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From: higgin@cbmvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: AMIGA 2000 and IBM compatability
Message-ID: <1620@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 2-Apr-87 11:59:01 EST
Article-I.D.: cbmvax.1620
Posted: Thu Apr  2 11:59:01 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Apr-87 15:22:35 EST
References: <2845@ecsvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: higgin@cbmvax.UUCP (Paul Higginbottom SALES)
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 75

In article <2845@ecsvax.UUCP> urjlew@ecsvax.UUCP (Rostyk Lewyckyj) writes:
$O.K. folks. This thursday IBM is going to announce its new PCs.
$According to all the rumours they will use a new proprietary
$buss, and none of the existing expansion boards will work in
$this new machine. Also at the same time or shortly later, IBM
$will be announcing a new operating system to go with these new
$machines. Of course the BIOS of the new machines will also
$be different.
$So where does this leave the AMIGA 2000, (and the new MAC ?)
$which have been making so much of their their IBM PC capabilities?
$I realize that there is still the world of several million
$existing (old style) IBM PCs, their clones, the clone makers,
$and the add on manufacturers. But the fact remains that as
$far as capturing a piece of the IBM market, COMMODORE and
$all the rest are about to be finessed. 

The "IBM" market is NOT IBM's market anymore.  There's at least 100
manufacturers of computers which will continue to be successful LONG after
IBM introduces their new machines, simply because of the availability of
cards, software, etc for the IBM standard "PC".  In 2 years or so, there
will be some software and hardware for Big Blue's new machines, and PC's
as we know them will wane (the sales of, that is, not the users of).

$The AMIGA 2000 was/is supposed to feed of the availability of
$cheap IBM PC expansion hardware. But with the new standards
$being set by the new machines, how much longer will the old
$expansion addons continue to be available? 

My guess is at least 2-3 years.

$Going of on a tangent from the previous paragraphs, I do not
$really understand what if any are the constraints on what
$kind of IBM PC expansion boards will work with the AMIGA 2000.
$Can anybody from Commodore please post such a list or description.
$Does an IBM PC or AT type cpu card have to be installed, in
$order for other IBM PC or AT expansion cards to be useable?

The "Bridgeboard" option for the A2000 is basically a whole PC on a card
minus video circuitry which is emulated by the Amiga through shared ram (shared
by 8088 and 68000 busses).  That is, it has an 8088 (+ slot for coprocessor),
512K of its own RAM, compatible BIOS, etc.  It IS a PC - not an emulator.

This card goes into ONE of the four slots (actually only two of those four)
can accept the Bridgeboard) leaving three (or two depending on which of the
two you put the Bridgeboard into) slots for PC cards.

One of the three slots has the two connectors required for AT style cards,
however, the other two have holes drilled and connections on the board for
the second connector to be added to make those AT style slots instead of XT
style slots.  I think (not sure) that AT cards can only be used on an AT, so
that's moot until we bring out our AT-Bridgeboard (with 80286) in the future.

Anyway, simply put, you can put up to 3 normal PC cards in the A2000 once you
have added the Bridgeboard.

$Which of the following IBM PC expansion cards and card types
$will/will not work on the AMIGA 2000:

[lists a whole bunch of cards]

They should all work, but remember some may need other cards to work also.
What I mean is, Amiga emulates PC Mono and CGA adaptors, so you may need
to add Hercules or EGA or whatever, in order to make cards that require
those features to work.

$Notice that I am not asking for these services to be
$available to an AMIGA program, although of course if thats
$possible, I'd like to know about it.
   
Crossover capabilities are available for some things.  For example, drivers
exist to allow Amiga to use PC hard disks, and vice versa.  Since the filing
systems are different though, you'd keep each in its own partition.

	Hope this helps,
		Paul Higginbottom.