Prometheus PCI worth getting?

[cv643d]

Hi,

I have seen that Prometheus PCI bussboard is available at some Amiga retailers. I was out of the Amiga scene when the PCI bussboards hit the scene back in 2001-/+ and I just want to know if it is a good product nowdays.

So it seems development stopped regarding new drivers for the bussboard but is it still a solid product?

As I understood it it has proper drivers for graphics card, is it faster or slower than Mediator if it is mounted on a Z3 buss?

[Effy]

It has much less drivers than the Mediator but it does appear to be supported under OS4 ...

[Matt_H]

E3B is apparently working on some sort of improvement for it... I'm waiting until that appears to see if I want to invest in one.

[yogisumo]

I bought a couple of these.  The only 2 cards I have that work reliably are:

  -- the voodoo3 ( can play ppc quake2 with no problems )
  -- and the rtl8090 ( can't remember if this is the exact model number ), a 10mbps network card.

Nothing else works afik due to dma and driver issues.  Someone, Michael Boehmer?, is working on new firmware.  Last I read, the firmware was working but needed some finetuning before release.  The boards will have to be shipped to be updated.  No user flashing.

Btw, I'm not an "expert" on these boards.  Just a user/owner. Still waiting for news myself.

[spirantho]

For what its worth I've been using a Prometheus for ages and it's been very good so far. The only problem is it lacks DMA so I can't run TV cards or soundcards on it or anything. I have a Voodoo III and a 10baseT RTL 8029-based network card on mine.

[cv643d]

Is the installation of the drivers for GFX and NIC straight forward or a black art?

[Jose]

One disadvantage of the Prometheus is that it's mechanical fitting is a PITA. Even for the A4000T the cards won't be able to have the connectors where they're supposed to be.
I hope new production run fixes this.

[alexh]

If there was an A4000D internal version, a replacement for the regular daughter card, AND it had a video slot.

I'd have one ;-)

[Crumb]

@Effy

Prometheus also works with RTL8029 GREX driver if you run MorphOS on classic

@Jose

you could buy some PCI extenders and put the PCI cards wherever you need, like redrumloa did with A3000/4000 Desktop...

@cv643d
it's quite easy, the CD includes an installer.

[Effy]

Crumb : thanks for the info, didn´t know that  :-D

Jose : it´s true what Crumb says, I had a Prometeus with Voodoo3 running inside my old A4000 desktop with pci extender cable ...

[Jose]

Yeah, I know about the extenders but the fitting is very far from perfect.

[Zac67]

I've bought a Prometheus for my A3k a couple of months ago - but after discovering I had a dead Voodoo3 and getting another one, I actually haven't got around to installing it yet...

There are drivers for a RTL8139 100BaseTx NIC I already have (not much point for speed anyway), but obviously I haven't tried them on my Prometheus yet. Quite a few drivers on that page, too, so take a look.

Oops - seems Matay has quit; I don't understand any Polish, but I guess the pix's name says most of it:

:-(

[Robert17]

The Prometheus is a Great PCI Bridge, especially if you can get it for the 'Right' price.

Running with a Voodoo3, and a 10mbit NIC works flawlessly, never used it on less than an 060/50 though, it's very fast.

Apparently you can use a Terratec 512i soundcard, and also a USB card with the OpenPCI drivers, I once tried a 100mbit NIC but it didn't work.

Robert

[cv643d]

Anyone can translate the text on the image?

[Crumb]

Soundcards/RTL8139/USB won't work in a stable way until Michael Boehmer releases his updated firmware. And he is very busy with other projects so it's low-priority.

I think that there are catweasel3 drivers for Prometheus but I don't know if they work.

The only SoundCard I know that could work with Prometheus if a driver existed is Terratec 128i, as it doesn't require DMA. If anyone has one and a CSPPC & Prometheus it could be interesting to try out MorphOS (I think it will probably work, RTL8029 seems to be stable).

If anyone is thinking about buying a Prometheus just buy it for RTL8029 and Virge/Permedia2/Voodoo3/4/5 (a Voodoo3 will be the best one). Don't buy it expecting future drivers because the situation hasn't changed since it was released and we are not sure about future drivers appearing or working correctly.

If you want one think about it as a Voodoo3+RTL8029 card. If new drivers appear it would be a total surprise. I would be very happy to hear that Michael Boehmer releases a new firmware but I don't expect it happening before 2008 as he has more interesting projects that no longer sold old PCI buses.