Catweasel MK3 and Tabor

[kamelito]

Will it be possible to plug a  Catweasel MK3 on a Tabor motherboard with a PCIe to PCI adapter? It is mainly to play SID music.
Thanks
Kamelito

[Pat the Cat]

Depends on how the software running on the Tabor talks to the PCI-E slot. That's very iffy, they usually use Intel chipsets and drivers and typically don't like third party expansions.

Potentially, maybe, but bearing in mind you need a real C64 SID chip to make it work - why not just run a C64 emulator?

Unless maybe you are going for a world record. "Biggest electronic music box".

EDIT: Software support for Catweasel looks a bit thin on the ground for Windows, I'm not even sure this is a Windows driver for it...

http://ip-50-62-141-105.ip.secureserver.net/driver/floppy-on-catweasel-189525.html

[paul1981]

Potentially, maybe, but bearing in mind you need a real C64 SID chip to make it work - why not just run a C64 emulator?

Unless maybe you are going for a world record. "Biggest electronic music box".

By your logic let's just bin all old hardware and emulate it. Why didn't I think of that? :laughing:

[kamelito]

My MK3 is populated with a 6581, I've a 8580 somewhere in the basement I guess. It was working the last time I check under XP.
Kamelito

[Pat the Cat]

By your logic let's just bin all old hardware and emulate it. Why didn't I think of that? :laughing:

Well... if the main use is just playing SID only sound... it is a very involved solution.

I have no hidden agenda on people using hardware of their choice, and Catweasel can sometimes be very handy if you comes across old floppies from old non-Amiga machines that you want to access.

It's very optimistic asking if a given PC motherboard will be compatible with a given PCI card - it SHOULD be, but that doesn't mean a PC OS will like it.

Windows might, Linux and Mac OSX should, but there just are no guarantees with compatibility.

"If you want a guarantee, buy a kettle".

[Rob]

Will it be possible to plug a  Catweasel MK3 on a Tabor motherboard with a PCIe to PCI adapter? It is mainly to play SID music.
Thanks
Kamelito

Is there actually a SID player for OS4 that uses the Catweasel with SID.  The other thing is that even if it does work then you've only got the really weak video processor built into the P1022.  I don't even know if Hyperion will waste their resources making a driver for it since it's little more than a frame buffer and would probably see less use than the SM502 on the Sam460.

[Pat the Cat]

Is there actually a SID player for OS4 that uses the Catweasel with SID.  The other thing is that even if it does work then you've only got the really weak video processor built into the P1022.  I don't even know if Hyperion will waste their resources making a driver for it since it's little more than a frame buffer and would probably see less use than the SM502 on the Sam460.

I detect some confusion over the term "Tabor motherboard".

First, what I was thinking of, is a P2/P3 era  Intel motherboard. ATX dimension. Has PCI slots.

http://www.sysopt.com/showthread.php?108305-Intel(Tabor3)-BX-Motherboard-R3

What most people talk about "Tabor motherboard" as regards to Amiga is the A1222 PowerPC derivative ITX sized motherboard. Which has a single PCI slot, but so far as I know, was never available for sale.

http://a-eon.biz/news/News_Release_A1222.pdf

Chances are, EITHER will run Debian and get the old SID chips chirping away... with a Catweasel 3.

[mbrantley]

Don't you have to put a video card in the only slot there is on a Tabor motherboard?

[klx300r]

Is there actually a SID player for OS4 that uses the Catweasel with SID.  The other thing is that even if it does work then you've only got the really weak video processor built into the P1022.  I don't even know if Hyperion will waste their resources making a driver for it since it's little more than a frame buffer and would probably see less use than the SM502 on the Sam460.

yup we've had it for a while thanks to spirantho!

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=54837

[Rob]

yup we've had it for a while thanks to spirantho!

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=54837

I knew Spirantho had done CW drivers but I didn't remember they included SID support.

[kamelito]

When I read the AEON PDF about the A1222 I thought that it has 2 PCIe, No?
-x4 PCIe gen 1 link allows data rates of 2.5Gb/s per lane
-x16 PCIe connector to support RadeonHD graphics cards
Kamelito

[Rob]

When I read the AEON PDF about the A1222 I thought that it has 2 PCIe, No?
-x4 PCIe gen 1 link allows data rates of 2.5Gb/s per lane
-x16 PCIe connector to support RadeonHD graphics cards
Kamelito

It has just one slot that's mechanically x16 but electrically x4.

[First Ninja]

When I read the AEON PDF about the A1222 I thought that it has 2 PCIe, No?
-x4 PCIe gen 1 link allows data rates of 2.5Gb/s per lane
-x16 PCIe connector to support RadeonHD graphics cards
Kamelito

It has just one slot that's mechanically x16 but electrically x4.

Would you mind elaborating on this a bit futher, please? The (newly updated) specification says the Tabor features the following:

> x4 PCIe gen 1 link allows data rates of 2.5Gb/s per lane
> x16 PCIe compatible connector to support Radeon RX graphics cards

Does that equate to one or two physical PCIe slots/connections?

[CBH]

"x16 PCIe compatible" doesn't mean it's a x16 slot. It means if you put a x16 PCIe card in there it'll physically fit and work.

The way PCIe works is it's connectors are made up of a varying number of lanes, which is what the "x4" or "x16" refers to. You only need one lane for PCIe to work, and extra ones just make it faster.

So when you say "x4 PCIe link" and "x16 PCIe compatible connector", what that means is that the connector is the correct size for a 16x card to fit, but only wired up for x4. The extra pins don't connect to anything, but it's compatible in the sense something plugs in and works.

[First Ninja]

"x16 PCIe compatible" doesn't mean it's a x16 slot. It means if you put a x16 PCIe card in there it'll physically fit and work.

The way PCIe works is it's connectors are made up of a varying number of lanes, which is what the "x4" or "x16" refers to. You only need one lane for PCIe to work, and extra ones just make it faster.

So when you say "x4 PCIe link" and "x16 PCIe compatible connector", what that means is that the connector is the correct size for a 16x card to fit, but only wired up for x4. The extra pins don't connect to anything, but it's compatible in the sense something plugs in and works.

Got it, and thank you for sorting everything out. So essentially Tabor owners with a Radeon graphics card onboard won't have the option to use a second PCIe card at the same time?