Exactly how big is the Draco tower...

[Unit21]

.... and how much room is there inside it.

I am getting one just over Xmas and I would just like to know how much room I have to make in the computer room for something like this.

Can anyone point me to any links on the Internet where the Draco is rewieved and tested.
Or can any of you tell me some more about it....

Cheers... ;-)

[lempkee]

amigahardware has an proper explanation afaik.

anyway only downside i know of is that you cant:
1. use a ppc card with it
2. you cant use os3.5 nor os3.9 with it (there is a patch but it costs alot of money and hard to find)

3. and there is no aga

some of the cool stuff:

great Mem speeds
improved a4000 styled design (faster and less buggy)

about the tower...check amiga hardware site.

[Acill]

Are you sure about it not being PPC capable? I thought it had an A3000/4000 style CPU slot.

[Kronos]

@Acill
Nope.

A Draco consist of atleast 3 parts:
Rastaban: passive Backplane with Zorro2 and costum Draco-slots (faster than Z3,
and much easier to handle).

Altais (sp) : Pretty much a RetinaZ3 for the Draco-Slots.

(forgot name) : CPU-board with RAM, ROM, CIAs and interface to Rastaban.

Often you will also find Draco-versions of the VLab-motion and Tocatta.

[Lemmink]

The CPU-Board is called Eltanin and sits like a PC-bridgeboard between the ZII and the DRACO-bus.
Instead of useing the VLab-Motion/Toccata combo you would preferably use the Dracomotion, wich is essentially a Vlab-Motion with an "integrated" Toccata for the DRACO-bus and a lot faster (due to the bus)
Tha case for the DRACOcame in two shapes, one was an ordinary tower the other was cube-like.
Go an look for yourselfe in the BBoAH

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/draco.html

OS 3.5/9 is sure possible on the DRACO but since there are some differences to your ordinary Amiga installation won`t just work out of the box.
According to this site

http://home.t-online.de/home/ing.sed/NEUKEI.HTM

a guy named Patric Hofmann made a custommade install CD for 3.5 and later for 3.9.
His commercial page can be found here

http://cash-multimedia.com/deutsch.html

I made a quick serach with google and found the actual advertiseing page for OS3.9 on DRACO

http://www.google.de/url?sa=U&start=1&q=http://www.cash-multimedia.com/ms5.html&e=7866

[Dr_Righteous]

That's not too big a price jump for OS3.9 on a Draco...

You might get away with using a Mediator board on it, which would then allow for the future use of a SharkPPC. And of course, if it can ever get off the ground, there's always the Amiga ColdFusion.

I must say, an 060/50 with RTG is alot beefier than my li'l A4k!

[Kronos]

@Dr_OhSoWrong

And how does one connect a Mediator to a Z2-bus ?
And how does one connect a ColdFusion to a system without a real CPU-slot
(the Eltanin is pretty much the whold Draco).

And I better don't start on how "likeley" both Shark and Coldfusion are to
ever appear in reality  :-o

[jeffimix]

I will point out that there's a Dracobus card that has firewire for DV... I don't believe there is any other  Amiga firewire card out there... No-one want to make A4K/A3K busboard with a Dracobus slot?

[Lemmink]

I will point out that there's a Dracobus card that has firewire for DV...

well not exactly, there is a Firewire addon module for the Daracomotion

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/dvmodule.html

[Dr_Righteous]

@Kronos

Dude, do you have any concept of electronics? Anything can be made for anything... S'what a hacker does. ColdFusion is nearly complete for the A4k, and there've been plenty of inquiries about building it for Draco...

I will give you the Mediator reply tho... I hadn't looked close enough at the Draco to notice the Zorro slots were Z2 only... But one could be made to fit inline with the CPU card. Just a matter of someone being bored enough to do it.