#Open Letter to CEI
18 messages in this thread
I'd like to see any future systems designed to fit a clone case's
footprint. Might as well take advantage of those cheap tower cases & power
supplies. (Ship a 'BOING' sticker with bare motherboards, so the intel
guys won't be confused {any more than usual})
Second, they need to get rid of those kludgey 1/2 speed HD floppies &
support standard clone drives.
MOS via Autopilot & Amiga
The A4000T motherboard is designed to fit in a standard tower or desktop
case. 🙂
Good news eh?
-mark=
Otto Pilot Engaged..
Yeah, that is good news…. assuming such a beastie as the 4000T
motherboard ever materializes. 🙂 <fingers crossed>
-Jim
MOS via Autopilot & Amiga
Good idea on the standard systemboard size (and the BOING sticker :^) But I
believe there would be problems with the power supplies and clone floppy
drives. I believe the Amigas power supply is different than a PC's power
supply and there would have to be major hardware changes to get the Amiga to
use standard clone floppy drives (probably with some incompatability, too).
Rick Green Via AutoPilot
Like Dale said (and he should know…) the power supply isn't a real
problem. That "Tick" signal the 2000 & 3000 used was just a 60Hz signal
from the power line. I looked at it once with a scope, and it looked like
someone took a sine wave and lopped off the tops with a zener. 🙂 It could
be added to a stock PS.. Not only that, but the 500/600/1200 don't even
use that signal, the power brick doesn't have it.
I was figuring on changing the hardware to support standard drives.
There's no reason to bother with that Motor/Ready business in a machine
with a power supply the size of a 2000/4000. They only did that so all of
the drive motors didn't start at the same time and stress out a 500 power
brick. The other thing was distinguishing between 5.25" and 3.5" drives. I
don't think there's any need to support the 5" disks any more. It sould be
possible to use a standard floppy controller chip instead of upgrading
Paula or it's AGA replacement… Why reinvent the wheel? You'd have to
change the trackdisk, which seems doable.. At least, to steal a line
from Dennis Miller, "That's my opinion, I could be wrong." 🙂
-Jim
MOS via Autopilot & Amiga
Well, now we know that the Powersupplies should be no problem. I'm still not
convinced about the Floppy drives. Someone else mentioned the fact that the
chip set would have to change to accomodate standard PC floppies as a
replacement for Amiga floppies. I really haven't studied it; how well would it
work?
Rick Green
Via AutoPilot
I can't say I've looked at it to closely either. I always meant to get
CBM's hardware docs and try to hack together an autoconfig I/O board to
play with. Too late now 🙁 Anyway, I figured on getting an off-the-shelf
chip from NEC to do the actual controlling. and bypassing the custom Amiga
chips altogether. It would probably lose the 880k and 1.6 MB modes though
& fall back to 720K and 1.4MB.
-Jim
MOS via Autopilot & Amiga
Yes..
And to make the Amiga more PC-like, use an Intel processor, and get rid of
NTSC, and….
..Think!
An intel processor? Let's watch our language, please. 🙂
I don't want to see the Amiga more PC-like, just to be able to take
advantage of the stuff available for that market to a greater extent.
After all, the cheap gigabyte HD's aren't made because of us Amigans…
but we still use 'em.
MOS via Autopilot & Amiga
This is simply not true. We are coming out with a Zorro II card that will let
you use standard IBM 720/1.44/2.88 drives with your Amiga, to read *any* disk
format. No need to CHANGE disk formats.
Great! I knew someone would do it.
-Jim S.
MOS via Autopilot & Amiga
Well, if anyone can do it, it would be you, Jim 🙂
Rick Green
Via AutoPilot
<We are . . with Zorro II card that will let you use standard IBM
720/1.44/2.88 drives with your Amiga, to read *any* disk format . .>
Great – When?
Joe Clarkson
>> Great – When?
^^^^^
You should know by now never to ask that of Jim Drew. 😉
– Jim, on AP!
Are there discrete floppy controller chips at a reasonable price? I think they
are usually part of a larger chip set. It probably needs to be added to a gate
array or ASIC already in your Amiga design.
The software, by the way, is a bigger deal than the hardware. And think about
how many games you are going to break…
>> And think about how many games you are going to break…
<g>
Maybe that'll teach 'em to make their stuff HD-installable.
– Jim, on AutoPilot!
I see a some FDC controller chip sets listed in my JDR catalog. None of
them are more than $10 retail. My idea was to build an autoconfig IO board
with the FDC chip mapped into the card's address range. But my hardware
hacking experience is a bit dated, I haven't built anything major since my
Z-80 homebrew in the early 80's.
I do understand about the software, that's one reason I haven't tried it.
My Z80 was the same way, I wasn't up to writing an OS by hand 🙂
Wasn't too woried about all the games I'd break. The idea was to keep the
Toasters and such alive. I think the gamers have all gone to cloneland
anyway.
Heck, with a board like the Golden Gate II (not the Bridgeboard clone) it
might even be possible to use an off-the-shelf pc type floppy controller
card.
-Jim
MOS via Autopilot & Amiga
GGII should work for the hardware, but that still leaves you with the software
and compatibility problems.