#CD-ROM for Amiga 2000
33 messages in this thread
Was wondering if it is possible to use a CD-ROM drive with the Amiga 2000 –
directly without putting in a PC type board ?
Another question on the 2000. Is it possible to use the "Floptical" type drive
with this machine, whereby one can read/write to removable media.
These goodies are readily available on the PC at quite moderate prices.
Anyone know the answers? Regards, HILARY.
Hilary,
It is absolutely possible to use a CD-ROM; I have one attached to the
machine I am typing on, and with no yicky PC type board. 🙂
You'll need a good SCSI CD-ROM; I have had good luck with Toshiba and
Texel. You'll need to get it talking to your SCSI setup; proper cabling
and such. And, you'll need a piece of software that will allow the Amiga
to read the file system on the ROMs.
I would suggest the Xetec CD-ROM FS, since it works and installs very
easily. However, others have reported good results with the Asimware
product. Either is reasonably priced, and will give you access to
ISO-9600, Mac ROMs, and lately, some kind of Photo-CD functionality.
As for floptical, these have been available for the Amiga for a while as
well. DMI was selling one, I believe, as was another company no longer
with us. However, you should be able to buy a "bare" drive, and hook it
up to any SCSI controller from a reputable company, with recent vintage
firmware. I believe that both GVP and IVS support almost every type of
removeable media at this point, as long as its SCSI.
//Jonathan,
\\//via AutoPilot
Nice to hear from you again Jonathan, and thanks for your suggestions.
My basic problem is that our Amiga 2000 is dedicated to video type work – via
the internal "Toaster". We do develop quite a few Framestore and IFF-24
pictures, titles and graphics. They take a lot of S..P..A..C..E on our hard
drives. It would be nice to use a removable read/write type storage device.
Each video project would then be an entity to itself – and keeping score of
much stuff scattered on one hard drive would be partly be solved.
We now have a problem in increasing the 32 Bit SIMM's on our rather old GVP
accelerator memory board. We have 4 Megs installed, with room for a further 4
Megs. Problem is the SIMM's. GVP specify 80 ns. 1MBx8 nibble mode SIMM's. and
tell me that they no longer can supply those! They say Nibble Mode is mandatory
for additional SIMM's. Have tried "MREMORY WORLD"… but no luck. Do you know
of any other probable sources?
All the best….. HILARY
Hilary,
Honestly, it seems that you might be up a tree with the SIMMS you are
looking for. Its been a while since I upgraded mine (I also have a 3001),
and I can't remember who I got the nibble mode SIMMS from. Send me some
E-mail next week – I have a friend on vacation that might be able to
direct you somewhere.
Personally, I'm thinking of upgrading to another accelerator, since I
could use more CPU power, and more memory (faster SCSI would be nice,
too). Unfortunately, GVP is mostly the only game in town for
accelerators, and their Series II boards also use a weird/proprietary SIMM
type.
My friend has used non-nibble mode SIMMS with his 3001, but needed to turn
burst mode off. It might be a compromise you can live with…
//Jonathan,
\\//via AutoPilot
Thanks for the come-back Jonathan.
Developments have now proceeded somewhat like "Alice in Wonderland". To whit:
I pulled one of the SIMM's that are presently on my old GVP 3001. I noted down
the number of chips (There are 8), the type which is MCM514256AJ70, and the
number of contacts on the little SIMM mounting board, there are 64 on each
side.
FAX'ed all this info' to MEMORY WORLD. They then came back with the
information that the SIMM I had detailed was NOT…repeat NOT a "Nibble Mode"
type SIMM.
Have now FAX'ed this info' to Pete Keretz of GVP Technical Services, suggesting
he call MEMORY WORLD (which is not far from GVP), and come to some sort of
resolution…. so I can get on with my life!
Say one puts in a NON Nibble mode set of SIMM's…. anything drastic happen?
Will report on the conflict – as it develops! HILARY.
Hilary,
First of all, I would talk to the folks that sold you the GVP board, and
get a retroactive refund. I believe that the GVP board was supposed to
*only* ship with the nibble SIMMS, unless ordered with 0k. Sounds like
someone was looking to improve their margin.
At any rate, you already have the answer. If Memory World is correct, the
board with operate without the nibble SIMMS, although probably somewhat
slower.
//Jonathan,
\\//via AutoPilot
You are kidding Hilary? Amigadom has had the floptical drives and pretty
much rejected them years ago as too slow. We have had standard SCSI CD-Rom
drives on 2000/3000/4000 for quite a while with two full filesystems for
them and one CBM CDrom unit that plugs into the A500 expansion slot.
I assume you are fairly new to this platform? It is all there, you just
have to look somewhere other than the mom&pop PC store and Walmart to find
it I regret to say.
Tom
AGA means "Amiga is Going Again"
{ Internet: jonest@hfsi.com 1:147/2020.5@fidonet }
Thanks for the come-back Tom. Think I should explain.
We have used the Amiga 2000 for about 3 years. Our 2 machines are dedicated to
video post production – by way of the TOASTER. In constructing a client's video
program, we develop quite a few "Framestores" and IFF-24 images, titles and
graphics. While we have quite large hard drives, the storage of many video
oriented stuff is somewhat daunting.
The thought was that with removeable media – say 20 to 40 Megs – we could store
each clients world shaking efforts in one place. All we need is a place to dump
it, and then bring the stuff out when we wanted to work on that project.
Flopticle disks appeal more than plug-in/removable hard drives!
Glad of any suggestions…. sources of hardware etc. Regards, HILARY.
Hilary,
You may want to consider Magneto-Optical drives. The cost of the drive
is quite high, but at 128MBytes per each 3.5" disk the media cost is about
the lowest you can get. (disks cost about $65-70 each) Read/write speed is
on the slow side, but read speed is not unreasonable. They work great as
backup devices. I currently use one in an external case to move my work
files between the office and home.
Dean
DKB Software
Hilary,
Moonlighter Software (407) 384-9484 is supposed to be shipping a product
this week called Tapeworm FS that might be of interest to you. Tapeworm
FS allows a DAT SCSI tape drive to be addressed much like a hard disk.
Thus directories and files can be stored and retrieved from the DAT tape.
Since I have a WangTek DAT tape drive backup system, this seems like the
ideal way to handle large files such as those resulting from Toaster
framestores or audio digitizing with the AD516 board. I have had Tapeworm
FS on order for about two months and very much look forward to trying it
out.
Tom
Hi
I was a bit off hand, sorry. The media cost of Floptical and removable
HDs are both pretty steep for archival like you describe. Two ideas that
come to me are that you might look at the Bernoullis for 20mb of cheap
storage.
New filesystems that are coming on the market use streamer tapes as real
tape drives too, and a new hardware/software pack to use VHS tape drives
as streamers might be appealling since you probably have lots of VHS
machines and tapes, I am sure. I saw both of these in the Amiga world
magazine ads.
Tom
AGA means "Amiga is Going Again"
{ Internet: jonest@hfsi.com 1:147/2020.5@fidonet }
Hilary,
I would consider the new SyQuests. They are *filtered* 105 meg carts,
SCSI, and the drive should fit in a vacant 3.5" bay (great if you are
running a one floppy 2000). Not sure what the availability is right now
(should be shipping), but worth checking out.
//Jonathan,
\\//via AutoPilot
There's a problem with Syquests though, even filtered disks crash and
burn. The failure rate is 4000 times higher than Bernoulli. Pretty big
number isn't it? The Bernoulli drives are cheaper after 2 cartridges at
150 megs a pop.
Syquest's are nice unless you really need the data.
–Paul < Motorola Inside >
Um, where did you get your figures on relative failure rates between
filtered Syquests and Bernoullis? As far as I know, the 105s are the
first filtered Syquests. I doubt there is enough experience with them yet
to make any comparisons. BTW, I have no failures of any kind with my
(UNfiltered) Syquest 88. Of course, I don't smoke, so your mileage may
vary. <g>
//
-Karl \X/ Amiga and Autopilot: The *only* way to fly!
>Um, where did you get your figures on relative failure rates between
>filtered Syquests and Bernoullis?
Paine Webber had 412 Syquest cartridges die in 18 months. One Bernoulli
went bad in the same time span. This Bernoulli cart failed after it was
kicked down 53 flights of stairs by a bored Elevator Man. Some of the guys
thought it would really survive.
–Paul < Motorola Inside >
Yeah, but none of those were FILTERED. This is new on the 105s. And who
knows, it might help.
//
-Karl \X/ Amiga and Autopilot: The *only* way to fly!
Karl,
(As I've said before — sound like a broken record) …
I've got a Syquest 44M. I smoke. The window in my office is open 9
months out of the year (ie., lots of dust), I NEVER eject the cart unless
I'm swapping carts, I've had the Syquest for about 3 years, and NEVER a
problem.
-sja
I suspect that Paine Weber had a lot of Klutzes using the Syquests who
didn't let them spin down before ejecting them. No one I know has any
trouble with them at all.
//
-Karl \X/ Amiga and Autopilot: The *only* way to fly!
Paul,
With a filter, a SyQuest should be no different than a hard drive.
I also find it hard to belive that hard drives in general are 4000 times
more failure-ridden than Bernoulli's.
//Jonathan,
\\//via AutoPilot
Maybe I wasn't clear. Bernoullis don't crash, they don't know how. There
was one disadvantage to Bernoullis over any other removable device but I
can't remember what it was.
It didn't apply to me but it was significant.
–Paul < Motorola Inside >
Paul,
I understand how Bernoullis work…all I am saying is that the last generation
of SyQuest was pretty good and cheap. The new 3.5" version is probably much
improved, and will again come in cheaper than Bernoulli. The 3.5" size is
pretty nice, too.
You might also consider Syquest 88-meg or 105-meg removeable-media drives.
A lot of Toaster people use 'em. Third option: Tape Worm, a new device
driver that will let you use a backup tape drive for Toaster animations
and other huge files. You could get a high-quality tape drive like the
Exabyte and use it like ordinary storage to load files on the fly.
— Ron Legro, Milwaukee
via AUTOPILOT (the only way to fly)
Hilary,
I use DMI's flopitacal (its an Insite drive) its Butt Ugly slow but it is
good for keeping 20 megs of stuff you don't need every day in a nice 3.5
floppy case. They do have 128 meg syquests which are supposed to be 3.5
inch although I don't know anything about them. Any SCSI device can be
hooked to an Amiga with a good controller. The 20 meg disks run about $25
each or 5 for $100 at several mail order places. Most amiga mail order
houses carry the DMI drive, you might get a better deal by looking thru a
copy of computer shopper since the drive is an Isite drive.
Tom
Tom: Hey! I have a 21-meg floptical drive on my Amy and love it. Yeah,
it's slow, but it makes a great backup device and I also use it to run
seldom-needed software directly. I just assign a large disk cache to it,
and that helps. Besides, it's a cheap alternative — the internal model
only set me back about $300 and 21-meg disks are under $17 now. Plus, the
drive also reads and writes 1.4K HD floppies which of course cost next to
nothing.
— Ron Legro, Milwaukee
via AUTOPILOT (the only way to fly)
Ron,
Could you please let me know where you get Flopitical media for $17.
The best price i've found is $20 (5/$100)
Thanks
Tom
Can't remember where I saw that price, Tom. I order from so many software
mail houses. Perhaps Tenex? I'm sure the prices are still fluctuating
depending on supply. Most places still sell them for $20-30.
— Ron Legro, Milwaukee
via AUTOPILOT (the only way to fly)
I wasn't running Flopticals down, they have their place in the scheme of
Amigalife. Didn't know the price of disks had come down though. The CBM
high density floppy seems to read/write 1.44mb floppys at half speed (of
course it figures when they slow down the motor). How does the Floptical
handle that?
My own "solution" to cheap storage was to stick a cheap RLL drive in a
CBM1541 case with an Adaptec4070 scsi-rll controller and then install the
XPK/XPH system on it to double storage. that is my DOCS, and ARCHIVE
drive. The XPH driver also is good for such stuff as the AP "messages"
directory and internet maillists too, shrivels those suckers right up.
Tchutz
Tom Jones
AGA means "Amiga is Going Again"
{ Internet: jonest@hfsi.com 1:147/2020.5@fidonet }
I haven't measured access times on the 1.4 meg disks in the floptical
drive, but they seem speedy enough for my needs. One nice thing: The 1.4
meg size is only supported in MS-DOS format, but it's a simple thing to
use such disks for Amiga storage, with CrossDOS in the operating system.
Hmm, I ought to try XPK/XPH or some similar utility on the floptical. It
would be nice if I could cram 40 megs onto a 3.5" diskette!
I save all my AP "kept" messages and similar stuff on a document
floptical, powerpacked to save 50-60%. I can search the disk for items of
interest whenever necessary (there are search utilities and readers that
will act directly on Powerpacked files; I gather this would work as well
under XPK).
— Ron Legro, Milwaukee
via AUTOPILOT (the only way to fly)
Ron:
As a matter of fact the docs say, as I recall, that you can definately
use powerpacker as an xpk compressor and point out that "if you had a
CDROM with fredfish powerpacked on it, you could just lay XPH over the
directory and treat it as any other disk" or words to that effect. It
should work fine with a floptical I believe. One of the european packers
is called NUKE and is very fast on unpack…603K/sec which is great for
doc files. Another called BLZW is moderately fast on both pack and unpack,
I use it on my AP/Messages directory to half it's size. Both included.
They do list several utilities that use XPK compressors. I am still
setting up my files with XPH/XPK and it seems to work great. If you have
dos 2.1 it is easier to set up than with 2.05. 2.1 people just rename an
icon and move it into the driver drawer, I have to do a lot of typing in
the user-startup, mountlist, etc. Why am I so damned cheap?
Tom
AGA means "Amiga is Going Again"
{ Internet: jonest@hfsi.com 1:147/2020.5@fidonet }
If you have a SCSI controller, adding a CDROM drive is no problem. I use
the Toshiba 3401 and the Xetec CDROM driver software, and I'm very happy
with it.
Steve
Hilary,
I'm using a Toshiba CDROM drive on my Amiga2500. Just get the software
driver – from Xetec or ASIMWARE or CDROMFS – make sure your drive is
properly terminated and go with it. My drive was terminated as it came
from the factory. Actually, I have a tape backup drive attached to the
SCSI board, and the CDROM drive daisychained to the tape drive. Works
fine.
—Betty
Yes to both your questions. I'm doing it. Happy as a clam with my
floptical. There are a couple available for the Amiga; mine's a DMI. Safe
Harbor and Computability are among mail order shops that handle CD-ROM
drives and floptical drives for Amigas. Prices are competitive with those
in PC-land.
— Ron Legro, Milwaukee
via AUTOPILOT (the only way to fly)