English Amiga Board - View Single Post - Any interest in a Zorro II to PCMCIA card?

aperez · 18 July 2010, 22:26

I have a significant quantity of 3Com 3c589D-TP PCMCIA Ethernet controllers, and it got me thinking if a Dual-PCMCIA-to-Zorro II Ethernet card would be feasable, based upon either the Vadem VG-469 or the original Intel 82365SL PC Card to ISA bus controller. The Vadem VG-469 is really just a Register-compatible enhanced clone of the Intel 82365SL.

The 50-pin x2 "SCSI PCMCIA" 3.5" card sockets which you might have noticed once or twice on eBay are really just passive PCMCIA connectors, which traditionally ran back to a PCMCIA-ISA controller bridge over then-commonly-available 50-pin IDC cables.

The datasheet for the VG-469 is viewable at http://www.amphus.com/chips/pdf/469pb.pdf

For those who must worry about such things, there in fact are RoHS-compliant lead-free versions of the VG-469 available from Amphus, P/N VG-469-LF

Since there are Linux and BSD drivers available for the VG-469, creating a functional driver shouldn't be hideously difficult, either. There's some BSD-licensed driver code for the Intel i82365 controller at http://code.google.com/p/glendum/sou...um/devi82365.c

It might even be possible to, with a small CPLD and EEPROM to handle autoconfig and autoboot bring-up, boot an A2K or A3K amiga from CF devices in ATA mode.

Also possible that this could be made to permit use of Proxim/Orinoco-based 802.11b PCMCIA cards on big-box amigas (or even the A500, in a different form-factor)

Given that these old ISA-PCMCIA adapters can be had for under $20 all day long, these days, it may make more sense to for the sake of expeditious development, simply use one of these in conjunction with a custom made Zorro-ISA bridge, meant only for driving/interfacing with the i82365 and its clones/derivatives.

I also have access to a large quantity of 2-20 megabyte ATA linear flash PCMCIA cards.

Thoughts?

18 July 2010, 22:26	#1
aperez Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: San Francisco Bay Area Posts: 94	Any interest in a Zorro II to PCMCIA card? I have a significant quantity of 3Com 3c589D-TP PCMCIA Ethernet controllers, and it got me thinking if a Dual-PCMCIA-to-Zorro II Ethernet card would be feasable, based upon either the Vadem VG-469 or the original Intel 82365SL PC Card to ISA bus controller. The Vadem VG-469 is really just a Register-compatible enhanced clone of the Intel 82365SL. The 50-pin x2 "SCSI PCMCIA" 3.5" card sockets which you might have noticed once or twice on eBay are really just passive PCMCIA connectors, which traditionally ran back to a PCMCIA-ISA controller bridge over then-commonly-available 50-pin IDC cables. The datasheet for the VG-469 is viewable at http://www.amphus.com/chips/pdf/469pb.pdf For those who must worry about such things, there in fact are RoHS-compliant lead-free versions of the VG-469 available from Amphus, P/N VG-469-LF Since there are Linux and BSD drivers available for the VG-469, creating a functional driver shouldn't be hideously difficult, either. There's some BSD-licensed driver code for the Intel i82365 controller at http://code.google.com/p/glendum/sou...um/devi82365.c It might even be possible to, with a small CPLD and EEPROM to handle autoconfig and autoboot bring-up, boot an A2K or A3K amiga from CF devices in ATA mode. Also possible that this could be made to permit use of Proxim/Orinoco-based 802.11b PCMCIA cards on big-box amigas (or even the A500, in a different form-factor) Given that these old ISA-PCMCIA adapters can be had for under $20 all day long, these days, it may make more sense to for the sake of expeditious development, simply use one of these in conjunction with a custom made Zorro-ISA bridge, meant only for driving/interfacing with the i82365 and its clones/derivatives. I also have access to a large quantity of 2-20 megabyte ATA linear flash PCMCIA cards. Thoughts?