--- Jeff Hellige <jhellige_at_earthlink.net> wrote:
> At 03:06 PM 11/30/00 -0800, you wrote:
> >I still have new, in-the-box GG2 Bus+ bridge cards w/original warranty.
> They come with NE2000 drivers (along with other, non-NIC drivers) but there
> are also SMC/WesternDigital drivers on the web page
> >(http://penguincentral.com/GG2/)
>
> Hi Ethan,
>
> That's pretty cool...I don't remember seeing anything on those before.
It's been around for a long time. My first ISA bridge for the Amiga was
"The Wedge" - IIRC, about $200-something in 1987 - 8-bit only with drivers
for only the WesternDigital WX-1 and clones. I got an ST-225 w/Everex WX-1
card (larger than the real thing, unfortunately, because it was hanging off
the side of the Amiga and blocked the mouse port - I had to make an extension
cable). It was about 200kb/sec because the 8Mhz 68K was wheezing along
doing 8-bit PIO. I put together a 20Mb disk solution for $500 out-of-pocket
when a CLtd. SCSI system was ~$1000. Think about that compared to today - $50
per meg!
After that came the Golden Gate II Bridge Card by David Salomon. When he
graduated in 1994, he put up the designs and manufacturing rights for sale;
I bought them. The part that keeps this on topic is that while the card
is <10 years old, it goes in Amiga 2000s, Amiga 3000s, etc., from 1990 and
before.
> How much do they generally go for?
$99.95, MSRP. I'll throw in free ground shipping as a bonus to anyone on
the list (and an ISA NIC while my limited supplies last). Blank boards
and a parts list are $10 plus shipping (got more than I'll ever make).
> I was referring to some of the shareware stuff on Aminet that had a driver
> actually running on the Bridgeboard CPU, passing stuff from it to the Amiga
> side. The extra layer seemed to slow it down a little but it was a viable
> alternative for those that had the Bridgeboards and a cheap ISA NIC card.
Right. I knew about that but I never tried it either. I have a couple of
A2088 bridge cards but not enough time to fiddle with it.
> ...I already had full slots with my GVP Spectrum, DKB SCSI board and Emplant
> Deluxe.
That's been the problem lately - most Amiga power users who want networking
have already filled their machines. A two-slot Ethernet solution isn't
viable for someone willing to drop the money for networking in the first
place.
> I always like my various Amiga's....it's too bad that even the A4000
> would no longer meet my needs for an 'everyday' machine.
Browsing and watching mpegs are why my A4000 is no longer my everyday
machine. I used to read news, write code, do e-mail, etc., all from
my A1000 (then A3000, then A4000) from 1986 through about 1997 or so.
I am ashamed to admit that I just don't use my Amiga much anymore. I
suppose Linux hacking has displaced that sector of my time. It's a pity;
they were *fun* machines. I spent a lot of time writing code and
fiddling with the hardware (my A1000 has a Rejuvinator, a Spirit Inboard,
a Starboard and a ROM switcher - OS1.3 and OS2.x, 5Mb RAM, SCSI - about
as far as you can take it without adding slots).
-ethan
=====
Even though my old e-mail address is no longer going to
vanish, please note my new public address: erd_at_iname.com
The original webpage address is still going away. The
permanent home is:
http://penguincentral.com/
See
http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details.
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Received on Fri Dec 01 2000 - 06:17:10 GMT