Article 14653 (315 more) in comp.sys.amiga.hardware:
From: dvsg0223@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (David Salamon)

Subject: New PD Amiga-IBM bridgecard AVAILABLE
Summary: New PD Amiga-IBM bridgecard AVAILABLE
Keywords: bridgecard, interface
Message-ID: <1991Nov7.183946.1863@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 7 Nov 91 18:39:46 GMT
Sender: usenet@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 67


Announcing the GoldenGate bridgecard Amiga Zorro --> IBM ISA bus interface

*  What does the GoldenGate card do?

The GoldenGate card will allow you to plug in IBM 8 and 16 bit (XT and AT
compatible cards) into bridgeboard IBM-style slots in A2000 and A3000 
computers and use these cards as AMIGA DEVICES.  The GoldenGate card DOES
AUTOCONFIG, and has the same form factor as a standard bridgeboard.  It will
thus use up one Amiga Zorro slot and one bridgeboard IBM-style slot.  All
IBM IRQ interrupts are supported as Amiga INT6 interrupts.

*  What kind of IBM-style cards will work?  

All IBM-style cards that act as I/O devices should work with the GoldenGate
card.  This includes internal modems, serial/parallel port cards, ethernet
cards, hard disk controllers, high-density floppy controllers, FAX cards,
etc.  The GoldenGate card accesses the IBM BIOS I/O memory space only, so 
memory cards will not work.  I don't think this is a real problem.  Video
cards such as VGA, EGA, etc. MAY work, but I'm not sure.  Anyone who is
interested will have to send me complete technical specs on one of these cards.

*  What about software device drivers?

Due to a lack of standards for IBM-style cards, this is a major problem.  At 
the present time I am planning a serial device driver to handle all cards that
look like IBM COM1, COM2, etc. serial ports, and a parallel driver to handle
all cards that look like LPT1, LPT2, etc.  This will take care of most of
the types of cards people will want to plug in.  Hard disk drivers such as 
those supplied in the Bynery hard disk project can be made to work with the
GoldenGate card with suitable address changes in the source code.  For more
exotic cards, you will have to write the device driver yourself.  Anyone who
decides to buy one of these cards from me will of course get technical 
assistance.  The software drivers for the GoldenGate card are being written
by Dan Babcock, who worked on the PD IOExpansion project.

*  How can I get a GoldenGate card??

The GoldenGate card has been prototyped and it works as advertised.

At the moment, I am planning to have a batch of boards made at a professional
PC board manufacturer.  These would include gold-plated edge fingers, plated
through holes, and a silk-screened parts placement guide on the component side
of the board.  I would like to gather contributions from anyone who is 
interested in order to put in a group PC board order.  I have gotten quotations
for a batch of 20 boards with a 2-3 week turn-around-time.  The tentative
price per board is US$60.  This price will drop if more people want to order
boards.

For this US$60 you will get:

  1.  One professionally made PC board
  2.  A complete schematic diagram and parts list
  3.  PAL equations and JEDEC file to make your own PAL
  4.  one serial and one parallel device driver

Parts for the board include 10 TTL type ICs, four SIP resistors, and one 
autoconfig 20L10A type PAL chip.

If there is enough interest, I might be able to provide pre-programmed PAL
chips for some additional $$.

If you are interested or have more questions, please respond by email.

David Salamon

d-salamon@uiuc.edu

End of article 14653 (of 14957)--what next? [npq]