Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: playgeneration on January 17, 2010, 10:29:58 AM
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I found this auction: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250563290414&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
It looks like it has a whole pretty modern PC on an ISA card. Anyone know where would you get such a thing?
I'm guessing the amiga doesn't interact with the pc in anyway, and that it is just powered from the ISA slot. But it would still be cool to have an amiga and pc in one unit.
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...eBay is a good place to look.
"single board pc" is a common search term for those.
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Web search for PC/104 and you will find lots of information. You can still buy this stuff new to all kinds of specifications. This spec was done primarily for industrial uses so the new prices tended to be higher than you might expect.
If I remember correctly they used the ISA bus for power only.
My knowledge is rusty though since the last I seriously looked at them was probably about a decade ago. We built kiosks at a University and I had the idea to put 4 of these in an enclosure. It would have been smaller form factor and detracted thieves but we could never get the price down low enough.
The only wow factor you really get from having one in your amiga is in fact to say "look its in an amiga."
If you do go for it and use a board with any significant CPU power make sure your Amiga power supply is up to the task.
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Just to add to the comments from others... These sort of cards were used in industrial controllers, where lots of I/O was needed... stuff like relay controll & sensor inputs. They plugged into what's called a passive backplane, which is just a bunch of ISA or PCI connectors wired in paralell. - Just like the ISA slots in the big box Amigas. They get power from the bus, but can use it as well. If you put one of these in the Amiga, it could use the ISA cards, but the Amiga would never know it was there. For that you need a Bridgeboard, that plugs into both the Amiga and ISA slots. Commodore and a couple 3rd parties made them, back in the day.
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Its amusing that every second month there is a post on amiga.org about these SBC cards and an optimistic/semi-realistic question if they connect to the Amiga lol :)
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I have a SBC on ISA here, though an older generation one. They exist :-)