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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!princeton!allegra!ulysses!sfmag!sfsup!perry
From: perry@sfsup.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: CLtd 20M hard disk
Message-ID: <1158@sfsup.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3-Mar-87 11:22:11 EST
Article-I.D.: sfsup.1158
Posted: Tue Mar  3 11:22:11 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Mar-87 05:01:32 EST
References: <256@mcdsun.UUCP> <1479@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T-IS, Summit N.J. USA
Lines: 38
Summary: ASDG Memory Boards Are Full Spec

In article <1479@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP>, daveh@cbmvax.UUCP writes:
> in article <256@mcdsun.UUCP>, fnf@mcdsun.UUCP (Fred Fish) says:
> > ASDG has promised to send me a version of their Minirack which buffers
> > the bus at the connector, rather than adding several inches to it internally
> > as my current Minirack-C does.  My ultimate solution will probably be to
> Just a point of information: anyone who's not buffering the 86 pin edge
> connector is not conforming to the expansion specification.  

> Any board that follows these rules shouldn't have any loading problem.
> There are a few signals that sometimes can't be buffered, but the main
> one (address, data, strobes, etc.) must be.  Also, there's a good amount
> of timing constraints that must also be followed; some Amiga specific,
> some based on the timing specification of an 8MHz 68000.  I'll bet you that
> most of the boards that are having trouble are violating some of these
> design rules.  I don't personally have access to any of these expansion 
> devices, so I'm not stating that they categorically violate any of the
> given rules.  But these rules were written up for a specific reason -- to
> be followed!  If a manufacturer breaks them, all the fast PALs in the world
> may not help.

All ASDG memory boards have a fully functional Zorro back  plane built ONTO
each and every board. We are completely Zorro spec, in fact, we've designed
in no wait state performance for even the worst case timings.

We offered to send Fred a Mini-Rack-D to replace his Mini-Rack-C in the small
hope that it might help his C Ltd problem  (no more politeness bull shit - it
IS a C Ltd problem) by  shortening trace lengths by about half an inch (since
the Mini-Rack-D buffers bus signals  right at  the connector while our memory
boards buffer the signals  at their connector -  the difference is about half
an inch).

Traces on the aMega expansion board are unbuffered and add FEET to trace length
not just inches. 

Dave Haynie has said above what we've been saying all along. If an expansion
product is designed properly it will not require any bogus pal changes.

Perry S. Kivolowitz