Amiga and PC-ISA/PCI boards?

Bernhard Lindner

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Oct 8, 1996, 3:00:00 AM10/8/96

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Hello!

Please answer to the following questions (if you can :-) :
-Is there someone who tried to use PC-ISA or PCI
boards in an AMIGA?
-In which slot-adapter or tower?
-How did you make it to communicate with the board?
-Which kind of ISA/PCI boards can be used in an AMIGA?
-Compatibility?
-Speed?

Thanx for your answers!

El viva AMIGA - TheDuck!

Jeffrey William Davis

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Oct 9, 1996, 3:00:00 AM10/9/96

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In article <yWsCOM...@p0072.liteline.mcnet.de>,

Bernhard Lindner <the...@liteline.mcnet.de> wrote:
>Hello!
>
>Please answer to the following questions (if you can :-) :
>-Is there someone who tried to use PC-ISA or PCI
> boards in an AMIGA?
>-In which slot-adapter or tower?
>-How did you make it to communicate with the board?
>-Which kind of ISA/PCI boards can be used in an AMIGA?
>-Compatibility?
>-Speed?

Unless I am missing something in your question, the answer
lies in an explanation. The PC style slots (ISA) in Amiga
2000s and higher have no connection to the Amiga; only power
and ground are supplied. Thus, by themselves, you could only
use a PC-ISA board that only requires power. I believe
this includes some time-base correctors, parallel processor
boards, and a variety of other boards that only use the
ISA bus as a power plane.

To access an ISA card from the Amiga hardware, you need some
type of "bridge" between the Amiga slots (Zorro) and the ISA
slots; hence the name bridgeboard. C='s solution was a series
of 80x86 bridgeboards with an entire PC on a card. The Amiga
communicated with the bridgeboard PC, and the bridgeboard PC
communicated with the ISA devices.

There was also a German (?) company which developed a more
direct "bridge" between the Amiga slots and ISA slots. This,
along with special software would allow you to use an ISA
card essentially as if it were an Amiga card.

There are a host of other third party slot expanders out there,
to add more ISA slots and whatnot. I would be quite interested
in seeing more information about these devices posted here.
Especially since I have used every slot in my A4000, and most
of them are PC cards.

As for speed, you are restricted to the same limitations you
would find in a "real" PC-ISA system. The cards are designed
to operate at a whopping 8MHz bus speed and some can handle
up to 10MHz.

I have not heard any successful PCI-Amiga stories; unless you
count the BeBox, which I believe has PCI slots in addition to
Zorro slots. It would be possible to set up a Zorro-III to
PCI true-Pentium bridgeboard, but I don't believe this was
ever done. If the Amiga were still going full force, this
would most likely be available by now.

--
=======================================================================
Jeffrey W. Davis (317)451-0503 Domain: c23...@eng.delcoelect.com
Software Engineer UUCP: deaes!c23jwd
Delco Electronics Corporation GM: 8-322-0503 Mail: CT40A

Robert Davis

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Oct 9, 1996, 3:00:00 AM10/9/96

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In article , the...@liteline.mcnet.de says...

>
>Hello!
>
>Please answer to the following questions (if you can :-) :
>-Is there someone who tried to use PC-ISA or PCI
> boards in an AMIGA?
>-In which slot-adapter or tower?
>-How did you make it to communicate with the board?
>-Which kind of ISA/PCI boards can be used in an AMIGA?
>-Compatibility?
>-Speed?
>

==========
See the following URL for the GG II bus card:

http://www.infinet.com/~erd/GG2/index.html

Christian Hack

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Oct 10, 1996, 3:00:00 AM10/10/96

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Okay then

Bernhard Lindner wrote:
>
> Hello!
>
> Please answer to the following questions (if you can :-) :
> -Is there someone who tried to use PC-ISA or PCI
> boards in an AMIGA?

If you have a big box amiga with ISA slots you can use IBM cards.
However, you need another card and software to support the PC card.

> -In which slot-adapter or tower?

Normal Amiga slots are called Zorro and you can't use PC cards in them.

> -How did you make it to communicate with the board?

The ISA slots in an Amiga basically only supply power to the cards. You
need another card to make use of the ISA slots. The two most well known
are the Birdgeboard and the Golden Gate (GG) card. They both plug into
one Zorro slot and one ISA slot at the same time to provide an interface
between the PC ISA bus and the Amiga Zorro bus. The brideboard is also
an IBM emulator and will IBM software which can use the PC cards. The
Golden Gate allows the use of non-DMA cards (i.e. no sound cards, SCSI
cards etc but only serial, parallel and network cards). The GG card has
drivers to use these cards as normal amiga ones.

> -Which kind of ISA/PCI boards can be used in an AMIGA?

See above

> -Compatibility?

ditto

> -Speed?

Basically AT bus speed

>
> Thanx for your answers!
>
> El viva AMIGA - TheDuck!

Hope that helps. EMail me if you want more info. Or better yet, look for
the Golden Gate Home Page (On Amiga Web Directory in Hardware Support)
for more info

--
Christian Hack
A1200/030/40MHz/1.08G/34MB and flyin'
Member of Team AMIGA
hac...@pc.elec.uq.edu.au
e932...@student.uq.edu.au

Bernhard Lindner

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Oct 12, 1996, 3:00:00 AM10/12/96

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c23...@kocrsv01.delcoelect.com (Jeffrey William Davis) hat am 09.10.1996 folgenden Text erzeugt:

JD> There was also a German (?) company which developed a more
JD> direct "bridge" between the Amiga slots and ISA slots. This,
JD> along with special software would allow you to use an ISA
JD> card essentially as if it were an Amiga card.

No more infos about this company?

JD> There are a host of other third party slot expanders out there,
JD> to add more ISA slots and whatnot. I would be quite interested
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Me too....

JD> in seeing more information about these devices posted here.

Viva el AMIGA - TheDuck!

John Kelly

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Oct 13, 1996, 3:00:00 AM10/13/96

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the...@liteline.mcnet.de (Bernhard Lindner) writes:

> JD> There was also a German (?) company which developed a more
> JD> direct "bridge" between the Amiga slots and ISA slots. This,
> JD> along with special software would allow you to use an ISA
> JD> card essentially as if it were an Amiga card.
>
> No more infos about this company?

The GoldenGate-II Bus+ card is available .. it's $125US .. the URL for
complete info is:

http://www.infinet.com/~erd/GG2

It has drivers for PC ISA internal modems, serial cards, ethernet cards,
and IDE cards.

Bernd Koesling

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Oct 13, 1996, 3:00:00 AM10/13/96

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Jeffrey William published some text on 09.10.1996
in /COMP/SYS/AMIGA/HARDWARE
about "Re: Amiga and PC-ISA/PCI boards?" :

JD> In article <yWsCOM...@p0072.liteline.mcnet.de>,
JD> Bernhard Lindner <the...@liteline.mcnet.de> wrote:
JD> >Hello!
JD> >
JD> >Please answer to the following questions (if you can :-) :
JD> >-Is there someone who tried to use PC-ISA or PCI
JD> > boards in an AMIGA?
JD> >-In which slot-adapter or tower?
JD> >-How did you make it to communicate with the board?
JD> >-Which kind of ISA/PCI boards can be used in an AMIGA?
JD> >-Compatibility?
JD> >-Speed?
JD>
[cut]
JD>
JD> I have not heard any successful PCI-Amiga stories; unless you
JD> count the BeBox, which I believe has PCI slots in addition to
JD> Zorro slots. It would be possible to set up a Zorro-III to
JD> PCI true-Pentium bridgeboard, but I don't believe this was
JD> ever done. If the Amiga were still going full force, this
JD> would most likely be available by now.
JD>

have a look at <http://www.eagle-cp.com>

it's the company that is rumoured to be interested in buying
the Amiga-technology (they already have the licence to build
the A4000t-motherboards in their own towers). They offer
daughterboards for the a3000/a4000 including 3xPCI (400 DM).
Together with the Siamese-card (300 DM)and a PCI-Pentium-
cpucard (>1000 DM) you will have a powerful (though very
expensive) integrated clone.

(btw. their customer service has been heavily discussed
recently...)

have fun - koessi

Joern Plewka

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Oct 13, 1996, 3:00:00 AM10/13/96

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the...@liteline.mcnet.de (Bernhard Lindner) -> "Amiga and PC-ISA/PCI boards?"
(08.10.1996)
> Hello!

>
> Please answer to the following questions (if you can :-) :

> -Is there someone who tried to use PC-ISA or PCI

> boards in an AMIGA?

> -In which slot-adapter or tower?

> -How did you make it to communicate with the board?

> -Which kind of ISA/PCI boards can be used in an AMIGA?

> -Compatibility?
> -Speed?

Somebody out there with PCI docs? I got a pointer to a us company,
but it`s not that easy for me to get it.
AFAIK VillageTronic has done a multible bridge for Zorro->PCI and NUBus->PCI.
They only use it for their GFX board...

--http://users.informatik.fh-hamburg.de/~plewka_j
|
+-> elm:j_pl...@amtrash.comlink.de
+-> plew...@informatik.fh-hamburg.de
|
+--> MELODY, MPEG audio w/o intensive system load
+--> SIMMfonie, PS/2 Modules in Amiga3ooo(T)

Jan Granstrom

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Oct 15, 1996, 3:00:00 AM10/15/96

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Joern Plewka wrote:
>
> the...@liteline.mcnet.de (Bernhard Lindner) -> "Amiga and PC-ISA/PCI boards?"
> (08.10.1996)
> > Hello!
> >
> > Please answer to the following questions (if you can :-) :
> > -Is there someone who tried to use PC-ISA or PCI
> > boards in an AMIGA?
> > -In which slot-adapter or tower?
> > -How did you make it to communicate with the board?
> > -Which kind of ISA/PCI boards can be used in an AMIGA?
> > -Compatibility?
> > -Speed?
>
> Somebody out there with PCI docs? I got a pointer to a us company,
> but it`s not that easy for me to get it.
> AFAIK VillageTronic has done a multible bridge for Zorro->PCI and NUBus->PCI.
> They only use it for their GFX board...
>

PCI is AFAIK was developed by INTEL, contact them they should now.

Janne

Bernhard Lindner

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Oct 15, 1996, 3:00:00 AM10/15/96

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Thanx!

KUNISAWA Ryota

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Oct 16, 1996, 3:00:00 AM10/16/96

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In article <32632C...@cad.luth.se> Jan Granstrom <ja...@cad.luth.se> writes:

> Joern Plewka wrote:
> >
> > Somebody out there with PCI docs? I got a pointer to a us company,
> > but it`s not that easy for me to get it.
> > AFAIK VillageTronic has done a multible bridge for Zorro->PCI and NUBus->PCI.
> > They only use it for their GFX board...
> >
>
> PCI is AFAIK was developed by INTEL, contact them they should now.

You can try "PCI System Architecture, 3rd Edition" published by
Addison-Wesley. This book has an ISBN number (0-201-40993-3)
so you can order one from your local bookstore.

There might be newer edition avaiable.

Regards,

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
KUNISAWA Ryota University of Tokyo
Postgraduate Student Graduate School of Science
email:kuni...@is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp Dept of Information Science