Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!giza.cis.ohio-state.edu!erd From: erd@giza.cis.ohio-state.edu (Ethan R Dicks) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Subject: Re: IBM cards in the Amiga Message-ID: <82425@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: 24 Jul 90 22:56:15 GMT References: <1990Jul20.172301.6908@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <13381@cbmvax.commodore.com> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Distribution: comp Organization: Ohio State Computer Science Lines: 68 In article <13381@cbmvax.commodore.com> daveh@cbmvax (Dave Haynie) writes: >In article <1990Jul20.172301.6908@watdragon.waterloo.edu> rbharding@trillium.uwaterloo.ca (Ron Harding) writes: >> What we are thinking of is a bus-adapter board which uses the >>Bridgeboard slot to connect the IBM slots to the Zorro bus. The primary >>function of this board would be to map the IBM bus's 1Meg memory space >>into one of the many unused Megs of the Zorro address range. It would >>also have to map the IBM's 64K io space into another Zorro range. > >That's something we've been proposing for years. It's called a "dumb" >bridge card; basically just a bus translator to go between Amiga and >PC/AT. No one has yet publically admitted to having built one, but it could >certainly be done. The WEDGE for the A1000 and A500 does it. It does not autoconfigure, but it does map PC/XT I/O space into Amiga memory space ($EA0000 by default) I have a multi I/O card and an MFM disk controller on my WEDGE1000, and if I ever get the time, I will be writing a device driver for the GAMEIO and PARALLEL ports on it. It cost less than $40 for 2 serial, 1 parallel and an analog game controller. Yes these things are available for the Amiga, but due to the economy of scale, they are cheaper for the IBM-PC. Jim Brooks, who built the WEDGE hardware said that he couldn't generate much interest in them because people aren't driven by neat hardware, but by results. I have had a Western Digital style PC/XT disk controller on my A1000 since 1987. I get about 120Kb/sec under FFS. It doesn't blaze, but it isn't DMA. I paid less than $400 for new 20Mb drive, WEDGE and Western Digital WX-1 in 1987. The cheapest 20Mb SCSI drive and controller were at least $650 at the time. It still works. I use it for hours every day. Since I still have my A1000, I see no need to replace it. I, too, would like to see a PC/XT or PC/AT bus adapter for the Zorro bus. If there have been one, I probably would have migrated to the A2000 from the A1000. Instead, I bought a Rejuvinator, keeping another infernal dinosaur up and running. One of the main advantages a bus adapter is the ability to have networking hardware and a hard disk for little outlay. Cheap extra ports are really nice too; how much is the multi-serial port board from C-A or ASDG? I realize that you are getting software with the hardware, but the hardware isn't cheap to start with. The cost of a PC/XT Ethernet card is around $200. A second serial port is about $20. A disk controller is about $50. Add it up... under $300, just add a bus adapter and a hard disk. How much performance do *you* really need? A person who bought an Amiga to do wordprocessing and to use a database program and other mundane tasks isn't really going to scream about the difference between 600Kb/sec and 200Kb/sec on hard drive access. What they see is that if they click the icon, a few seconds later, they can edit their file. If most users could save several hundred dollars in expansion hardware, they would probably be willing to accept a bit of performance degradation. So... the $64 question is... "Would it really sell?" -ethan >>Ron Harding | Nuke'Em: Get them before they get you! > >-- >Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests" > {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh PLINK: hazy BIX: hazy > The Dave Haynie branch of the New Zealand Fan Club -- Ethan R. Dicks | ###### This signifies that the poster is a member in Software Results Corp| ## good sitting of Inertia House: Bodies at rest. 940 Freeway Drive N. | ## Columbus OH 43229 | ###### "You get it, you're closer."