Prometheus PCI questions

[MaDDuck]

I too am celebrating the fantastic news that murderaol opps! redrumloa I mean has picked up Prometheus!

I can't find very many web resources on this intresting piece of hardware other than it's open source, and is for Zorro 3 only.


So, on with the stupid questions!

1. will it fit/function in a standard A4000 case?
2. How good is the driver support for
... a. video cards
... b. USB (1.1 or 2.0)
... c. NIC
3. Is the build quality good? Is it tough enough to last a while??
4. If mounted in a tower, will the PCI cards mate up with the blanking plates correctly?


Thanks!

[redrumloa]

>other than it's open source

It's not exactly open source, yet, but it is VERY open for developers.

>1. will it fit/function in a standard A4000 case?

With the case open.

>... a. video cards

Excelent! S3Virge, Permedia2, Voodoo3 2000/3000, V4 4500 and V5 5500.

>... b. USB (1.1 or 2.0)

Not atm

>... c. NIC

Any RTL8029 chip based 10Mb PCI ethernet card works like a dream. RTL8139 100Mb OpenPCI drivers are available but are buggy atm.

>3. Is the build quality good? Is it tough enough to last
>a while??

Anyone who owns one will tell you the build quality is fantastic! I'll put a high quality pic online soon.

>4. If mounted in a tower, will the PCI cards mate up with
>the blanking plates correctly?

No, But it comes with an extension cable for the video card. I'll have some demonstration pics in the near future.

 :-)

[Liluh]

Before redrumloa puts up pics and more details onto anachronismindustries.com, try out www.matay.pl for informations about Prometheus.

[Matt_H]

I'm gonna add another question on here:
How's the GFX performance
-Relative to Z3?
-Relative to CVPPC?

I don't really see how Prometheus can be faster than a Zorro3 GFX card since it piggybacks off the Z3 bus...

[NightShade737]

It also depends on what card you put in it, but yeah, I see the problem. The entire PCI bus has to bottle itself through a single Zorro slot.

[redrumloa]

Matt_H wrote:
I'm gonna add another question on here:
How's the GFX performance
-Relative to Z3?
-Relative to CVPPC?

This is an easy question! Assuming you are talking about Voodoo ~3 here.. There is no comparison, hands down it beats it easy. Look here for a pretty complete and fair comparison. you may want to use babblefish:-)

I don't really see how Prometheus can be faster than a Zorro3 GFX card since it piggybacks off the Z3 bus...

The speed of the GFX chip on the Voodoo 3 is many generations ahead of all Z3 gfx cards. Just look at the benchmarks on Amigaspeed.de. CVPPC isn't even in the running where Mediator and Prometheus are head-to-head for the most part.

[MaDDuck]

Thanks everybody (esp. redrumloa!)

Sounds good, but just ONE (hopefully) last question...
Does it plug INTO a Zorro slot, OR does it plug in PLACE of the riser?

It's kinda hard to tell from the pics....

[redrumloa]

BTW no problem at all about questions, I'm addicted to Amiga.org anyhow:-)

Does it plug INTO a Zorro slot, OR does it plug in PLACE of the riser?

It plugs into a zorro slot.

[Crusher]

@MaDDuck

Here are the newest drivers: Prometheus

[Erwin-K]

Red,

Apart from case considerations, can you use the video slot and one zorro slot with the Prometheus?

If not, are there zorro extenders available?

I need to be able to use my Toaster-Flyer combination. Other zorro cards I can do without, if necessary.


Bob Kennedy

[Acill]

Erwin-K wrote:
Red,

Apart from case considerations, can you use the video slot and one zorro slot with the Prometheus?

If not, are there zorro extenders available?

I need to be able to use my Toaster-Flyer combination. Other zorro cards I can do without, if necessary.


Bob Kennedy

Elbox sells Zorro extenders and they are cheap too. I use one to use my full length cards. I think I paid $35 for it in all. Check out the shop over at elbox.com for more info.