Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: SamOS39 on February 11, 2008, 02:53:13 PM
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As part of my A500T project im starting work on schematics for building an expansion board with zorro2 slots.
Looking at pictures around the web etc.. i can see that ISA bus boards look fairly simple.
But is it worth having ISA slots?
What ISA cards (graphics, sound, ethernet .. etc) work with the amiga?
cheers
Samm.
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SamOS39 wrote:
What ISA cards (graphics, sound, ethernet .. etc) work with the amiga?
None. The ISA slots can only be accessed and used by a bridgeboard.
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ISA card are probably all in the scrap metal bins. :-D
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so the isa slots are only used with emulator cards etc..?
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DaBest wrote:
ISA card are probably all in the scrap metal bins. :-D
I've got a few ISA network cards (new in box) if someone's interested :-)
SamOS39 wrote:
so the isa slots are only used with emulator cards etc..?
Correct.
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that sucks, ISA cards are cheaper than zorro cards :-(
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ISA-cards CAN be used with Amiga:
- there is ateo-bus which is just ISA with a different name
- there were the Domino and Omnibus GFX-cards, which were really just adapters for ISA-ET4000-VGA cards.
- there still is the XSurf doing the same trick for ethernet
- if you have an C=-bridgeboard some ISA-cards can be made useable for the Amiga-side
And offcourse not to forget:
- the famous DIY OMTI-Adapters, featuring an 8Bit-slot for the use with old HD-controllers :roll:
Maybe more in Aminet/hard/....
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Actually, there was a card called the "Golden Gate II" which mapped the ISA cards into the Zorro memory space. It's a bit confusing because the was also a 3rd-party bridgeboard called the Goldengate. (people must really like that SF bridge!)
Anyway, the GGII did allow ISA cards to be used directly by the Amiga side. If i recall, there was support for some net cards, sound cards, and serial/parallel cards. No VGA cards though.
Going waaaay back, there was a thing for the 1000 called "Bill's Board" that gave it Zorro & ISA slots. I remember seeing one of those demoed at a user group meeting. Talk about a monster hack....
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there was the goldengate 2 card that allow the use of certain ISA cards directly by the Amiga
(http://www.amiga-hardware.com/display_photos/gg2_small.jpg)
http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=344
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The Golden Gate 2 board does indeed let you use some ISA cards, as I've got one in an A2000, I think they are quite rare though?
I think you can use 8bit and 16bit NICs that are NE1000/NE2000 compatible, also some ISA Parallel and serial cards work, also maybe some old IDE cards work, but I'm not sure.
I know they planned a soundcard driver but it never came out, and unfortunately there's no VGA drivers either.
Robert
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There's also EtherBridge on Aminet which is a SANA-II device that communicates with an MS-DOS-based host application and any PCTCP packet driver using a bridgeboard.
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Bottom line you can't use the ISA slots without extra hardware that enables it.