2400zi Supra Corp Yes Yes Yes Modem Card Evercom 24 Everex Yes Yes Multi Function Persyst SB-III FastRAM IV Emulex Yes - I/O + EMS Memory Yes $100 Yes - Out Of Production Surplu Multifunction AST Sixpack+ AST Yes 150 Yes Scanner Scanjet None Hewlett Packard Yes Yes Serial Card Genoa Yes Yes - Mouse Problem W/Norton Commander Serial Port Rampage 2 Daughterboard AST Yes Yes Yes Sound AdLib Card AdLib ? Yes 160 Yes Sound SoundBlaster Creative Music Systems ? Yes 240 Yes Sound Card LAPC-1 Roland Yes Yes Twin Screen Graphic Co H-16 Verticom Yes Yes VGA Card VGA600 512k SuperVGA Card Cardinal ? (Sorry about the formatting. Please capture to a file and view with a scrolling type file reader. This is the way I got it and appears to be the most efficient way to catalog this much info. on each item) Please, anyone care to comment/add to the list??? -Beej
bjames@lehi3b15.csee.Lehigh.EDU (Binoy James [890904]) (03/11/91)
Hi folks, I'm back with the bridgeboard problem. My setup: 3000, 105 Quantum, 1 meg of ram, 880k floppy, 1.44 MSDOS floppy 2286 AT bridgeboard and Amax II. Here's how I set it up. Made 4 partitions: WB1.3, WB2.x, Work and Amax. Installed Workbench2.0 and 1.3. Then I put the line: run >nil: pc/pcdisk in my startup-sequence after the binddrivers command. I ran makeab work:fake_c and created a 20 meg file called fake_c. The parameters I used was 4, 17 and 615. Then I created my ABOOT.CTRL file in sys:pc/system with the line work:fake_c in it. I reboot, run PCColor. It boots up with a Dos 4.01 floppy. The Janus handler (or library I forget which) loaded message does NOT come up! I try fdisk an it comes up with no fixed disk present message! When I first got the machine I had the same problems. However, I just opened the machine and it miraculously fixed itself. It found the hard drive. Now it's back to the old problem. Any clues to what I'm doing wrong here? I partitioned the hard drive about 10- 15 times yesterday and followed the procedures as outlined in the manual with no luck. I even opened the machine up hoping for some of that good ole luck, but I was SOL. Needless to say the Amax II is fully up and running! Help: Bin