Micronik Z3i questions

[tradax]

I've read that the three PCi slot are "passive" or "not active"; what mean? I can't put Pci board in? I can only use with bridgeboard?
Thanks,
Max

[Chain]

They are useless

[tradax]

Thanks for the reply; but what the hell they've put those in? Future expansion? (never released!)

Max

[Oli_hd]

Yup, future expansion.
Anyway its no different from the passive ISA slots found on all bigbox Amiga's.

[odin]

'Passive' means that none of the datalines are actually connected, usually only some powerlines are.

[tabuhuso]

Where can I found video slot enabler for this bus board ?  :-?

[johan48]

hi.

there is one on ebay at this moment.
you can also order one by elbox on internet.
they have them in stock.

Johan. :-?

[AmiJIm]

hi there,
the pci slots on the z3i busboard are inactive.But there is the mediator zorro to pci bridge that could do the trick.
The problem is that i dont know how you would power the pci cards.As you will see in all abouve urls,the pci busboards are power by an AT connetor.most probably is that they use external power ,to create the +3.3v voltage needed for the pci cards.
but i cannot see any voltage regulators needed on my mediator  4000 busboard.neither on the bridge board.
chances are that the needed circuit on the bridge board,meaning that once you plug in the bridge to the z3i busboard, and power the +5v pins on the pci ,the bridge will work ,provide the 3.3+ line and the pci will work.
share some knowledge here please.
thank you.

ps:could you sent me a link for the elbox video slot enabler?
tnak you.

http://www.elbox.com/ma/m_4000t_folder/m4000t_qig.html
http://amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=1537

[Matt_H]

The PCI slots on the Micronik boards were intended for a never-released bridge card. A Commodore Bridgeboard might "activate" them, but of course they'll only be usable on the PC side. It might be possible to write drivers over the bridge, like for some ISA Ethernet cards, but there's no documentation for the Micronik board and there'd probably be a tremendous bottleneck.

The Mediator isn't compatible with the Micronik busboards, and Elbox stated in their last press release that the Mediators don't provide 3.3V power so they'll be releasing an adapter.

[AmiJIm]

and how does the mediator busboards provide 3.3+ to pci?
the answear is:
For AT busboards aka all except the 1200 SX,1200TX :None
the 3.3v is not needed by the old pci cards.It is only needed for the need pci cards ,the radeon 7500 and on.

So the micronik will work.
The elbox pci bridge does not take any voltage form the zorro connector.It uses the P9 AT connector on all busboards on the PCI side.So we will only have to feed the voltages lines on the micronik and it probably it will work.
Either we take power form the zorro side which is filtered and suitable for sensitive elecronics as the cards,or we rely on any AT or atx psu .In later case,we should make a filter layout for the 5v and 3.3 volts.
I will update on this as i have the hardware and i am willing to test.I will update on the +5v line active or inactive on the pci side of the micronik busboard.
and i would need help for the voltage filter.