Why no PCMCIA USB support for A600/A1200?

[mingle]

Hi,

It just struck me as strange (and slightly annoying!) that there's no apparent support for those oh-so-common PCMCIA USB adaptors on the Amiga 600 & 1200...

Is it that they are mostly (all?) CardBus devices?

Would it be worth asking (very nicely, of course) the wonderful Neil Cafferkey (author of the pccardserial, prism2 and 3C589 deives drivers) to look into it? What about a bounty? I'd certainly shell out for it!

... or am I dreaming, once again?

Cheers,

Mike.

[alexh]

You are dreaming I'm afraid.

But at least you know why you're dreaming. You're correct, they are ALL 32-bit cardbus (PCI) and the A600/A1200 only supports 16-bit PC-Card (ISA).

AFAIK there was only ever one PC-Card->USB HOST chip ever made and that was by the company I work for (in 2006 so fairly recently). The Oxford Semiconductor CFU950.

AFAIK there are no low cost PCMCIA form factor cards with this chip in it. Why would there be? Everything laptop has USB built in / supports Cardbus. It was designed to go inside embedded products and add USB HOST to things like washing machines, sat-nav, assembly line robots stuff like that.

I sent a couple of PC-Card devkits to E3B but I don't think they ever had the time to look into it. The driver would almost certainly have higher CPU demands than that for a Subway as it relies on more software handoff.

[mingle]

Hi Alex,

I suspected as much, but thanks for the informative answer anyway...

I can imagine how much the USB would sap the puny 020 of my A1200 anyway!

Besides, PCMICA + CF cards are a handy alternative to USB sticks...

Cheers,

Mike.