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From: harding%b56vxg.dnet@kodak.com (JON HARDING)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: 286 Bridgeboard
Keywords: bridgecards, 286
Message-ID: <1526@eastman.UUCP>
Date: 5 Dec 90 20:31:31 GMT
References: <24@microsoft.UUCP>
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From: harding%b56vxg.dnet@kodak.com (JON HARDING)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: 286 Bridgeboard
Summary:  
Date:  5 DEC 90 15:13:58    
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In article <24@microsoft.UUCP>, timha@microsoft.UUCP (Tim HARRIS) writes...
> 
>  This has probably been covered umpteen million times
>but bear with me and e-mail any comments.  I have had
>an Amiga now for about 3 years.  My current system is
>an 500 with 1Meg, hard drive and 2 floppies.  I have
>given some thought recently to buying a new system, since
>I now work on PC's at work I thought of getting a PC Clone
>but hate the thought of not having my Amiga around for
>most of what I do at home, which is video work.  I know
>I'll give my kids the 500 anyway but then I started thinking
>about an Amiga 2500 with a 286 bridgeboard so I could have
>my Amiga and my PC at the same time.  Here are my
>questions:
>  
>  1. How much RAM can the 286 access?  Is RAM in excess of
>640K viewed as Extended or Expanded?
As much as any other 286 I think 8Meg. RAM above 1024K is extended. Expanded
depends on what expansion board you use for memory.
>  2. What video mode is supported or emulated with this
>thing, standard VGA or worse.  Standard VGA is even the
>pits really but could do.
A2286 does (gasp) CGA only, but you can add a VGA board if you want. (Letsee
that leaves one PC slot- now a disk or a serial board hmmmm.)
>  3. Does the DOS side use your standard 3" drives or do
>you need to put a 5" in?
Uses supplied 51/4 inch 1.2M floppy.  Third party stuff claims to do things
with the 31/2 microflops.  MJ Systems claims to have for sale a board which
wii make the PC think it has two 720K drives, however, I have ordered twice
and still haven't received any hardware!
>  4. Can you in any way share a hard disk or would you need
>a seperate DOS HardCard or something?
IMHO this is where the Amiga really shines. You can buy a cheap DOS disk (big)
and create a real Amiga partition on it. Performance is acceptable.  You can
buy a reasonably priced SCSI DMA or other and share its space with the PC
through a file server process; performance stinks unless you have the Amiga
Ram to create a 400 or so buffers of cache the I am told it is respectable.
You can create a couple of Amiga side ram disks for the PC and they are FAST.
>  5. Has anyone run Windows on this beast and if so does
>it really work?  
I have run windows on an A2088 but wouldn't bother for most things.  If you
want to multitask, use the Amiga.  Anyway, Good Luck. 

>  I just want to be able to do some programming work at
>home if I need to so Windows is crucial, VGA is pretty
>much desired and Windows sort of means I need > 640K
>anyway I guess.  
>  Thanks in advance for all the help.
> 
>  Tim Harris  (timha@microsoft)
> 
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|	Jon Harding, N2KZJ	email: harding%b56vxg.dnet@Kodak.COM	      |
|		* I don't represent KODAK by word or deed. *		      |	
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