Amiga PCI devices?

Hi guys.

I'm doing some research on Amiga stuff as I'm going to be building a funky Amiga system.

I found a few sites selling Amiga hardware and saw bus expansion ports giving the ability to plug PCI devices into the Amiga.

I noticed that alot of the cards the hardware sites were selling were bog standard PC cards eg. Voodoo graphics cards, SB 128's and standard LifeView TV cards etc.

That got me thinking about the truck load of PCI cards I have. Specifically SCSI cards. I have a few spare 80MBs and Ultra 160 SCSi cards and was wondering if they could be used in conjunction with the PCI bus expansions for the Amiga?

I am completely unfamiliar with how Amiga hardware functions. The details of the PCI bus expansion cards I was looking at stated they were PCI 2.1 compliant so I imagine any PCI device would function correctly providing there are appropriate drivers installed in the OS.

But...

What about before the OS? As far as I understand, the Amiga holds some of the OS in the kickrom (I could be completely wrong there, this is just some info I have gathered from reading websites) so does the Amiga read PCI device BIOS's on power-up (like hooking int13 for SCSI devices)? Overall I'm asking if its possible to boot the system from a PCI SCSI card?

Now onto device drivers for PCI devices. You dont see drivers for AmigaOS on manufacturers websites often so where would be a good place look for device drivers?

The system I would like to build up would be something along the lines of this:-

Base System: A1200 (I've ordered a mainboard)
CPU: 68060 (I would like to keep it 68k based, not PPC)
RAM: As much as I can pack into the wee puppy.
HDD: Decent size IDE (or SCSI if I can boot from the PCI card)
CD/DVD: Standard IDE CD/DVD ROM (again SCSI if possible, as above)
DISPLAY: VGA
OS: AmigaOS 3.9
PCI DEVICES-
Graphics: 32MB Voodoo4
SB 128 (or SB Live/Audigy if I can get drivers)
NIC: Intel, Realtek or 3Com based 10/100 Ethernet
SCSI: Adaptec or LSI Logic based


If anyone can share some Amiga wisdom with me it would be totally appreciated.

Thanks.

[kriz]

I dont think you can use a SCSI pci card for the Amiga, If you want SCSI, get one for your accelerator. For Voodoo a Voodoo 3 would be the best.... The drivers is the problem for the Amiga, check http://www.elbox.com/mediator_driver_guide.html

This is for the Mediator, IMHO the best pci solution for the Amiga.

[Jope]

For a normal user, PCI on Amiga is just about as good as Zorro - you're still very limited to what you can buy / plug into the bus.. Unless you know how to write drivers yourself, that is.

wow you guys are quick at replying lol.

@kriz

Thanks for that link. I see the Voodoo4 4500 32MB model is in their compatibility list (I only chose that card because I still have one in a box...somewhere). I see that the SB Live and the Hollywood+ DVD decoder card are in development. Thats handy, I have a few of them kicking about too.

@Jope

Unfortunately I wouldnt know where to start on writing drivers .... could be a project for the future though.


I think I'll be reporting back here a bit while building this machine. I see alot of the bus extenders/accelerators are quite expansive, I'll defenitely be asking around here before I end up buying the wrong thing lol.

Here is something I've been thinking about...Mounting the A1200 board into a tower case when using one of these bus extenders, isn't it difficult getting the PCI slots to line up with the back of the case?

I apologise if my questions appear 'stupid', I am an Amiga noob.

[kriz]

Yes the Voodoo 4 is supported, but I have heard the Voodoo 3 got better drivers (im not sure, search about it on other forums like amiga.org) I use a voodoo 3 on my A1200 Mediator....

I wouldnt wait for the DVD decoder driver, since it hace been promised for many years now (and never delivered)!

I think the pci is a good solution for gfx/sound/network.. Its abit expensive, but much better than buying a zorro expansion for the 1200.

[Jope]

If you buy the case and the bus extender from the same vendor, it's more of an "insert all components and tighten all screws" type of thing.

IE: buy an Elbox tower and an Elbox PCI board -> the pieces will fit together quite nicely.

If you intend to make your own tower case, then of course there's more work to be done, but naturally you have the power to place the slots and components where you see fit. :-)

[alexh]

The only problem with PCI solutions mediator etc. is that there is no video slot / scandoubler or automon.

This means that if you buy a PCI graphics card you'll need a scandoubler to be able to view the native amiga 15KHz screens with a normal PC monitor and a KVM or dual input monitor to switch between Amiga and RTG (PCI graphics).

Such an oversight on the design if you ask me. I'd rather had one less PCI slot and a video slot or a built in Scandoubler / Automon.

[Jope]

The A4000 mediator has the video slot <3

I think I'll tackle the case myself (there is no way I'm paying their prices for a case lol).

When using a PCI graphics card, how is the device seen in the system? I take it the built in graphics and the PCI device are seen as seperate devices?

I was thinking of having a TV sitting next to the full setup (I think games would really be the only 15KHz I would be running).

[kriz]

Then you will get output from the gfx card on your monitor (workbench) and AGA on the tv for games/demos

You install Picasso96 and the gfx card is seen in the standard "screenmode" requester.

[alexh]

The A4000 *Mirage Tower* version has a video slot. The A4000D version doesnt

[Jope]

Originally Posted by alexh

The A4000 *Mirage Tower* version has a video slot. The A4000D version doesnt

True, that..

I have so much stuff in my towerised A4000 that I can't even consider the desktop option. :-)