Sonnet PPC card no longer an option?

[zyphoid]

sonnetPPC card great job amigans!  we managed to "buy out" all the sonnet/shark cards in hopes of it being able to work with the classics, and its not even proven to be compatable.   :-D  :-) http://store1.sonnettech.com/product_info.php?cPath=22_30&products_id=37

now what?

[Matt_H]

Was it ever an option to begin with?

[spihunter]

Maybe Elbox bought them all? :inquisitive:

[alexh]

Matt_H wrote:
Was it ever an option to begin with?

Under closer scrutiny... nope. Not without a firmware upgrade to the PCI boards.

Very curious they've sold out. It couldnt be from Amiga users... could it?

[Matt_H]

It's a rather old product. I'd guess that a slow trickle of sales to the Mac community over the years depleted the stock of a production run done ages ago.

Other point: Have they sold out only just now, or have they been out of stock for years?

[rkauer]

 If you mind, there is another G3 PCI board for the very same seller: Sonnet!

 But doubtfully there will be libraries (or a FPGA) to use that in any Amiga.

[HenryCase]

zyphoid wrote:
now what?

Move to a more powerful card:
http://tinyurl.com/2raxkg

I'm not sure whether any changes to Mediator would be necessary to get the new board to run, but if new Amiga drivers could be written then it might work.

[Trev]

There are plenty of PowerPC SBCs in a PCI form factor on the market. They're usually expensive, though, even before a company like Elbox has had an opportunity to mark them up. (Porting WarpUP or some other system is probably no small task, so some mark-up is reasonable.)

[zyphoid]

Matt_H wrote:
It's a rather old product. I'd guess that a slow trickle of sales to the Mac community over the years depleted the stock of a production run done ages ago.

Other point: Have they sold out only just now, or have they been out of stock for years?

recently did. ive been watching that model for weeks since the contraversy! :crazy:
(the one about it being shark ppc)
the newer ones seem bulky....but as stated mat not need mods to fit mediator...bounty 4 drivers & software?

[rkauer]

 I will be more than glad to have a G3/500MHz (or even less MHz) CPU installed on my 1200/Mediator.

 A G4 processor will be an overkill.

[jj]

Well considering elbox stated the shark or sonnet to give it its proper name, would run ummodified in a mediator and os4 would run on unmoddifed on it, and it would be reelased when os4 was released  :-D

lets draw our own cocnlusions

[rkauer]

 Just to clarify: E***x people are not intelligent guys.

 It they was smart, they simply tell everybody: -"Hey, if someone put a Crescendo/Sonnet card intended for PCI Macs in one of our Mediators, you can have a PPC Amiga!"

 Surely the Mediator sells will explode!

 But what they did? Cope a way to avoid people to do this (may a "lock" in one of those Mach chips).

 Exactly like they do with the "Spyder", a rebadged USB card with the on-chip re-flashed to inform another vendor ID!

 Sometimes, greed people are simple stupid!

[zyphoid]

rkauer wrote:
 I will be more than glad to have a G3/500MHz (or even less MHz) CPU installed on my 1200/Mediator.

 A G4 processor will be an overkill.

cooling would have to be an issue?
ooh well til someone moves on it..i'll wait some more :lol:

[zyphoid]

rkauer wrote:
 Just to clarify: E***x people are not intelligent guys.

 It they was smart, they simply tell everybody: -"Hey, if someone put a Crescendo/Sonnet card intended for PCI Macs in one of our Mediators, you can have a PPC Amiga!"

 Surely the Mediator sells will explode!

 But what they did? Cope a way to avoid people to do this (may a "lock" in one of those Mach chips).

 Exactly like they do with the "Spyder", a rebadged USB card with the on-chip re-flashed to inform another vendor ID!

 Sometimes, greed people are simple stupid!

hopefully someone finds a way around it as in the case of the spyder :-D

[amiga_3k]

alexh wrote:

Very curious they've sold out. It couldnt be from Amiga users... could it?

It actually could be. On AmigaWorld.net there is a thread started by someone claiming that the Sonnet looks pretty much the same as the PPC solution from Elbox. As the price of that Sonnet-card was in the mid 40 dollars (given the current dollar to euro exchange rate of 1 dollar to 100 euros ;-)) it really looked as a steal, even if it wouldn't work in the mediator. I guess a few jumped on it and probably are already toying about with it.

AmigaWorld thread