New Hardware
15 messages in this thread
Can anyone tell me in details what a Viper 1230 is. Is it for A1200?
Yah. As I recall, it is a board for the 1200 that has a 40MHz (or maybe
50, or maybe it's an option) 030 and a 40MHz (or 50) 68882 (maybe an
option) and room for loads of FAST RAM and a battery backed up clock AND –
here's the kicker – a 16bit (sight) pass through expansion connector. ICD
(makers of the Viper 1230, hopefully soon to be released) are also
releasing a SCSI-2 controller to hook onto the 1230's 16bit expansion
connector – it's called the "S2" and supposedly will cost about $200.
Sounds incredible, huh? I'll get one.
Paul
Man, this sounds good. I have been looking for a board for my CPU but can't
make up my mind. (there are only 2 availabele: GVP and MBX) so if this comes
out I am getting it. How much will be the board itself.(not the SCSI
controler?)
I'm really not sure. I think it will be about in-line w/ the GVP board –
$400-$700 or so, depending on configuration. But it's supposed to be out
really soon – May I think – so our questions will be answered. I sure
want one.
BTW, I hear Microbotics isn't such a great company, so maybe beware…
GVP is fine, but there's no pass-thru.
Good luck, for us both.
Paul
Paul,
On what do you base your negative impressions of Microbotics? I've been a
customer of theirs for years, and have received both good product and good
support from them.
– BobR
Not personal experience. However, when I was about to get the Microbotics
fast ram card for my 1200, a dealer friend of mine warned me away from the
in no uncertain terms. Who knows, maybe he just had a bad experience, but
he suggested that he had had a lot of bad experiences with bad quality
control and poor design.
Maybe it was wrong of me to post that message, I don't really know.
Paul
I haven't had any problems with my MBX1200, and clock module from
microbotics. Everything works flawlessly, plus, I like the way they map
the RAM.
Bob Comer — Cruising the nets on AutoPilot
Paul,
I've owned various Microbotics products since the A1000 days, and I'm not
sure where your dealer friend got those ideas, but I'll make the bold
statement that Microbotics products are absolutely the highest-quality,
best-constructed Amiga hardware products I've ever encountered. And back
in the days when I was just a regular Amiga geek (rather than a
professional Amiga geek like I am now :-), the support I got from the
company was exemplary.
I'm amazed that anyone could have had experiences that would give them an
opinion otherwise. Microbotics products are rock-solid and well-built.
Your dealer is very unusual. I agree 100% with Denny Atkin's comments —
Microbotics has always had high-quality products, and great support. I also
think Microbotic's Redmond Simonsen has the kind of professionalism in his
network communications (BIX, CIS) that all vendors should follow.
–apl
Paul:
I've owned several Microbotics products, and they truly are some of the
best made products available for the Amiga. If I had an A1200, and wanted
to add an accelerator into it, I would sooner look at the Microbotics one
than the GVP one. I've also owned several GVP products, and I've had MUCH
better compatibility with MicroBotics stuff than with GVP stuff. Also, the
GVP card comes with an EC chip, whereas the MicroBotics card is available
with a real chip, complete with MMU & all.
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
Mike,
What is an EC chip as opposed to a real chip?
David
David:
An EC chip is a stripped down version of whatever the base chip is. There
are EC versions of the 68020, 68030, and 68040 (there are 3 different
versions of the 040 one I think), and each one has something removed from
it's capabilities. with the 68EC020 it can only access 10megs of memory
total, rather than 64megs? that the 'real' 68020 can access. On the
68EC030 it's lacking the 68030's builtin MMU, and on the 68EC040 I think
you can get it either without the MMU, or without the FPU, or without
either the MMU or FPU (they might have other designations other than EC,
I'm not really sure). Originally the EC stood for Embeded Controller, a
chip that would be used to control some ordinary household appliance, such
as maybe a Microwave oven, or something such as that. It looks like it's
taken on a new meaning lately Especially for Commodore, as they seem to be
lots of EC chips being put into Amigas these days.
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
MS: with the 68EC020 it can only access 10megs of memory total, rather
MS: than 64megs? that the 'real' 68020 can access.
Actually the EC020 has a "24-bit address" for 16-megs of "space", which
boils down to 10-megs after ROM, I/O, and other support chips are
mappedinto the address space.
The EC020 also has certain support lines removed, this preventing the
addition of a MMU. This actually makes the EC020 faster, freeing a
support cycle(?) for CPU use.
The full 020 has a "32-bit address" which allows 4-gigs (4096-megs),
although I don't know of anyone that uses that much RAM.
—
MS: the 68EC040 I think you can get it either without the MMU, or without
MS: the FPU, or without either the MMU or FPU (they might have other
MS: designations other than EC, I'm not really sure).
The 68ec040 has the MMU (or was it the FPU?) removed, while the 68lc040
has both the FPU & MMU removed.
MS: Originally the EC stood for Embeded Controller, […]
Embedded Controllers are also used in hardware such as printers,
intelligent peripherals, and other computerized equipment that uses
CPU's but doesn't need the extended "memory managment" or "floating point
math" features.
Ron.
– ap'ing with AP. (Eagles may fly, but weasles aren't sucked
into jet engines.)
I have always had good experiences with Microbotics… Do you have a beef
that we should know about?
-Jonathan