ISA slots questions

[xaccrocheur]

Hi

I did a search but w/o luck so I'm asking for details about the ISA slots found on the Zorro Amigas. If I'm righ, the 2000 has 4 of them, the 3000 has 2, and the 4000 has 3 of them.
They are genarally described as "inactive ISA slots" however, when I see this (Frank uses his 2000's ISA slots for a NIC !!!) I'm again wondering : Can one make use of those "inactive ISA slots" to (actively) do things ? I'm sure I could get my hands on an old 10Mb ISA ethernet board, if I was sure that I could get it to work (drivers&all) on a 3000, or a 4000. Heck, this makes me want a 2000 even more !

I remember that those slots were made for PC compatibility via bridgeboards that were scarcily produced, if ever. Do I really need one of those ? What the hell do they do to "activate" those "dead" slots ?? :-?

Thank you for any real-life information about using the ISA slots.

[xaccrocheur]

Markus_Bieler wrote:
Indeed you need a bridgeboard or a card called Goldengate to activate these slots. Doing it this way you can use the
ISA.cards from the AMigaside if there are drivers for these cards available. Look at aminet for drivers.

or

You put in a industry "PC on a card" into one of the ISA-slots and then you have two independent computer in one box. Doing this you need a separte PSU for the ISA-PC. And keyboard Mouse etc.

wow.. Man, this PC on a card surely sounds like those weird ideas they had in the 80's... anyway, OK about the drivers on the 'minet, but what about the bridgeboards ? Gosh, I think I *really* need an XSurf3cc... Luckily  XMas is coming !

I just discovered that the said XSurf also has a 1200-style clockport ! Is anyone happily using this, I mean a USB clockport extention plusgged in a XSurf plugged in a ZorroII slot ? Is all this running along nicely ?
The good thing about this solution, is that it's available commercially now.
[deit] found the relevant info

[xaccrocheur]

Jeff wrote:
I have the Goldengate from SRE. (...)

Man, you're one lucky amigan. I'd like two of them Oh well, I'm gonna save for an XSurf, this piece of HW seems to rule really, w/ the added clockport.

Thank you for this explanation. Indeed, I saw a Goldengate image, man the board is crowded !? Just hoping that someday, somehow..