A600 8Mb fast expansion

[alexh]

http://amigahardware.mariomisic.de/cgi-bin/showhardware_en.cgi?HARDID=1786

[kolla]

alexh wrote:

kolla wrote:
Floppy drive emulator with built in memory card reader is something I'd buy a handful of if available :-)

While very interesting, they are of little added value for the Amiga platform due to cheap hard drive support and the excellent WHDload software.

Well, my old floppy drives are all almost dead and for many of the machines there are no network solutions - the main point of such a device is to offer an easy way of transporting data to and from amiga (very much how floppies were used).

kolla wrote:
I have earlier pondered on why there never was a CD-drive solution for the external floppy ports

Such devices (albeit flash based) existed earlier on other systems (C64, Spectrum, Amstrad CPC etc.) because of their lack of hard drive support.[/quote]

And? I have heaploads of amiga CDs, but hardly any of my Amigas have CD-drive, and most of them have no easy way to attach one. All of them (except from CD32) have the external floppy port. If there was a CD-drive one could plug into the floppy port, it would not be a problem. :-)

[alexh]

kolla wrote:
many of the machines there are no network solutions - the main point of such a device is to offer an easy way of transporting data to and from amiga (very much how floppies were used).

Every Amiga can be networked (albeit slow) using a serial cable. Amiga A500 is the only one with no (cheap) ethernet solution. A600 and A1200 can use ultra cheap PCMCIA ethernet adapter, but I'd recommend a Compact flash adapter. Very cheap, very easy and very fast. Move Gigabytes of data.

kolla wrote:
And? I have heaploads of amiga CDs, but hardly any of my Amigas have CD-drive, and most of them have no easy way to attach one. All of them (except from CD32) have the external floppy port. If there was a CD-drive one could plug into the floppy port, it would not be a problem. :-)

Which Amiga do you have? It is very easy (today) to add a CD-drive to any Amiga. The A600/A1200/A4000 can all take an IDE CD-ROM with just a cable and software. Ok so it's ugly having the IDE cable going external for the A600/1200 but you can fit slimline laptop drives internally with a bit of DIY.

A3000 you can add easily add external SCSI CD-ROM.

A2000/A500 you can also add an externa SCSI CD-ROM if you have a SCSI card (which are reasonably cheap).

But we are going WAY off topic

[kolla]

Using serial port and PPP/SLiP is not being networked, it is being helped online using crutches. It also requires another machine... heck, I dont even have a PC with RS232, so I'd have to buy USB-dongles!

Seriously, I did that 15 years ago, then moved on to ethernet, I do not want to go back :-)

As for what amigas I have, I have them all.. almost, and yes, I can use pcmcia cards, I have loads of them. But many of the machines I have only have a RAM expansion and nothing more.

My initial question, which remains unanswered, is:
what limits the size of a floppy in AmigaOS? Would perhaps trackdisk.device get very confused if it found a 2GB df0:?
Is it at all technical achievable to build a CD-drive adapter that plugs into the external floppy drive port?

And if anyone have link to SCSI memory card reader (to replace hard drive), I'd be greatfull ;-)

[Crumb]

@lordv

I've tried to order from the web page without luck... and also to send an email to acidrain but still no reply...

[tokyoracer]

I have sent pictures of hardware they havnt botherd to list dispite 2 e-mails. So much for the ultimate hardware Ami-pedia... (BBoAH)

@ LordV
Looking forward to the releace of this hardware. :-) Any official dates confermed as yet?

[rkauer]

 There is no way to pay the board and CPLD thru Paypal?

 I (sadly) discovered the international money order taxes from my country uncourageous.

[TjLaZer]

Are these ready to ship?  I placed an order and would like to get one when they are ready.  I don't mind waiting if they are not ready though.

[Colani1200]

rkauer wrote:
 There is no way to pay the board and CPLD thru Paypal?

I them asked the same question here's what they answered:

unfortunally paypal in
russia doesn't allows to recieve money for us - only send from us.
https://www.paypal.com/worldwide/
look for russia.

So no acceptable way for me to buy one either.  :-(

[rkauer]

 Maybe I'm wrong, but the site claims Paypal can send money to Russia.

 Even if need to put some surplus for Paypal taxes, it's damn cheap...

[yssing]

Probably a silly question, but could this be used with the MiniMig?

[1NOM155]

yssing wrote:
Probably a silly question, but could this be used with the MiniMig?

yssing, i don't fink your question silly, but reasonably, maybe LordV can put that working.

[freqmax]

Minimig can use a 64 MB dram directly. By just replacing the current sram chip. And change the HDL-code.
So no need for a particular "ram expansion" per se.

The question is rather what to do with any ram above >16MB :-D

[Crumb]

@freqmax

Hardfile cache...

a super fast hardfile in ram...

space for Megadrive cartridges using some kind of paging and reprogramming the FPGA as MegaDrive... :-)

[yssing]

So in reality, its just a case off adding that extra ram to the minimig board, or switching the DRAM chips?

There is a project on aminet, where you can add an IDE drive to the a500, could that be put on the minimg??

[AJCopland]

freqmax wrote:
Minimig can use a 64 MB dram directly. By just replacing the current sram chip. And change the HDL-code.
So no need for a particular "ram expansion" per se.

The question is rather what to do with any ram above >16MB :-D

Which drams could it use directly? I haven't seen any electrically compatible 44pin tssop drams that would fit or have I misunderstood?

Andy