CD32 expansion ideas

[darksun9210]

Ok, heres the deal.
my A4000T got sold. i needed the cash before the repo guys came and took my car away. anyway. that leaves me with my CD32. within my amiga withdrawal symptoms, a thought strikes me.

the CD32 expansion port is basicly an A1200 cpu slot with a fewe extra lines for genlocking the FMV cartridge output over the amiga graphics. so it should be easy enuff to make an adapter to take A1200 cpu cards. nice. now then,
the problems:-
the CD32 is missing most of the system timing signals present in the A1200, hence missing serial, parallel, hard disk, and RGB ports....

the idea. the SX32pro / SX32 MK2 provide the logic and system timing signals, AND serial, parallel, etc. ports. with the bonus of taking a hard disk and ram internally inside the CD32. nice.
so how about a revised back plate for the SX32 that provides an A1200 style slot out the bottom of the CD32, that bolts into a "laptop docking station" type box, that contains a modified PCI busboard and slot for an A1200 accelerator?

other thoughts are a USB chip and network adaptor on board on the PCI bus board... possible extra cost 20 US dollars. with only one or two in line PCI slots so the hight of the "docking station" for the CD32 is as low as possible.

advantages
-small (silent!)
-quiet, my 4000 tower with drives and fans sounded like an airport.
-doesn't look like a normal computer, so sits comfortably with other stuff like TV's videos and stuff.
-looks tidy! girlfriend happy!

a one off would prove expensive, but once done, more would be quite a bit cheaper. i'm looking to do this anyway and am talking to PCB designers. so i was just wondering what  other people thought, other ideas, and if anyones interested....

i just like the idea of a PPC based PCI CD32 with network (broadband internet) and USB (wireless keyboards / mice) so i can browse the net on my bigscreen TV from the comfort of a sofa. yum yum.

anyway, ideas? thoughts?

[Tesral]

darksun9210 wrote:

anyway, ideas? thoughts?

Shudda given up the car.  Life without Amiga?  (shudder)

[leirbag28]

 Hey Dude! I have been a CD32 owner since 1994 and
it is my favorite Amiga. The Ideas you have, I had
for a long time and even submitted them to Eyetech
but they refused unless I could find at least
500 buyers. But as well as a new backplane peice for the
SX32 it should also include a passthrough for the
Full Motion Video Card to fit internally underneath
the SX32 (u might have to eliminate the VGA port
 on the SX32 backplane, but that dont matter
 because you can add the adaptor to the RGB port
 if you need VGA. I have already tested the FMV
 and there is definitely space under the SX32 to
 fit it. but you have to remove the metal sheilding on the CD32
 and also the metal case of the FMV card. Now you probably think
 it is not important to support such a port because
 no one can find a FMV card anyway!  no this is still
necessary because it leaves room for someone to create
 a new FMV card if needed...or even better...a DVD decoder
 that can decode MPEG1 (VideoCD) and MPEG2 (DVD) as well
 as MP3 audio and more.....Just imagine the possibilities
you can use it with scala.... I have already done this because
I have a SX-1 as well as 2 SX32 Pro's.....one of wich I am willing to
sell you.  But it will have to be the 33mhz one
because I am keeping my 50Mhz one....although
 the 33mhz can be upgraded to 50Mhz and 128MB of RAM!
I already tested it and it works!

We will talk more....but if you do find someone to
 make this new PCB.... please make sure they add
 an extra port under the SX32 board to add an FMV
 or new cards internally, aside from the external A1200
 adaptor. By the way... there is someone working on
 adding the Motorola Cold fire 300Mhz procesor to the
 CD32!  there is a website...but I cant remember it at the moment
. I will get back to you soon.

The name is Gabriel    leirbag28@yahoo.com

please email me

[darksun9210]

hey there buddy, not sure if you're still out there,
have got a job now, so back in the internet, this was quite some time ago and i remember looking to buy an SX32pro from you, well, pretty soon i'll have the money! mad mad stuff bin happening,
anyway, have a prototype PCB design in the works at the moment. the main problem i have with the FMV card design is its pretty high on the ol' address priority list, and steals 4Mb of the zorro 2's addressing space, i'm not sure how that would work with a mediator, but it think it should be ok, just slow it down a little owing to the increased paging involved with a 4mb window as opposed to an 8Mb window.
another consideration is the space involved... and the cooling requirements...
as for producing another FMV card, as far as i know, its all under licence ATM. and you'd have to ask permission (from who?) for the custom bridge IC designs to be able to address the FMV chip on the CD32 bus.

sure a DVD decoder would in theory be possible. but this would take a little more bus bandwidth than zorro 2 bus can realisticly provide (which the signals allready exists). so you'll realisticly be looking at a mediator / PPC bolt on as the PCI bus can handle the bandwidth, PCI cards are readily available, just the drivers need working on.
oh yeah, and the CD32 twin speed CD drive... erm... well, you'd need to replace that to read DVDs. i like the idea of bootable CD's, with the drivers built into the ROM. none of this "only available after boot" rubbish, with half made cludged together drivers (not impressed with IDE FIX97)

only problem, we're starting to move away from the whole "one small system unit" idea and looking towards an (yuck) tower system. lets face it, towers are bulky, unattractive, and take up FAR to much space for their contents. hence my idea for a docking station affair that the CD32 would drop into. could carry space for a couple of PCI cards that lay flat with the mediator board.  DVD decoder, GFX card.
try and have USB, ethernet and sound on board, so you don't need to waste too much.

anyway..... we shall see.... i like the idea of the CD32, just not its overall execution.

oh, as a post script to the selling the A4000 saga,
i got my money, but did i pay off my car? no. mum conned me into paying for her flights to chicago to see a friend with "pay you back next week". so far, have had naff all to show except some nasty letters from the loans company.

the lessons learned are...

moral #1
lending money gives people amnesia.

moral #2
Listen to advice, but at the end of the day, only YOU
know whats best for YOU. and advice can be twisted to the benifit of someone else.

moral #3 known by all the ladies out there,
Guilt trips always work.

and last but not least, #4
Lifes a b1tch sometimes.  :-(

[ACE]

Interesting...:idea:

I'm looking into making a CD32 Laptop (and even that sounds less ambitious than want you are trying here).  The one thing that is putting me off is the slow I/O, so if that could be fixed (I considered a IDE - CF adapter then an Lan or even USB CF card, but not so sure if that would work even with appropriate drivers!)

So the possibilty of a small card which would allow say Clockport expansion would be cool.  A1200 CPU slot would also be welcome, but I think PCI might be going a bit OTT.  You had just aswell wait for (or should that be pray for) a Shark PPC and a small PCI bus board which would make a fully functional and practacally any shape you like computer.

[downix]

@ACE

I've considered the possibility of a CD-32 laptop myself.  Maybe we could pick brains sometime.