Amiga with Intel inside... What horror is this?

[scuzzb494]

[ Just let me know if my little posts annoy anyone ]

I was checking over an A2000 that I was using as a pedestal for
an Amiga 4000d and discovered via SysInfo that the machine had
a card inside called the A2386SX... The 386SX rang alarm bells
in my head and so I decided to open up the computer.

http://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_may18/scuzzblogdmay18_1501.htm

http://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_may18/scuzzblogdmay18_1502.htm

http://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_may18/scuzzblogdmay18_1503.htm

[Karlos]

Does it still work?

[Iggy]

[ Just let me know if my little posts annoy anyone ]

I was checking over an A2000 that I was using as a pedestal for
an Amiga 4000d and discovered via SysInfo that the machine had
a card inside called the A2386SX... The 386SX rang alarm bells
in my head and so I decided to open up the computer.

http://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_may18/scuzzblogdmay18_1501.htm

http://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_may18/scuzzblogdmay18_1502.htm

http://www.scuzzscink.com/amiga/scuzzblog_may18/scuzzblogdmay18_1503.htm

Yeah, that's the best of them.
At least it will run Windows 3.1 in "non-crippled" mode.

Its kind of a weak cpu compared to an '020 or higher, but it did give you DOS compatibility and a way to use those ISA slots.

Today, its kind of silly considering how much PCs have evolved.

[Karlos]

Many moons ago, I remember running the PCx emulation and getting a semi usable performance for DOS on an 040/RTG setup.

Ah, nostalgia.

[Karlos]

I distinctly remember adverts for a third party 486 based bridge board. Does that ring any bells?

Golden Gate? Was that it?

[trixster]

Vortex Golden Gate 386SX

http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=348

Golden Gate 486SLC and SLC2

http://www.bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=350

http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/goldengate

[Karlos]

Phwoarr.

My friend had an Acorn RiscPC with some form of pentium card expansion. It was pretty cool, the display was mapped into a window on RiscOS. I remember us getting quake running on it.

[klx300r]

@ Karlos

cool stuff! I remember an ad in a magazine with one of those cards which said 'the best PC performance (for whatever spreadsheet they showed on the page) was on Amiga' lol:razz:

[klx300r]

[ Just let me know if my little posts annoy anyone ]

are you joking?? if it's inside an Amiga it belongs on an Amiga board:hammer:

keep up the great work on the scuzz blog:knuddel::pint:

[Karlos]

I seem to recall that lurking in the gallery here somewhere is a picture of some weird Pentium 2 on an ISA card (probably an industrial controller or something) wedged into an Amiga. Whether or not it worked, no idea. I would assume it was completely isolated from the system.

[LoadWB]

This card was the Holy Grail of bridgeboards for me.  I could never turn one up.  About 20 years ago some fella said he had two and I claimed one of them, sent him my money and never heard from him again.

Now I have two 8088 BBs that I never wound up using.  All the PC emulation I need(ed) which they can do gets done in PC Task.  I even have a Vortex and a GVP 286 card here somewhere. I suppose it's time to release them to the wild.

[trixster]

Phwoarr.

My friend had an Acorn RiscPC with some form of pentium card expansion. It was pretty cool, the display was mapped into a window on RiscOS. I remember us getting quake running on it.

Those RiscPC processor cards were the real deal - I'm wasnt aware you could get Pentium versions but you could certainly buy 486DX 100mhz cards which could be upgraded with an AMD 5x86 133mhz.
 

[JimS]

I distinctly remember adverts for a third party 486 based bridge board. Does that ring any bells?

Golden Gate? Was that it?

Yes, that was it.

[JimS]

I was checking over an A2000 that I was using as a pedestal for
an Amiga 4000d and discovered via SysInfo that the machine had
a card inside called the A2386SX... The 386SX rang alarm bells
in my head and so I decided to open up the computer.

I had one of those in my 2000 for a while. Because of the limited ISA slots, it made multi-function ISA cards popular. I had a daughter card from some old PC that went into an ISA slot, and had 3 ISAs on one side and two on the other. You could use that to get two extra slots, but couldn't put the case on. Made for an ugly mess.... but with an emulator, you could run MAC, Amiga, and Windoze simultaneously.