Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: VCNW on December 28, 2012, 01:07:46 AM
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Just got hold of Utilities Unlimited's EMPLANT card.
It is a version 1.5 (says on the board) or C, released on the 46th week of 1993( says on all the chips).
The following chips are installed..
P1-4693-2
P2-4693
P3-4693-C
P4-4693
P5-4693
Intrested to know if one of these chips is the optional e586 module?
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U don't need the chip numbers. the 586 chip goes in a specific socket
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U don't need the chip numbers. the 586 chip goes in a specific socket
And the specific socket is????
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Am I going to have to install it for you too? lulz..
Dont know man google is your friend ;)
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http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=345
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Just got hold of Utilities Unlimited's EMPLANT card.
It is a version 1.5 (says on the board) or C, released on the 46th week of 1993( says on all the chips).
The following chips are installed..
P1-4693-2
P2-4693
P3-4693-C
P4-4693
P5-4693
Intrested to know if one of these chips is the optional e586 module?
P1 is replaced with a new version to allow e586 emulation. You have the stock setup without the e586 emulation support. The only difference the PEEL makes is enabling one of the three 6522 VIAs that was deliberately disabled, to be later used for the e586 emulation. When e586dx was released, it supported the EMPLANT card but without requiring the updated PEEL (they are not PALs or GALs, they are PEELs).
I am not sure who wrote the information linked to above, but there are quite a few things wrong with that info. The 4693 revision PEELs were the last version that we made. These improved the timing to make the emulation faster, but they were not required. There were no issues with other versions, they just slowed down the Zorro II bus timing affecting the SCSI and serial ports. The LOGIC brand SCSI chip requires the slower timing for the Amiga side (not the Mac side), but I later took care of that in the empscsi.device driver so that the Mac emulation could run as fast as possible. If your A4000 had a bad -5v regulator, then yes, the EMPLANT board would not work. EMPLANT works with NTSC or PAL machines, and the Mac emulation knew which type of machine it was running on, just as a real Mac does.
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Jim:
I thought the Emplant was an amazing product when it was released. People could not believe the Mac emulation on my Amiga.
I always wondered:
1. How many Emplants were sold total?
2. How many revisions of the software did you make? I remember the first revisions were pretty rough and only ran in Chip Memory (I think). However, it didn't take long for the software to really mature and work amazingly well.
3. Did you ever get any flak from Apple on it?
4. How well did the e586 sell? I remember it being released but by that time I saw the Commodore ship sinking and jumped to another platform (Mac then Windows).
5. Did you ever consider selling Emplant without the board? Especially after ShapeShifter appeared?
I have found memories of Emplant, thanks for such a great product!!!
-P
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P1 is replaced with a new version to allow e586 emulation. You have the stock setup without the e586 emulation support. The only difference the PEEL makes is enabling one of the three 6522 VIAs that was deliberately disabled, to be later used for the e586 emulation. When e586dx was released, it supported the EMPLANT card but without requiring the updated PEEL (they are not PALs or GALs, they are PEELs).
I am not sure who wrote the information linked to above, but there are quite a few things wrong with that info. The 4693 revision PEELs were the last version that we made. These improved the timing to make the emulation faster, but they were not required. There were no issues with other versions, they just slowed down the Zorro II bus timing affecting the SCSI and serial ports. The LOGIC brand SCSI chip requires the slower timing for the Amiga side (not the Mac side), but I later took care of that in the empscsi.device driver so that the Mac emulation could run as fast as possible. If your A4000 had a bad -5v regulator, then yes, the EMPLANT board would not work. EMPLANT works with NTSC or PAL machines, and the Mac emulation knew which type of machine it was running on, just as a real Mac does.
Thank you for the information. It looks like that I have the last revision made and it does not support the e586 emulation.
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Jim,
I located another card and this one looks even newer. GAL1 & GAL3 have P1-0595-P labels which I will assume it is Version P, release in Feb, 1995. Most of the sockets (1-4) are populated with Apple chips.
Do you have a picture of this mysterious 586 chip?
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The apple chips on this new board are the Roms..
@ Jim Drew
Glad to see you posting here.. funny story for you, years ago in the mid to late ninties I got a scsi Zip drive for my Amiga. I called Iomega for some reason and talked to tech support. He asked me the platform I said "Amiga" he laughed and said they were running Amigas with Emplant boards doing Mac emulation or something like this..(cant remember it was years ago) but weird and true story
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I forgot to add picture of the 0595 revision PEELs
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Anyone know where to get the latest software for the EMPLANT card?
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I've got an Emplant card, bought secondhand several years ago (it looks to be in mint condition), but I've never done anything with it. I do have some original Mac II ROMS lying around here somewhere, but I can't currently do anything with the card as all my Amigas except my 1200 (and maybe my 1000) are dead and disassembled. My 1200 has an intermittent keyboard, so I'm not currently using it either, and my Amiga withdrawal has not eased at all since my 4000 died a couple years ago (I just don't have the money right now to get any of them fixed). I'm typing this on my Mac Powerbook G4, which for is me is preferable to using any version of Windows, but I'd still much prefer to boot my '060 4K into OS 3.9. That card has always struck me as an example of the incredible creativity that surrounds the Amiga.
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Jim:
I thought the Emplant was an amazing product when it was released. People could not believe the Mac emulation on my Amiga.
I always wondered:
1. How many Emplants were sold total?
2. How many revisions of the software did you make? I remember the first revisions were pretty rough and only ran in Chip Memory (I think). However, it didn't take long for the software to really mature and work amazingly well.
3. Did you ever get any flak from Apple on it?
4. How well did the e586 sell? I remember it being released but by that time I saw the Commodore ship sinking and jumped to another platform (Mac then Windows).
5. Did you ever consider selling Emplant without the board? Especially after ShapeShifter appeared?
I have found memories of Emplant, thanks for such a great product!!!
-P
1) More than 10,000 EMPLANT boards were sold.
2) A bunch!! v2.6 was the last official, but there was a v2.7 available through our BBS before UUI went out of business.
3) No, Apple was impressed. I demo'd it for Scully at their head quarters in Cupertino. They pretended to be interested to see if we were violating any laws, which we weren't.
4) I know we had over 1,000 back orders when it was first released, but I don't know the final sales total.
5) We did! After it was known that Shapeshifter was created from stolen Amax IV and EMPLANT code, I released several different versions. MacII was one, and the last was FUSION (later to be FUSION-PPC for the Amiga PPC version and FUSION-PC for the PC version). Both MacII and FUSION for the Amiga supported the EMPLANT board if you had one.
The P1-5095-P chip (sometimes colored RED) is the one required for the e586 support.
I have over 400 brand new EMPLANT boards sitting in storage that I will be putting up for sale on my new website that I am launching early next year. The website will be selling all kinds of Commodore stuff, so it is appropriately named: www.cbmstuff.com (http://www.cbmstuff.com)
Iomega and several other Mac based companies used EMPLANT boards for setting up and duplicating hard drives. :)
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Anyone know where to get the latest software for the EMPLANT card?
I found this on the other Amiga forum....Good luck...
English Amiga Board : The Zone
Emplant.rar with the following contents in The Zone!:
- Emplant e586DX (1995)(Utilities Unlimited)[req. Emplant][WB].adf
- Emplant e586DX v2.0 (1995)(Utilities Unlimited)[req. Emplant][WB].adf
- Emplant v4.2 (1994)(Utilities Unlimited)[WB].adf
- Emplant v4.6 (1994)(Utilities Unlimited)[WB].adf
- Emplant v5.0 (1994)(Utilities Unlimited)[WB].adf
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I found this on the other Amiga forum....Good luck...
English Amiga Board : The Zone
Emplant.rar with the following contents in The Zone!:
- Emplant e586DX (1995)(Utilities Unlimited)[req. Emplant][WB].adf
- Emplant e586DX v2.0 (1995)(Utilities Unlimited)[req. Emplant][WB].adf
- Emplant v4.2 (1994)(Utilities Unlimited)[WB].adf
- Emplant v4.6 (1994)(Utilities Unlimited)[WB].adf
- Emplant v5.0 (1994)(Utilities Unlimited)[WB].adf
I found this myself. I have no idea what "The Zone" is.
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Iomega and several other Mac based companies used EMPLANT boards for setting up and duplicating hard drives. :)
Did you see my post earlier in the thread about Iomega?
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I found this myself. I have no idea what "The Zone" is.
Temporary storage at EAB, you need to be a member to access it, but if the post is old then the files are gone.
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Temporary storage at EAB, you need to be a member to access it, but if the post is old then the files are gone.
Post is from 2007...
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I'll be watching for updates to your site. Thanks!
I have over 400 brand new EMPLANT boards sitting in storage that I will be putting up for sale on my new website that I am launching early next year. The website will be selling all kinds of Commodore stuff, so it is appropriately named: www.cbmstuff.com (http://www.cbmstuff.com)
Iomega and several other Mac based companies used EMPLANT boards for setting up and duplicating hard drives. :)
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Jim:
I wanted to thank you for the information. Could I bug you a littler further?
1. How long did it take you to write the software?
2. You said spoke to Apple, did Commodore ever approach you? At one time, one of the rumors I heard was that Commodore was going to include Emplant with one of their systems.
3. Do you know what happened to Simon Douglas? I heard him speak and talked with him at one of the Amiga shows and always wondered what he did after A-MAX?
4. Was there anything you came to learn about the MacOS at the time you found pretty strange? If I remember right, you actually speed up the OS with certain changes in Emplant?
5. What is Joe Fenton doing now?
Thanks!!!
-P
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Jim:
I wanted to thank you for the information. Could I bug you a littler further?
1. How long did it take you to write the software?
2. You said spoke to Apple, did Commodore ever approach you? At one time, one of the rumors I heard was that Commodore was going to include Emplant with one of their systems.
3. Do you know what happened to Simon Douglas? I heard him speak and talked with him at one of the Amiga shows and always wondered what he did after A-MAX?
4. Was there anything you came to learn about the MacOS at the time you found pretty strange? If I remember right, you actually speed up the OS with certain changes in Emplant?
5. What is Joe Fenton doing now?
Thanks!!!
-P
1) We started the software in 1992 and continued to improve upon it all of the way through until it was turned into a PC version and sold to my competition in 2000. It was a LONG haul.
2) Yes, we were talking with Commodore about making an A4000 version, much like Newtek was buying A4000's and making Toaster Studio systems. But, Commodore actually wanted to sell the complete package. I was a little shocked that Commodore had this idea, as it was so anti-Commodore (as far as their business division went) to actually want to make money. :) We couldn't make boards fast enough as it was though, and by the time that we could get production ramped up, Commodore was sinking.
3) I am not sure what happened with Simon. I believe I chatted with Simon (voice) once and ami.netted him a few times. I thought he was an outstanding programmer, and when Christian Bauer started stealing huge chunks of Amax IV (and then eventually my code), I let Simon know about it. When Simon released updates to Amax IV, Joe and I would spend days disassembling it and seeing if anything had been 'borrowed'. Even if Simon had looked at our code, the Amax IV code was nowhere near like ours so I was impressed and the emulation game was good clean fun at that point... until Shapeshifter.
4) Well, after disassembling every MacOS version from 4.0 through 8.1, you can see who programmed what. We could tell when the guy who wrote .Sony (the floppy driver) was no longer writing that part of the code. You could tell what code was written in assembly and what code was written in C. The Mac's multitasking code (for task switching) was about 60K in size, and written in C. We patched it to make it more efficient, and made it work with the Amiga's MMU support. I also spent a huge amount of time on the Mac's math packages, and to this day, there is no emulation with the same differential between the CPU and FPU emulation speeds. Joe and I got a kick out of actually breaking the first version of Speedometer when it went to do the math testing. The next version fixed that, but our math scores were still just about off the charts.
5) Joe ran into some legal issues, and ended up moving. I chatted with him a few times, but I have no idea what he has been doing. I heard he is living in England, but I can't confirm that.
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Hey magnetic (http://www.amiga.org/forums/member.php?u=147) - clear out your in box. I made a long reply to your PM, and then got a message that your in box was full! :eek: