#Supra Ships PC Emulator
24 messages in this thread
I have installed The 386SX bridgeboard in our store's Amiga 2000 (we stole
one from one of the A3000 systems that had it included.
Here is a brief overview: – Commodore's published list price for the beast
is $799. – It is a 20Mhz 386SX with 1MB of memory upgradable to 8mb but you
gotta
throw away the 1MB that is in there as they used 256×4 chips. – It comes
with Janus 2.1 that also will work with the 286 and 8088
bridgeboards – It comes with MS/DOS 5.0 – It will *share* one internal
floppy drive and has a port on the back
for an external drive – It has a mouse port – The drive sharing mechanism
will work with the new 1.76 High Density
drives from Commodore and these drives are mentioned in the new Janus
manuals.
The new Janus software on the whole seems very nice. Certainly the new
installation software is wonderful. I did run into a strange problem with
the PCWindow program resizing itself at odd times but I have not tracked
that down just yet.
The board is very nicely laid out and does not have a daughter board. It
takes up a single PC/Zorro slot and appears to be very responsive.
-mark=
– whappity whap whap… whap whap!!
Mark…
I've noticed that resizing problem too…seems to be whenever a program
switches to graphic display (like print preview in WP51).
You can just switch it back with Right-Amiga-F. Wonder why it happens?
Marion
CROSSINGS
Newsletter for the Bridgeboard, etc.
Do you know how us mere mortals can get Janus 2.1?
–Paul
Commodore has not yet given us any information on how to update the
customers with Janus 2.1. I suspect it will be a $15 product or something
since the new software comes complete with new manuals etc.
Personally I did not see a lot that would make me want to upgrade.
-mark=
– whappity whap whap… whap whap!!
Mark,
One would presume that Janus 2.1 will work properly with AmigaDOS
2.04. That in and of itself makes it a worthwhile upgrade.
Don
Don,
Well it does seem to run under 2.04 just fine–with one problem. The PC
Window software tends to have a mind of its own. You can't double-click on
the window any more to get the border to go away, and when the PC changes
graphics modes the window often times decides to go the small window
without borders. It is damned annoying.
So, yes, it runs under 2.04–but it is far more annoying than the previous
version of Janus. By the way, I run most of the Janus 2.0 software just
fine under 2.04.
-mark=
– whappity whap whap… whap whap!!
Mark..
That resizing drives you crazy, doesn't it?
A lot of people need to be able to install the Janus software under 2.04 or
access PCPrefs, and they can't do it until Janus 2.1 is available.
Commodore needs to make it available to dealers for upgrading at least.
They say they're aware of the need.
Marion
CROSSINGS
Newsletter for the Bridgeboard
I am having a lot of problems with my bridgeboards and AmigaDos 2.04 &2.1
The software is not recognizing the HD (it did well under 1.3), in fact it
is not displaying the message "janus library V????", it just gives me an
error.
Will this new janus software solve my problem? how can I get it? Any
suggestions?
Javier
– via Whap!
Are you running Enforcer Quiet in your startup-sequence? You need it to
make the bridgeboard work with 2.04.
Betty, is Enforcer Quiet a PD routine or is Quiet an option of the Enforcer
routine?
Regards, Whap!penned…
Pat @Oxxi (310) 427-1227
Pat,
QUIET is a command line argument to Enforcer.
-sja
Thanks, Steve. Say, should I still be expecting a little package in the
mail (either Easy-Plex or Snail)?
Regards, Whap!penned…
Pat @Oxxi (310) 427-1227
Quiet is an option. You will find Enforcer in our libraries if you don't
already have it. I think it also comes on all the 2.04 disks from
Commodore.
You just put it in your startup-sequence – early on – as
Enforcer quiet
Betty,
What are the pros/cons of running enforcer for us non programmer types?
..Steve
Whap!ping from beautiful coastal South Carolina
Steve,
The advantage of "running enforcer for us non programmer types…" is that
Enforcer lets you know about illegal low memory reads and writes. Should
you get an Enforcer "hit" there is a good chance that your computer is now
in a fragile condition and you should not be suprised if you get a guru in
5 seconds or in 15 minutes. While Enforcer is mostly a debugging tool
non-programmers should use it to determine what software they are using is
in need of update or outright replacement. Before Enforcer, people
complained of a lot of mystery gurus — now, with Enforcer and Mungwall,
those gurus are less of a mystery and can be much more easily tracked
down.
-sja
Yes, I have Enforcer, but since I don't get involved in the direct
programming, I hadn't noticed the option.
Regards, Whap!penned…
Pat @Oxxi (310) 427-1227
Pat, have you tried using Enforcer yet? I did and it tells me to turn off
all other MMU toys. Any idea how to do that with SetCPU or CPU? I'm using
an 3001 GVP accelerator.
Chris
Chris,
rather than comment out the entire SetCPU (or CPU in AmigaDOS 2.0) line,
just remove the FASTROM switch in the command. That's the one that
utilizes the MMU.
Actually, what I do here is use Khalid Aldoseri's SS program to allow
switching Enforcer in or out depending on whether I'm bug hunting.
Something I seem to be spending a lot of time with lately.
Brian Bartlett
Brian,
I'll give your suggestion a try. Where can I find Khalid's SS program,
AmigaTech libraries?
Chris
SS.LZH, AmigaTech, lib 11. Below is an example of the way I have it
implemented in my s:user-startup file. I hope this helps.
; ; Allow for custom startups using Khalid Aldoseri's SS program
; Echo "" Echo " Hit F1 for Enforcer debugging mode" Echo " default:
normal startup" Echo "" ; Now emulate a switch command Wait 3 secs SetEnv
Test DEF ; ss :f1 SetEnv Test F1 ; If user presses F1, make
Test=F1 ; Skip $Test ; Skip on whatever user gave
us ; LAB F1
CPU CACHE BURST ; Enable cpu in burst cache mode
Run <NIL: >NIL: Term:BackTalk ; Load Backtalk so Enforcer has output
Wait 3 secs ; Wait for Backtalk to load
Enforcer >NIL: ; load Enforcer
Skip DONE ; Jump to done ; LAB DEF
CPU CACHE BURST FASTROM ; Enable all modes, copy ROM to 32 bit
mem
Skip DONE ; Jump to done ; LAB DONE
; End switch ;
The last Skip command is redundant, but I like to keep things
structured.
Chris,
I can see that I need to reformat that. So here goes the script one
more time. (This time with leading spaces)
;
; Allow for custom startups using Khalid Aldoseri's SS program
;
Echo ""
Echo " Hit F1 for Enforcer debugging mode"
Echo " default: normal startup"
; Now emulate a switch command
Wait 3 secs ; Give the user a chance to hit a key
SetEnv Test DEF
;
ss :f1 SetEnv Test F1 ; If user presses F1, make Test=F1
;
Skip $Test ; Skip on whatever user gave us
;
LAB F1
CPU CACHE BURST ; Enable cpu in burst cache mode
Run <NIL: >NIL: Term:BackTalk ; Load Backtalk so Enforcer has output
Wait 3 secs ; Wait for Backtalk to load
Enforcer >NIL: ; load Enforcer
Skip DONE ; Jump to done
;
LAB DEF
CPU CACHE BURST FASTROM ; Enable all modes, copy ROM->32 bit mem
Skip DONE ; Jump to done
;
LAB DONE ; End switch
I hope this helps.
Brian Bartlett
Chris, I've used Enforcer only in the course of beta-testing Presentation
Master, and only in a very cursory way (I just set it up to run as soon as
I turned on my machine) — I hope someone else in the forum can answer your
question.
Regards, Whap!penned…
Pat @Oxxi (310) 427-1227
Pat,
The need to run Enforcer only applies to 68030 or 68040 equipped
Amigas. It doesn't apply to 68000/10/20 equippped Amigas even with the
2.04 ROM
Don