Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!cbmvax!cbmehq!cbmger!peterk
From: peterk@cbmger.UUCP (Peter Kittel GERMANY)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: How PC compatable is a PC-XT Bridgeboard ?
Keywords: Bridgeboard
Message-ID: <1213@cbmger.UUCP>
Date: 8 May 91 06:54:36 GMT
References: <1991May7.145054.2740@hemel.bull.co.uk>
Reply-To: peterk@cbmger.UUCP (Peter Kittel GERMANY)
Organization: Commodore Bueromaschinen GmbH, West Germany
Lines: 57

In article <1991May7.145054.2740@hemel.bull.co.uk> igreenaw@hemel.bull.co.uk (ian greenaway) writes:
>
>I would also be interested in knowing the specification of the Bridgeboard, if
>anyone out there has it, and also info about what s/w comes with it (if any).

           A2088          A2286
clock:     XT 4.77 MHz,   AT 8 MHz
RAM:          512 KB         1 MB
Software included is MS-DOS 4.01 (I believe) plus some "Janus utilities",
see below. They include software for emulating a PC harddrive on a normal
Amiga drive (harddisk or even floppy!).

>I also understand that by using a PC hard drive controller and MFM type drive,
>that you can set up partitions for the amiga and pc.  If you had two hard 
>drives, could you have one for amiga and the other for the pc ?   

YES. I do.

>Can you 
>copy files from the amiga to the pc ?

Yes, there are utility programs provided for each direction, AREAD, AWRITE.

>  How about from the Bridgeboard's 5 1/4"
>drive to the amiga's 3 1/2" drive and vice versa - can it be done easily ?

Do you still mean PC format <--> Amiga format? If yes, then see above.
With a little effort you could change the PC side drive to a 3 1/2"
drive (on AT BB just a jumper).

>Can the amiga access the 5 1/4" drive ?

Not directly. You see, MS-DOS is not reentrant, so if you access PC
hardware from the Amiga side and you don't know what's running there
just in this moment, you could crash it. Thus the above mentioned
transfer utilities only work from the PC side where they have control
of the situation and may interrupt the multitasking Amiga side whenever
they want without risk.

>  Can the pc use the amiga's mouse ?

Yes, I even think we have the original Microsoft mouse driver.

>How about the serial & parallel ports ?

Parallel: If a software uses the regular DOS interrupts to access it,
        then it can easily be switched to the Amiga-side port via a little
        Amiga-side utility. If the software directly bangs on the parallel
        port hardware, then it should fail.
Serial: No provision to emulate this.
You may well put in an I/O card on the PC side. The only issue to
consider is that you must not use I/O addresses and interrupts for
COM2, these are used by the system for PC-Amiga communication.

-- 
Best regards, Dr. Peter Kittel  // E-Mail to  \\  Only my personal opinions... 
Commodore Frankfurt, Germany  \X/ {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!cbmger!peterk