Emplant
36 messages in this thread
I was asking how I could get more info on the Emplant and possibly purchase
one, but it seems I had a bad connection on the last post and most of the
message was lost. Can anyone tell me who I can call to find out more about
this board? Thanks.
I have one and its pretty wild to see a multitasking 16 colour very fast Mac
IIcx emulation. Had some intial nightmares to get it going….one just has to
understand how it works then its much easier. DA
Dale,
Call your Amiga Dealer, or Utilities Unlimited directly: 602-680-9004
Me.
Ben, Leigh's Computers 1-800-321-6434
I have Emplant running and it's great. Took me all 5 minutes to install
and get running!
-Jonathan
What is Emplant?
Emplant is an emulation system from Utilities Unlimited. Currently, it
emulates a Color MAC… dos emulation is reportedly on the way.
About the emplant…
Does it use a hardware piece? Is it a board or pure software? What
Amigas does it work with?
Brad
Emplant is hardware and software. It is a card requiring a
Zorro slot. It works with any accelerated Amiga, but requires a lot
of memory for useful Mac emulation (at least 8 meg.)
OK, OK, you convinced me! I ordered an Emplant Wednesday. Now I am off on
a search for the correct ROMS! BTW how long did it take you to receive
your Emplant from UU after ordering?
…AutoPilot Engaged…
-Paul-
How much does it cost, and what kinda ROMs does one need to run it. Besides
color, what is the benefit over AMAX?
Ken
Ken,
Price: Basic Board: $279.95
With hispeed serial ports/AppleTalk support: $349.95
With SCSI interface: $349.95
Deluxe (both serial & SCSI): $399.95
>what is the benefit over AMAX?
Well for me (I have AMAX and will keep running it in my 3000.) the main
benefit is the fact that Emplant has it's own SCSI port. AMAX can't access
the 2091 I have in my 4000 since it is mapped as the "2nd.SCSI.device",
and I'm sure it will have no idea how to deal with the 4091 SCSI II card
that will soon replace the 2091.
And color IS important to me. I will get a 256c display out of my 4000.
And if I pick up a Retina board – a full 24bit display!
…AutoPilot Engaged…
-Paul-
What sorta ROMs does it require? And is the Retina an Amiga board or
made specifically for Emplant? What kind of performance do you get on
your 4000 as compared to a Mac? Please forgive my ignorance, I make
my living on a Mac (Quadra 950) and have an Amiga 500 at home. I do
have AMAX but it is really is more of a toy than a tool (of course
thats because I'm on a 500). I would like to put a Mac in my house,
but if I can get a 4000 w/Emplant and have the same thing, that would
make my day. Thanks for your answers.
Ken,
An Emplant or Amax running in a 4000 would basically run at the same
speed as a Mac with equivalent CPU. In fact because of the Amiga's custom
co-processors it runs a little faster than it's equivalently powered Mac.
Emplant emulates a MacII x or cx, whereas Amax emulates a Mac Plus. The
Emplant doesn't actually need the ROMs if you have a disk image of a dumped ROM
from a Mac II, IIx, or IIcx.
Retina is a video enhancement product for the Amiga, not for Emplant or
Amax. I believe that Utilities Unlimited is currently revising their software
to support the Retina board so it will work when Emplant is running. An
Emplant in a 4000 is not a Quadra. The Quadra uses 512K ROMs whereas the
Emplant emulation is based on the 256K ROMs of the II series.
I run Amax on a 3000 which clocks on Speedometer 3.1 at nearly 6 times
the speed of a stock Mac Plus. Emplant on my 3000 clocked at slightly faster
than a Mac II or IIcx. Video and disk benchmarks are the principal
differences. The video speed was slightly slower than the Mac II and the disk
benchmark was nearly double that of the Mac II.
The current version 2.8 ALREADY supports the Retina, Merlin supports comming
soon.
Ben, Leigh's Computers
Ben,
Thanks for the update. I knew the support was pending, but didn't know
if the software revision was released yet.
They've just reached version 2.9 of the SW now so my previous message is
already eclipsed.
Ben, Leigh's Computers
Ben,
You or someone in this thread had made the comment that the
latest software version supported reads and writes of Mac formatted
disks if they were high density without Sybil by using the Amiga high
density drives. Is this correct? The main reason I had to return my
Emplant was that I absolutely needed the ability to read and write
Mac disks in order to maintain compatibility with the other Macs on
the local network in the department. Not everyone in the department
has a Mac with the HD drive, but as long as someone does, it would be
possible to convert the high density to 800k, and then I wouldn't
need Sybil or have a problem exchanging data with the other users.
Of course there would still be a real problem with Mac software
supplied on 800K disks (which a lot still is), but it would be a
major step in the right direction.
Do you also happen to know if Jim finally got the 32-bit clean problem
cleared up? My Emplant would just not work on my old 2000 because it had some
16 bit memory in it. I also found it problematic using System 7 when I could
at best get a 4 meg Mac system allocation on my 8 meg 3000. System 7 was just
to cramped with such a small memory allocation.
Ken,
>What sorta ROMs does it require?
You need the ROMS from one of the MAC IIx series
>And is the Retina an Amiga board or made specifically for Emplant?
Retina is a 24bit board for the AMIGA.
>What kind of performance do you get on your 4000 as compared to a Mac?
Don't know yet. I am sill waiting for my Emplant to arrive. Over on
Genie Jim said that they are "shipping palette loads of Emplants" and
are over two and 1/2 weeks behind filling orders. But others here have
theirs and might be able to jump in and help out here.
>and have an Amiga 500 at home.
Emplant will not work on a 500 as it needs a zorro slot AND an
accelerated Amiga, but it would be real happy in a 4000 :).
…AutoPilot Engaged…
-Paul-
Thanks everybody. I don't imagine my wife is going to be real pleased, you have
just whetted my appetite and she hates when I spend money. Are there any
problems any of you have encountered with Emplant. i.e. incompatablitites?
Ken,
I'll let you know when I get mine. But others may be able to help
here.
…AutoPilot Engaged…
-Paul-
Ken- I just read in the July issue of Amiga World that they will be doing a
review of Emplant in their issue next month. For whatever their opinion is
worth, I'll probably wait to see wwhat they say before buying one (I'm
especially interested in floppy support and the DOS emulation mode of the
future).
Paul,
Do you have the Sybil? If so does it install _all_ Mac programs, unlike
Amax II+?
\*donovan*\
Donovan,
While I have ordered my Emplant I have not yet received it. So I can
not give you any hands on reports yet. I did not order Sybil as I have had
good results in using AMAX's tranfer utility to move files between the MAC
and Amiga. Since Im going th keep my AMAX for our 3000 I'll continue using
it to move files.
I plan on running Emplant from a Syquest plugged into Emplant's SCSI
port.
…AutoPilot Engaged…
-Paul-
Paul,
If your Syquest was formatted and used on the Amiga with Amax,
you don't need to connect it to the Emplant's SCSI port, but to the
Amiga's. The SCSI port on the Emplant is for Mac SCSI manager
devices which are formatted on a real Mac. If your Syquest cartridge
is already set up from Amax, then just connect it to the Amiga's SCSI
chain (being sure to set the SCSI ID and set the termination
corrrectly.)
Steven,
My Syquest was formatted on a MAC and System 7 installed. It boots up
fine under AMAX on our 3000. It does not work at all on my 4000. As I said
AMAX has no idea how to deal with the 2091 in the 4000. I went for the
extra SCSI port on Emplant (BTW I called them today and they said mine
would be shipped tomorrow. We'll see?) for a two reasons. I like the idea
of a dedicated MAC SCSI port that would make moving data between the
Emplant and a real MAC easy, and it did not cost very much to add the
option. 😉
…AutoPilot Engaged…
-Paul-
Paul,
Yes, you were smart to get the board with the SCSI, because that's the
only way you can actually read drives formatted on a Mac. As for the problem
with the 2091 on the 4000, I'm not sure why you would have a problem as long as
you have the scsi.amhd file in the devs: directory unless Amax doesn't actually
work with a 4000. Sounds like a call to Readysoft!!
Steven,
AMAX's looks for the scsi.device (I peeked with a hex editor.),, but
unfortunatly on the 4000 the scsi.device is actually the IDE drive! That's
right the OS is fooled into thinking the IDE drive is scsi. The 2091 is
mapped as "2nd.scsi.device". I did try editing scsi.amhd with a hex editor
and changed references from scsi.device to 2nd.scsi.device, but it did not
work :(.
…AutoPilot Engaged…
-Paul-
Let me know how it goes when you get the Emplant. I think I do need a
Sybil unfortunately.
\*donovan*\
Donovan,
Well since Emplant is supposed to be able to read the HD floppy in my
4000, and I can easily use AMAX on our 3000 to move stuff to my MAC
Syquests, I should be OK. But we'll see?
…AutoPilot Engaged…
-Paul-
Ken
Merlin is shipping now in Germany and Sweden, look at the specs before you
decide to order Retina.
Tom
Tom,
Where can I get the specs for the merlin board?
Thanks
Matt
Full specs are hard to come by. I have an internet message from a friend
in Sweden that give the salesmens's version of the specs however. Taking
it with a dose of salt then here it is (if it isn't accurate please don't
sue me or hurt my feelings)
====================================================
I have a flyer here from the Swedish distributors of the Merlin card.
They make a comparison between the 2 as far as technical data goes. It's
of course marketing hype, but for what it's worth, I'll type it in. The
biggest weakness of the Merlin is that it's not yet available, but its
Swedish distributor told me last Wednesday that all cards have now reached
XPert in Germany, and they will be holding demonstrations at the end of
next week.
Merlin Retina Max.
res. 1280 x 1024 2400 x 1200
Number of col. in max. res. 16.8 million ?
Out of a palette of 16.8 million ?
Max. col. per pixel 16.8 million 16.8 million
In what res. 1280 x 1024 1162 x 852
Max. rex. in 24 bit 1280 x 1024 1162 x 852
Max. rex. in 16 bit 1280 x 1024 1440 x 566
Out of a palette of 16.8 million 65536 Max.
res. in 8 bit 1280 x 1024 1900 x 1426
Out of a palette of 16.8 million ?
Outputs RGB/VGA, Y/C, VGA
composite
Needs extra mon. to show Amiga
graphics No Yes
Works with all monitors
(1084/MultiSync etc.) Yes Yes
Monitor switch for original Amiga
graphics Yes Yes
Genlock compatible Yes No
PIP for preview of graphics or
showing of video or TV with digitizer
module. Yes No
Autoconfig Zorro II (3.5 Mb/s) Yes Yes
Autoconfig Zorro III(20 Mb/s) Yes No
Blitter for fast line drawing etc.
(Blit-logic for Retina) Yes Yes
Possible to connect enhancement
modules to the card Yes No
Possible to connect multiple
enhancement modules Yes –
Linear adressing Yes No
Max. amount of RAM on card 16 Mb 4 Mb Virtual
screens with flickerfree
scrolling Yes No
Virtual screen, max. size 256 colours 4096 x 4096 –
Virtual screen, max. size 65536
colours 4096 x 2048 –
Virtual screen, max. size 16.8
million colours 2680 x 2048 –
Developerinformation for expansion
bus Yes –
Max. number of screens Unlimited 1*
W.b. 2.1 with support for 256 colours Yes No
W.b. 3.0 with support for 256 colours Yes Yes
Support for AGA screenmodes (HAM8,
EHB etc.) Yes No
Screenmode program to set resolution Yes Yes
Software support for blitter Yes –
Screen-prefs program for setting of
own resolutions Yes Yes
Screen promotion Yes Yes
Screens-in-screen (Viewing of
multiple screens simultaneously) Yes No
Screens-in-window (Open custom and
public screens in a window) Yes No
W.b./Intuition emulator Yes Yes
Included drawingprograms TV Paint 2.0 jr True paint
Loaders/Picture showing programs JPEG, GIF, YUV YUV, IFF
IFF
Savers Finns, cost extra AD Pro
Imagemaster
Harlequin
Program to show animations Yes No
=======================================================
How about that, the AWRITE command actually works, I like this 386 BB.
AGA means "Amiga is Going Again"
{ Internet: jonest@attmail.hfsi.com CIS: 76470,1332 }
Thanks for the info Tom.
I guess I'll just continue to wither and die waiting for NewTek and C= to gi
out Toaster upgrade info! 8( I had hoped to get something like a Retna or
Merlin for my A3000T. Lots-o-slots ya know!
Matt
Ken,
Unlike AMAX, Emplant also multitasks with AmigaDOS. You can move back and
forth without rebooting. I don't have one (I'm using AMAX though lusting
after an Emplant), but others who do say the Emplant actually runs a tad
faster than a comparable Mac.
— Ron Legro, Milwaukee
via AUTOPILOT (the only way to fly)