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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga Hardware News => Topic started by: DJS on February 22, 2008, 09:21:18 PM
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Elbox Computer, the company that introduced the PCI standard to Amiga, is pleased to announce the latest Mediator model -- MEDIATOR PCI 1200 TX -- the successor of the MEDIATOR PCI 1200 SX.
New firmware embedded in CPLDs of MEDIATOR 1200 TX allows significant speed-up of graphic card operations when hardware 2D and 3D acceleration is used in single-processor systems (68k or PPC). The new firmware operation modes are supported by the new Mediator OS3.x System Files provided on the enclosed MM CD. Native PowerPC support will be provided in the upcoming update of AmigaOS 4.0.
MEDIATOR PCI 1200 TX, like its predecessor, has 6 PCI slots, busmastering in all PCI slots, Power Management Interface, ATX and AT power connectors, and provides 3.3V auxiliary supply to all PCI slots.
MEDIATOR PCI 1200 TX is dedicated for A1200 in D-BOX 1200, Mirage 1200, E/BOX 1200 (Power, Winner), EZ-Z4 and Infinitiv tower cases.
Included with the MEDIATOR PCI 1200 TX is the Mediator Multimedia CD with new versions of drivers for Sound, TV tuner, Ethernet 10Mbps, Fast Ethernet 100Mbps and Graphic PCI cards.
For the list of currently supported PCI cards see Mediator Driver Guide (http://elbox.com/mdg.html).
For more info, see Mediator PCI 1200 TX website (http://elbox.com/products/mediator_pci_1200_tx.html).
(http://elbox.com/products/prod_img/mediator_pci_1200_tx.jpg) (http://elbox.com/products/extra_prod/mediator_pci_1200_tx.html)
Pricing and availability
The Mediator PCI TX will be on sale from 27th February 2008 with suggested retail price EUR 195.95 (plus local taxes and shipping costs).
To locate an authorized distributor or purchase product in Elbox Online Store visit website (http://elbox.com/buy.html).
Upgrading Mediator 1200 SX to the new Mediator 1200 TX will be possible. The TX Upgrade program for Mediator 1200 SX users will be announced at a later time.
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I wonder how the SX upgrade is going to work?
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New products huh? Where's the SharkPPC?
:lol:
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The SX -> TX upgrade is probably just a case of swapping out the CPLD.
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Advantages :
-3.3V support (so some cards maybe usable under amiga
-You can use atx power suplly not just at
-You can wake up your amiga by LAN signal
-Maybe gfx card accelerated, but somebody proof it, until then it is only the same marketing bla bla from elbox.
Disadvantages:
- It is not using real dma, just the gfx card hack. (same as the earlier models)
-max 8MB memory window. It reveals everithing, so i doubt it is faster than earlier models.
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What's the deal with the whole "graphics card hack" anyways and why doesn't this thing (or any of the Mediators, for that matter) have DMA?? :inquisitive:
*waits patiently for the All-Knowing and Wise Piru* :lol:
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Maybe I'm wrong, but my guess is that they didn't bother to engineer DMA because the Meditator was intended to host a PPC processor board, and it would only use the system's existing processor/memory to bridge the gap until the PPC board was available.
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Maybe I'm wrong, but my guess is that they didn't bother to engineer DMA because the Meditator was intended to host a PPC processor board, and it would only use the system's existing processor/memory to bridge the gap until the PPC board was available.
According to a post on another site, the lack of DMA is due to a 8MB data transfer "window". This "window" is a limitation of the A1200 expansion bus, so no busboard will ever have DMA.
As for the Shark, you'll never see it. They are out of production.
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FLINT TRUCK ASSEMBLY (http://www.chevy-wiki.com/wiki/Flint_Truck_Assembly)
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A1200 expansion bus, so no busboard will ever have DMA.
That doesn't entirely explain why the other Meditators don't DMA. And, maybe they will never have DMA to the host system, but they obviously have DMA to the video card, and could theoretically have DMA to a memory board, or, a processor board with memory.
They are out of production.
Maybe we won't see the Shark as it was promised for that reason (keep in mind just because production stopped doesn't mean it can't be started again if it is profitable). But, what's to say someone isn't working on a different design?
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That doesn't entirely explain why the other Meditators don't DMA
Are you referring to the A3000 and A4000 models? I don't know what the problem with them is.
maybe they will never have DMA to the host system, but they obviously have DMA to the video card, and could theoretically have DMA to a memory board, or, a processor board with memory.
Without a processor in a PCI slot, DMA from the host system is the only DMA that matters. And there are no processor cards for PCI.
just because production stopped doesn't mean it can't be started again if it is profitable
No, but ROHS compliance does. That and the components no longer being manufactured. That's why CyberstormPPCs are not being made.
But, what's to say someone isn't working on a different design?
Who would be the customers? A few hundred Amiga users. The Mac market for these products is also dead. With Apples move to Intel, anyone wanting to upgrade a PPC Mac can buy an old machine pretty cheaply.
I'd love to be proved wrong, but the opportunity to create new Amiga PPC processor upgrades was missed. The rest of the world moved on.
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Buy silver surfer vaporizer (http://vaporizers.net/silver-surfer-vaporizer)
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No, but ROHS compliance does.
That is why RoHS, along with all other socialist obligations are bad. Plain and simple. Bad.
Who would be the customers?
Anyone that wants to run OS4 and doesn't have an AmigaOne. I'd buy two of them today if they came available.
A few hundred Amiga users.
Profit is profit. If you can prove you will profit, you can get the resources to do anything. Less buyers simply means the price goes up. We have plenty of evidence that the people that would buy such a thing have no problem spending a few extra dollars. Now, finding the sweet spot between making a profit and not turning away buyers....
I'd love to be proved wrong
I have been looking forward to the release of a new PPC board since the announcement of OS4 Classic. I am not banking on it, because, well, I haven't been under a boing-ball shaped rock for the past 15 years. So, I have nothing to lose by looking forward to it. I have my hope. It's all I have, but I have it. I lost all hope of running OS4 some time in 2002. Well, now I run OS4.
Here, I'll bet you $1USD that we get a new PPC board for 'Classic' Amigas before the end of the year. Now I have something to lose :)
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OK, the Mediator 1200 models can do DMA between cards (which is why TV cards work, for example), but they can't DMA to fastmem.
This is because the Mediator doesn't include an accelerator but is designed to wedge between the A1200 and an existing accelerator.
Fast memory on most A1200 accelerators is simply RAM that is attached to the processor. Nothing on the A1200 side of the bus can see it. The only devices that can read or write that memory have to be ON the accelerator.
Being wedged between the A1200 and the accelerator, the mediator simply doesn't have access to the memory on the accelerator. There is absolutely nothing it could do to read or write the accelerator fastmem. The CPU is the only thing that can see both the mediator and its fastmem, so to get data off of a PCI card and into memory, the CPU has to read it from the card and write it into memory.
Technically, the mediator could read and write chip memory, but that would be useless; its just too slow to be worth while, and also, most accelerators aren't design to expect any other devices on the a1200 expansion port to be reading or writing chipmem through it, so you could have problems there.
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No, but ROHS compliance does. That and the components no longer being manufactured.
Speaking of which, has the Mediator TX been updated/redesigned to be RoHS compliant (lead-free components, but also regarding the plastic connectors)? At least on the upper side of the PCB, there is no "trashcan" symbol visible. Comparing the pictures of the SX and TX, the board is exactly the same, with the same components, and especially old chips with DIP/DIL packages are hard to find RoHS compliant nowadays.
So maybe Elbox could confirm the RoHS compliance?
It would be sad if this expensive piece of hardware couldn't be sold within Europe legally.
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It would be sad if this expensive piece of hardware couldn't be sold within Europe legally.
I don't know if this is the case, however I would find it even sadder if anyone actually cared!
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If it is indeed faster than previous Mediator bus boards I am definitely interested in one.
I would love to see some support for newer graphics boards to. DVI support is needed since higher resolutions are so fuzzy (at least for me).
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I don't know if this is the case, however I would find it even sadder if anyone actually cared!
If it is for the Amiga market, it is ok to break the law :-?
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Aye, I guess that's one good reason for living in most of the states in the United States.
-We may have a really crooked administration in our White House most of the time.
-We may have inflated fuel prices to help line the pockets of the fat-cats with gold.
-We might not even have good jobs or money to be able to attempt at paying for our bills.
But we can buy and sell all the electronics that we want!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I don't know if this is the case, however I would find it even sadder if anyone actually cared!
DDT should be made legal again.
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Interesting :-D I like the idea it will be better drivers for os4 :-) "hmm should start installing that soon" .
Anyways i am curious about the Higher gfx speed ...
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okay so elbox have alot of mediator cards and now they have updated them with soldering a atx connection burnt new chips with new faster code.. great way to refurbish old stock eh...
what the should have done is releasing a card with 1 agp2x slot,3 pci slots, 2 ata100/133 & 1 sata connections,atx connection(dropped the at connection), build in network card and dma with enough ram to handle things....
then they should have released a ppc card at 600mhz with option for max 1gb ram....
but i guess that would only happen in a perfect world....
only good thing with this was the info about aos4.0 support for all mediator boards :-)
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okay so elbox have alot of mediator cards and now they have updated them with soldering a atx connection burnt new chips with new faster code.. great way to refurbish old stock eh...
That was my thought about this new Mediator.
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Lincoln Mkx (http://www.ford-wiki.com/wiki/Lincoln_MKX)
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If you compare the picture of the TX in the shop, and the picture of the SX model (removed from the shop, but still available on other sites) you will see that even the silkscreen print on the top board side is the same, watch left side with the "MEDIATOR 1200 SX" line - a "TX" would look like different.
Even the component placement is the same...
So IMHO it is a nice marketing gag: you fix some parts of your programmable logic code for the CPLDs, make some speedups, announce this as a new product and charge 20EUR more for the physically same boards which you have (even after several "free shipment" events) plenty on stock.
Other companies would call this a firmware upgrade and offer it as user service, not as new developments :-)
About the DMA discussion: not again. At least on A3000/A4000 Mediators it would be possible from the bus interface, but not with just some old MACH chips. Real Zorro III DMA needs more logic, especially when working around Buster bugs.
Michael
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If it is for the Amiga market, it is ok to break the law?
Well, at least Amiga stuff won't threaten the environment, since it will all end up being hoarded or put on ebay instead of thrown out.
-We may have inflated fuel prices to help line the pockets of the fat-cats with gold.
If you're comparing Europe to the USA and you think WE have inflated fuel prices you need to get with the program.
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Well, at least Amiga stuff won't threaten the environment, since it will all end up being hoarded or put on ebay instead of thrown out.
At some point in time, every piece of hardware will end up in the trash. Some take longer, some take shorter time to reach their End Of Life, and at this point someone will have to take responsibility for recycling.
Is this "someone" the last person who owned it, or the person who earned money with producing this piece of hardware, in your opinion?
Even if the special version of the German EAR law is at some points not very well suited to fit to the needs of small companies (like me), the fundamental idea behind it is right, in my opinion.
We have nowadays options to get rid of lead, for example, in electronic parts, and we should take this opportunity.
Michael
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Dudes! My brand new 9600GT vga card has ROHS compliance, but if you carefully reading the small warnings in the box, you can read something like this:
"this product contains chemicals, including lead...Wash hands after handling." Funny isn't it? A lead free product contain lead.
And Gigabyte sells more product than elbox, so get yourself happy with the new amiga hw, i rather read some benchmark or sg like this abot the new board.
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okay so elbox have alot of mediator cards and now they have updated them with soldering a atx connection burnt new chips with new faster code.. great way to refurbish old stock eh...
Errr that ATX socket has been there since the Sx board "I know i have and use one". As for the SX-TX update i think it will be the same way as people could upgrade their original mediator1200 boards to LT4 ..
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Oh gee great, keep pushing a now out of date and dying standard.
PCIe is the current gen, and classic PCI is fading fast.
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But would there be any point at all supporting PCIe?
The existing bottlenecks due to the Amiga expansion bus (as detailed above) make it pretty pointless.
PCIe would just cost a lot more with each port being seperate from the next, whereas PCI being a bus must be a lot easier/cheaper to do.
Just about any old PCI card is going to be vastly bottlenecked by the Amiga itself so why bother with PCIe when the cards are only just becoming available and VASTLY too powerful to be much use in the Amiga anyway?
I would much rather use PCI cards if I were to ever tower my A1200. I would just stick an old S3 Virge in it or something (assuming I could find one, not sure if I threw em out years ago).
PCI cards that are perfectly fast enough for the Amiga can be obtained for free as they would be considered retro for PC.
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The reason is availability. PCI is where ISA was 5 years ago. Have you had any luck sourcing new ISA cards lately?
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Oh gee great, keep pushing a now out of date and dying standard.
PCIe is the current gen, and classic PCI is fading fast.
What are you complaining about, Nate? Seems to me that Elbox is keeping with Amiga Time and Standards.
*snort*
When PCI-XIV comes out, I'm sure we'll get a PCI-e setup from Elbox. Remember, Amiga hardware has to be 10+ years out of date to be "current" nowadays. :crazy:
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Have you had any luck sourcing new ISA cards lately?
Pssh. I got one right here! :rtfm:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/arikel_tolifen/ISA_Business_Card.jpg)
*runs and hides*
:-P
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AGP would make more senese for now. Lot easier to implment. Millions of cards around, and they still being produced
Obviously for graphics cards anyway
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@JJ
AGP Hardware is too new for Amiga Designs........ :lol:
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@Methuselas
Now I get it! You're sniffing coke in that avatar! hahahahahaha
...I'm so alone :cry:
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*laughs*
That's not me. That's Miki Berenyi, the lead singer of Lush and a former Amiga Gamer.
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@JJ
Actually, PCIe is far easier to impliment than AGP, hence why you'll notice that companies flocked to it a lot faster than they did to AGP.
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Elbox, how about drivers for Radeon cards?
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Poster: downix Posted: 2008/2/29 9:38:16
@JJ
Actually, PCIe is far easier to impliment than AGP, hence why you'll notice that companies flocked to it a lot faster than they did to AGP.
Yeah, but it's current architecture. :-P