Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!decwrl!sgi!mplevine@sgi.com
From: mplevine@sgi.com (Marshall Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Bridgeboard <--> Amiga communication
Keywords: bridgeboard 8088 communication parallel
Message-ID: <38577@sgi.SGI.COM>
Date: 22 Jul 89 01:07:50 GMT
Sender: daemon@sgi.SGI.COM
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 27


I remember reading in Amigaworld that the Amiga and Bridgeboard (8088) could
communicate.  That is, they said that the Amiga could take control of the 
bridgeboard and use it as a slave processor.  Well, I finally have an
application for this.  I am writing a demo in which the Amiga needs all of its
resources to handle some animation stuff, but I also need the compuer to be
loading information from a hard drive for the demo.  I don't want hard drive
reads to steal time from the amiga, so I want to have the Bridgeboard do all
of the reading itself and send the information to the amiga, so Amy can
concentrate on graphics.  I remember that the Bridgeboard has 64k of dual-port
RAM.  What I would like to do is have the Bridgeboard read 32K at a time 
(from its own hard drive) and store that info in the dual RAM.
While the amiga is working on one 32K block, the Bridgeboard 
can load the other - sort of like page-flipping.  Can the
amiga and bridgeboard send signals back and forth (so amy can signal bridge on
when to load then next 32K and bridge can signal amy of any errorS)?  Where
can I get the appropriate documentation, libraries, and header files for C?
While I'm at it, I would like to use the Bridgeboard as a full slave processor
in some other applications.  Can Amy send it instructions or write directly
to its memory?  Thanks in advance.

-- Marshall Levine
mplevine@sgi.com
mplevine@phoenix.princeton.edu

Advanced Systems Design, Silicon Graphics Inc.
Department of Computer Science, Princeton University