Any AMIGA users?

From: Ian Koller <vze2mnvr_at_verizon.net>
Date: Thu Jan 3 16:49:49 2002

Ethan,

> I produce the GG2 Bus+
> bridgecard which has _no_ CPU, but makes the ISA bus available directly
> in 68000-address space (shameless plug off...)

  How much are these?



Ethan Dicks wrote:
>
> --- Gary Hildebrand <ghldbrd_at_ccp.com> wrote:
> > "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" wrote:
> > >
> > > > > OK what was the AMIGA that ran both AMIGA and PC software...
> > > > > ... (286 + 68000 ) cpu cards on a PC style box. Did that have a
> > > > > special software to write PC disks?
>
> The hardware solution you are probably referring to is an A2000 and
> Commodore Bridge card. The first models were the A2088 with an 8088,
> the later model, the A2286, had the '286. Third-parties produced
> cards that were faster. They were called bridge cards because they
> bridged the Zorro bus (68000-side) to the ISA bus that was present
> in every A2000 (and A3000...) but inert. I produce the GG2 Bus+
> bridgecard which has _no_ CPU, but makes the ISA bus available directly
> in 68000-address space (shameless plug off...)
>
> As delivered, the A2088 (and A2286) came with an internal 5.25" floppy.
> You would mount the floppy in the one-and-only 5.25" hole in the A2000
> and cable it to the bridge card - that's your A: drive. The provided
> software allowed you to display the contents of the display memory
> on the bridge card in a window (there was a well-documented interface
> between the A2088 and the Zorro bus). You had several ISA slots available,
> so you could put in a hard disk controller, a network card, whatever
> you wanted. I think you could override the internal emulated display
> and put in an ISA video card, but if it was possible, it was not a
> common arrangement, partially because you were still limited to using
> the A2000's keyboard through the bridge card software, over the Zorro
> interface (no external keyboard connector).
>
> There was also a device driver you could buy (later licensed with the
> OS) to read/write PC floppies - CrossDOS. I've used it for 720K and
> 1.44Mb floppies (with a C= 1/2-speed HD drive). They also produced
> CrossMac for reading/writing Mac floppies (HD only, not 400K/800K).
> Essentially, it was a filesystem handler and a couple of mount scripts.
> The Amiga is friendly when it comes to adding new devices/filesystems.
> You get OFS in ROM always, FFS in ROM sometimes and other filesystems
> as you desire to add them; completely unlike DOS/Windows.
>
> > > > > I saw one once - but it was sure slow!
>
> Yes. For as expensive as they were, they were never at the top end of
> the PC performance curve.
>
> > > On Thu, 3 Jan 2002, Christopher Smith wrote:
> > > There was a software only PC emulation that ran on the 1000. It was
> > > VERY slow, but it PASSED the "acid test of PC compatability" (PCW
> > > 1?/84 "How the clones stack up")
> > >
> > > For a while, they gave it free with the purchase of the external
> > > 5.25" drive.
> >
> > That was the transformer software, and it was only semi-compatible with
> > the PC
>
> I never used it, but I don't recall hearing good things. Later, a
> third-party company (the makers of "CrossDOS") came out with Cross-PC,
> a reasonable software approximation of a real PC... some of the versions
> even supported real ISA cards over the GG2 Bus+. Kinda neat, really...
> a fake PC with real hardware - like hanging a Unibus off your PC and
> running E-11.
>
> -ethan
>
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Received on Thu Jan 03 2002 - 16:49:49 GMT