#A2088 Questions
26 messages in this thread
A few questions regarding the A2088 XT Bridgeboard:
1) Any recommendations for a cheap 40 meg hard drive/controller?
Preferably one on a single card so I don't have to mount the HD in some
weird spot?
2) Has anyone bought and used the 8087 numeric coprocessor on their
BB?? I assume it's some sort of accelerator…how much is it, and how well
does it work?
Thanks in advance,
J.R.
JR,
The 8087 is a math co-processor and can speed up floating point
math significantly…IF the program is designed to take advantage of it.
For anything else, it is of 0 value.
An 8087 for the A2088 will cost near $90. You need the 5MHz
version of it….the other versions cost more, and would be a waste of
money (the difference in price between the 5 Mhz and other versions) since
it would provide no advantage over the 5 Mhz version.
Don
Don,
So on what types of software could I expect to see speed
improvements? I am primarily using motion picture-related software that
deals mostly in text w/some graphics (for script formatting, budgeting,
etc.) Is this device a common MS-DOS add-on, or is it Amiga Bridgeboard
specific?
J.R.
JR,
No idea on whether your software was written specifically for the
BridgeBoard or not. I suspect not.
Also, from what you say the software does…then no, a math chip
wouldn't speed things up at all…I don't see anything that would use
floating point math.
Well…maybe…you say it has a "budgeting" portion…does it use
floating point (numbers with decimals in them)? If so, then perhaps that
specific portion (working with those numbers only) would be sped up, but
again…only if the program were written to take advantage of the math
chip.
Don
The program is called Movie Magic, it does budgeting for feature
films and TV programs…it allows you to input data regarding the category,
how many weeks/days, etc. and does all the arithmatic for you, adding the
figures you provide…give you any more solid thoughts?
J.R.
JR,
Well…that says it does at least some floating point, presuming
it allows you to enter dollars and cents. Still doesn't give me a clue as
to whether it was or wasn't designed to use a math chip. There's only 3
ways to know for sure:
1. See if the documentation says it will/won't use a math chip.
2. Contact the author/publisher…see what they say.
3. Run it with the same figures with/without a math chip…see
which is faster.
Don
Don,
Thanks. I'll have to put it on the backburner, I think…want to
try to buy Mike Schiller's HD he has for sale first…!
But thanks for the info anyway, I'll contact the software publisher
and see what they have to say.
J.R.
J.R.:
The 8087 is a math coprocessor, and it does exactly the same thing as
math coprocessors do for Amiga's (Motorola chip sets), that is speed up
math. Most programs have to specifically be set to look for and use the
8087, but ones that do run much faster than without it, and some stuff
won't run without one. I added one to my XTBB because I was able to get one
cheap, and I HATE having an empty socket on the board.
As far as the other question, I don't know about any hardcards for the
IBM, but I do happen to have 2 DH setups for the BB that I'd be willing to
part with. 1 is a Seagate ST157N 3.5" SCSI hard drive with a Seagate SCSI 8
bit Host adapter (controller), and the other is a Seagate ST225 5.25" with
a Western Digital controller card. Email me if you're interested, and I'll
Email you their prices.
-Mike Schiller
In sunny Fort Lauderdale
Mike,
Just one technicality…math chips speed up floating point math, in
general…they are of little or no use on integer math.
1+1+2+3 would show no speed up (more than likely)
1.1+1.1+2.2+3.3 would show a significant speed up
Don
Mike,
OK, I'm still a little fuzzy on the co-processor…I don't have one
on my Amiga side yet either, so please bear with me…you are saying then
that it basically will make the BB run faster, yes?
I would be very interested in your HD…the 3.5" one sounds smaller
which would be good (or are these external devices?). Please drop me a
message with prices, and also you did not mention any sizes. 40 megs or
smaller? Also, what kind of mounting procedure would I have to go thru?
Will I be sacrificing one of the internal floppy slots to mount the HD?
Thanks,
J.R. (in sunny Burbank)
I can't help you on 40M hard disks, but I use the BSM KarDisk in my 2500,
and my husband has one in his 2000HD, as well. These are 30M RLL drives,
and they have worked for us without a bobble for all the time we've had
them – over a year in his case; since March in mine. They cost <$300 at
SoftWareHouse.
Betty
Betty,
Thanks. I will check that one out. Any idea if they are Cross-DOS
compatible on the Amiga side?
J.R.
I don't understand why any hard disk would cause a problem with Cross-DOS.
If the hardcard is set up for the Bridgeboard and properly formatted –
that is, if it is working with the Bridgeboard, then the Janus software
handles the transfers between the BBoard and whatever disk you are using on
the Amiga side, and the BB hard disk wouldnot be involved, would it?
Or maybe I should say – if the Bridgeboard can read and write to the hard
disk, then I cannot see why Aread and Awrite would cause a problem.
Betty
Betty,
I'm not sure you understood my question…I was wondering if you or
anyone else had any experience using Cross-DOS on a Bridgeboard/PC hard
drive…I know the manual for the software does show a DIH0: as well as
DI0: (df0:), DI1: (df1:) and DI2: (df2:), but the documentation says
nothing regarding using it…although a read me file on the disk does
specifically state that Cross-DOS cannot read the MakeAB pseudo-HD on the
Amiga side (which is to be expected I suspect).
I know that you can set the Janus software up so you can use part
of the PC HD on the Amiga…but I wonder, if properly mounted as a PC-only
HD, if Cross-DOS will be able to access it?
Thanks,
J.R.
JR, using xdos to access the pc partition on an ami hd is extremely
difficult, only possible under very limited circumstances and with lots of
luck. That may change some day, hopefully.
Ron
Ron:
Isn't the PC "partition" really just a big file to the Amiga? How would
crossdos access the file? If on the other hand, you could actually format a
separate partition just for the PC side, then I could understand using
xdos.
-Mike Schiller
In sunny Fort Lauderdale
The people who do crossdos told me that if a pc aboot 'file' took up less
then half the blocks of the partition it was in, and was contiguous, and
did not cross the middle of that partition, that theoretically a mountlist
could be setup to access the 'pc' hd. My aboot file takes up about 96% of
its own partition of about 25 meg.
Ron
But how about using Cross-DOS on a PC HD mounted on the PC side of
the 2000??
J.R.
JR,
Reading your messages…I'm getting a feeling what you'd like to do
is use CrossDos to allow both sides to read the exact same physical data
from a drive. In other words, have the PC side access the files on a HD as
C: and have the Amiga access those same files as some other drive name
under Cross Dos.
If so, then the answer is no, that can't be done. On a PC side
hard drive, the Amiga and the PC use separate partitions of the hard
drive…thus neither is aware of the other's files on the same drive.
If you're sharing an AMiga side HD, then what the Amiga does is
create a very large file…that to AmigaDOS is a single file, to MS-DOS it
shows up as a whole filesystem…or an entire drive if you will.
That would be all well and good if CrossDos could mount files, but
it can't…it mounts devices (such as a real drive) and reads floppies on
those drives. If you could somehow or other mount the file, you'd still
have the problem of getting around the AmigaDOS file header and extension
blocks that are part of any AmigaDOS file before you could get to the
MS-DOS filesystem.
Oh..when I say, "it can't be done"…I should add that is under any
current software that I'm aware of. It certainly is do-able, I just don't
know of anyone who's gone to the effort to do it.
Don
Don,
Yeah, I know, that's the problem. I wonder why Consultron mentions
a DIH0: partition in the manual…I'm gonna have to get hold of them and
ask them about that. Surely all the BB users would benefit from such a
program that could access PC HDs as well as floppies…
J.R.
I use AMYXfer myself which is a shell for binary Aread/Awrite transfers.
It's worked all right for me, except when I wanted text transferred with
the conversions. In that case I either transfer singly using aread/write
or convert it on the Amiga side.
What is this AMYXfer? Please fill me in.
xdos has no way to reach across Janus at this point. Rumors suggest this
could eventually change, but I'm not holding my breath.
Ron
Yeah, I know…the BB doesn't seem to be picking up much following
these days, so I can see financially where they probably wouldn't want to
go to all the trouble.
Good thing there are programs like XTree on the PC which can handle
the task of copying/deleting files in an Amiga-like way!
J.R.
I simply don't know. I've never tried it, and cannot – right off – think
of a command that would cause CrossDOS to do it. Sorry.
Betty
Betty,
Thanks anyways. I'll get hold of Consultron and see what
they have to say…
J.R.