#EMPLANT – Any News?
19 messages in this thread
Haven't seen any news lately on the status of the Emplant. I've noticed that
new versions of the software have been posted around. Could one of the Emplant
users give a status report on how the Emplant is working and whether it has
become stable and reliable enough to be considered a useful product?
I have a friend using it. It get's better and better with every software
release.
-Jonathan
Jonathan,
Perhaps you could clue me in on where it's at right now. I know from
previous postings that there were problems with hard drives, floppy drives,
reading Mac diskettes, booting up, working with accelerators. Just too many
problems to give it serious consideration. But, I haven't seen much about it
in a couple of weeks or so, and I was curious. Utilities Unlimited doesn't
appear to advertise anywhere, so I don't even know how to talk to them.
Steven,
I still have had no luck with my Emplant. I am waiting until UU has Amiga
HD floppy support, and I have an HD drive.
My feeling is that the Sybil drive interface is the biggest problem with
this setup, and that UU needs to do something that allows for more
reliable floppy access. I asked them if they could do something ala Amax;
they told me that Amax's floppy scheme is causing burned out drives!
Jonathan, via AutoPilot // Only Amiga makes
\\// it possible…
I have burned up two CIA's with AMAX when using the floppy option… It
will be nice to see when UU has the HD option…
-Jonathan
Jonathan,
I think you have probably been MOST patient with them! I assume, then,
that you still have trouble getting it to boot reliably or to reasonably
function as originally advertised?
As for Amax burning out drives … well, I use Amax plus and haven't had any
trouble burning out floppies, but I can say that the floppy drive support can
be iffy. Although I could not read a Mac disk on my A2000 originally, after
returning the board and receiving a replacement (or repaired) card, I was able
to read Mac disks. However, Amax no longer seemed to work very reliably with
my accelerator.
Eventually, I reached a point where literally I could not get it to boot from
the hard drive despite reformatting and reinstalling software. In fact at one
point I couldn't even get through the installation. If I did finally get
things working, surely in a day or so I couldn't boot the hard drive. I never
had that problem with the previous Amax. I then moved Amax + to my new A3000
and it has been working like a virtual champ. But, I cannot reliably read
floppy disks! My A3000 has the new HDD drive. I find that most 720k disks
formatted on other Macs ('scuse me, 800k) will work OK, but distribution
software created on disks formatted under System 7 just don't work. In fact, I
cannot format an 800k disk under Amax, although I can format one in HD! Go
figger it out! I got the latest Amax software, but no luck.
So, this isn't unique to Emplant. Seems floppy disk support on the emulators
isn't as transparent as one would hope. I'm at a loss on mine. I never know
iif I will be able to read/format a Mac disk or not. Depends on the weather,
it seems! Although Readysoft is sympathetic (they listen), they seem to have
no clue as to a fix nor seem to suggest that the problem is truly one with the
Amax itself. I don't think they really know what the problem is or how to fix
it.
"Amax's floppy scheme is causing burned out drives!"
So that might explain why my disk drive died. I had to buy a new one to
replace it not too long ago. Very bad news if Amax did indeed destroy my
floppy drive.
Donovan,
I can't say that AMAX caused my 8520 chips to be damamged, I was the culprit
that kept switching between AMAX and MAC2DOS hardware while powered up.
However, I have a very difficult time trying to read any floppy disk that was
written as 800K DD on a superdrive with System 7. Even a SyQuest cartridge I
received from a System 7 user was unusable and the only way I was able to
salvage that fiasco was with Norton Utilities version 2.0's file recovery
program.
AMAX has been very very good to me. I would like to see some more improvements,
for some reason certain programs don't recognize that I have a FPU coprocessor,
and of course we'd all like to see a MACII AMAX version some day RSN.
Chris
I presume all this talk of burned out floppies under A-Max involves using
the A-Max disk format (the in-betweener) on an Amiga-side diskette drive.
Also that it applies to both the external A-Max unit and the II+ card.
I've two A-Max external rigs running Mac 800K floppy drives and no
problems. The few times I've run the in-between format I've noticed no
troubles. I'm using version 2.53.
I think you presume correctly. The only way I could see A-Max burning out
floppies is by using their 'fool the Amiga disk drive into thinking it is
a MAC' technique.
Well, if my new HD drive burns out too early then I'll raise hell with
them. I'll have to wait and see at this point.
Steve,
I am using the Emplant in an A3000 now. After many (and continuing) updates to
the hardware and software I am now getting it to do some usefull work. The
reason I mention my machine is that the success one has with it seems to depend
on what you put it in. Actually, a superkickstart A3000, like mine was one of
their hardest nuts to crack. Early on there were memory allocation problems and
startup difficulties but these are all solved now. I have two remaining
problems though. The Emplant does not shut down properly, it hangsup so that I
have to reboot (infact power down) if I want to recover the memory or processor
cycles that it uses. This is a problem peculiar to the A3000 UU tells me and
they're working on it. I have no doubt that they will eventually find the
problem. The other problem is hardare and concerns the Appletalk ports. I am on
very large "local" area network with many zones spread out over tens of acres (
a university campus). I can "work" the local zone most of the time but not the
remote zones. They are sending faster interface chips which should solve the
problem. On the positive side, the hard disk support works well and is really
quite flexible. Originally, UU advertized a scsi port op- tion but when my
board arrived, the software drivers where not done yet. Soon though there came
an update allowing the use of disk partions from the Amiga side. These are real
Mac partions, created on a real Mac first but you con- nect them to your Amiga
scsi interface. You can even mix AmigaDos and Mac partions on the same disk.
You can't cross read/write though, UU say's that will come latter, again I
don't doubt it. Without going into all the details what I actually did was to
create a Mac system disk on a Syquest cartridge with a real Mac, connect it to
the Amiga scsi port, and copy it to a partiton on the A3000's internal drive.
The copy is done under Emplant control after starting up off the Syquest.
Eventually, they came out with the software for
[ MORE ]
Well, that is the same story that I have been getting from friends (one
friend on particular) as well as many people over the net… It works,
although with problems, but get's better and better with every
release/upgrade of the software…
-Jonathan
[ continuation ]
the scsi port on the Emplant side also but this would seem not to be needed
unless you wanted to connect non disk things like scanners. I've heard that
people have been having problems with Sybil, the floppy interface option. I
haven't even tried using it
UU's phone number is (602) 680-9004
Ron
Ron,
Thank you for such a complete and objective report on your experiences
with Emplant. It seems, from your report, that floppy support for Mac
diskettes is still one of the missing links.
Presently the networks at our university are still in the development
phase and won't be completed until late this year, so I haven't as yet been
able to determine if Amax's localtalk port would present any speed problems on
a widespread network, but certainly that would be a concern for both Amax and
Emplant were I to use Emplant on the A3000. Floppy disk support would also be
necessary since I don't have a Syquest and it would be more convenient to be
able to load software from the original floppies, if needed.
I guess that Emplant is still a little ways away from being a robust
and stable product with the full range of hardware and software support needed
for a reliable emulation platform. Guess I'll wait a little while longer and
see how it develops over the course of the year.
Again, Ron, thank you for such a complete overview. I really
appreciate knowing how Emplant is developing and you have enlightened me.
Ron…
Thanks for the update. I have a couple of questions. What range of colors are
you getting on screen? Is there any way to get 24 bit color (possibly through
an Amiga 24 bit card)? My main interest is in running PhotoShop on an A3000.
Also can I connect a Mac external drive to Emplant – either directly or through
my AMAX cartridge? I have one 800k drive.
Again thanks for the info.
..Carl
Carl
You can use a 16 color screen with the A3000 and UU has just released 256
color support for aga machines. They don't have any thing for 24 bit cards now
but I wouldn't be surprized to see it in the future, say for the Firecracker. I
was going to ask them about that myself. About the external Mac floppy, I think
that the Emplant does work with the AMAX cartridge but I'm not sure. I've
really left the floppy interface alone. If you want to run PhotoShop make sure
you have lots of memory available. I have a 4/2 megabyte A3000 and I can only
allocate enough memory for a little more than a 2 meg Mac system. I suggest you
give them a call at (602)680-9004 or try their bbs at (602)453-9767.
Ron
Ron,
How well does Emplant multitask? Also, from your message I infer that you
have to set aside a block of memory exclusively for the Emplant. Did I
read that right?
Sounds great! I read once that UU does in fact plan different drivers for
24bit capability.. DMI products are on the way (rumor)…
-Jonathan
Ron…
Many thanks, Ron! What I expected to hear but it is nice hearing it from
someone with experience with the product. My A3000 has 10 megs. How are you
allocating your memory so that there is only 2 megs left for the Mac?
Also thanks for the phone number. I needed that also.
..Carl