CU_AMiGA's Amiga 4000/Pentium PC Hybrid Project

CU_AMiGA · 07 July 2009, 19:01

Hey Yo!

OK My second project is a bit more adventurous. It started out as just building a kickass classic 060 Amiga 4000. Until i read this thread from keropi and Zetr0 (aka laurel and Hardy!):

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=29265

I was already thinking about getting a Goldengate 486 until i read Zetr0/Secret Vampire/keropi's cost cutting method. Thanks to the 3 of them (and Zetr0 for modifying my SBC to fit into the ISA slot!) i ended up buying the much cheaper SBC method. Well this project has taken me a lot longer than it should've done (thanks to me being lazy/life issues, etc), but now i am at the stage where i am satisfied to share my project. Bearing in mind, although this project is pretty much finished, this is still sort of work in progress. The specs have changed slightly over time, but should more or less stay permanent now. Anyway, enough waffle, here are the full specs:

---

-:Amiga 4000/Pentium PC Hybrid Tower:-
----------------------------------------

Amiga:-
--------
Amiga 4000 (Commodore Rev B)
Kickstart 3.1
Cyberstorm MK3 060@66mhz
RAM: 128MB (CSMK3) / 16MB (A4000)
Picasso IV
Paloma IV
SunRize AD516
8.5GB 3.5" SCSI Hard Drive
32x IDE CD ROM Drive
12x10x32x SCSI CD RW Drive
2x HD Floppy Drive
Amiga OS 3.9

Micronik A4000 ISA/PCI Tower
Micronik 6960 A4000 ISA Busboard

---

PC:-
-----
ISA SBC PentiumMMX@233mhz
256MB RAM
ISA Soundblaster 16
ISA ATI Mach 64 (2MB VRAM)
20GB IDE Hard Drive
48x24x48x IDE CD RW Drive
1xHD Floppy Drive
Windows 98se

---

Micronik 6960 A4000 ISA Busboard Layout:-
------------------------------------------
Inline Slot 1: Picasso IV (Video)
Inline Slot 2: None
Inline Slot 3: SunRize AD516 (Zorro)
Inline Slot 4: None
Inline Slot 5: SBC (ISA)
Inline Slot 6: Soundblaster 16 (ISA)
Inline Slot 7: ATI Mach 64 (ISA)

(Refer to attached pic)

---

Other Hardware:-
-----------------
Monitor Switcher (to flip between Amiga/PC Screens)
Audio/Headphone jack audio splitter (to output Amiga/PC sound onto 1 speaker)

---

Anyway thats just about it for this project. As i said this is still work in progress and i still have a few problems on both sides but i think this can be easily sorted with some help and advice and me not being lazy lol Things include:

Setting up the SCSI CD RW (Amiga)
Setting up Soundblaster 16 to work in PC/DOS gaming (PC)

I will update this thread as i continue with this project and hopefully iron out those faults. But anyway, enjoy the story, enjoy the specs and enjoy the pics (sorry for the quality!)

CU_AMiGA · 07 July 2009, 19:03

More pics!!! Enjoy!!!

Graham Humphrey · 07 July 2009, 20:10

I'm sure I just heard a massive explosion while reading this thread... must have been Zetr0's head exploding

EDIT: Sorry, would be rude not to add: fantastic!

Gordon · 07 July 2009, 20:13

Sorry mate please explain this project in basic terms. pretend im your gran

TCD · 07 July 2009, 20:25

It lives!

Now that's some strange hackery (at least for a complete HW n00b like me). Second gordon's request

Oh and looks really nice so far

Sensi · 07 July 2009, 20:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by CU_AMiGA

Until i read this thread from keropi and Zetr0 (aka laurel and Hardy!)

Terrific!

Charlie · 07 July 2009, 22:01

Ohhh, Baby!

Hell of a project.

Hmmm, I wonder if SiameseRTG could be used to integrate the two sides more closely...

Jope · 07 July 2009, 22:05

You seriously need a new camera. :-)

A digital KVM might be just the ticket also.

Zetr0 · 07 July 2009, 23:56

@CU_AMiGA

A True Masterpiece!!!!

well done chap.... well done indeed...

now we need to talk about

siamese network integration
Some Quake/Doom multiplayer
SAMBA volume sharing and DOC
Starcraft Multiplayer
DOS Games

A fine piece of hackery! I do hope that you are proud of it

Shoonay · 08 July 2009, 00:09

That's some wild stuff Dr. Frankenstein, keep pumping life into that project!

Zetr0 · 08 July 2009, 01:33

Heres the MAD-SCIENTIST convention that bore fruit of the Franken-A4000

one of the scienists taking turns to have having a brain cleaning

ahhhh fun days.....

Merlin · 08 July 2009, 09:27

Now THAT's a computer!! It even puts the WOPR to shame!!

Absolutely awesome!!

cosmicfrog · 09 July 2009, 12:24

Kewl stuff there

i was waiting for the Siamese bit as well but the laurel and Hardy more than made up for its abcence

CU_AMiGA · 09 July 2009, 18:07

Hi

Thanks for the words guys!

I am pretty pleased with the project. It was sort of a bugger to get everything going. Still need some work to do. I am gonna try and get to the bottom of that Amiga SCSI CD RW trouble (ie getting it working!) and also try and grasp the concept of getting DOS/WIN gaming working cos my machine doesnt seem to know whether its a DOS or WIN machine!!! lol But i can remember me playing some DOS games and it running well, maybe i ran it in a DOS environment rather than in WIN 98

I do also remember playing Worms onit, and i have got Worms 2 installed but the game seems to crash during mid play (as well as other reliability issues). I think i will have to ask on forums for a hand!

Anyway i have one more major upgrade (from a possible 2 sources). I am debating about either getting a Video Toaster 4000 or a Micronik PCI A4000 Busboard - for better PC gaming and faster graphics (for mid 90's games!). Which should i pick!

CU_AMiGA · 09 July 2009, 18:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zetr0

@CU_AMiGA

A True Masterpiece!!!!

well done chap.... well done indeed...

now we need to talk about

siamese network integration
Some Quake/Doom multiplayer
SAMBA volume sharing and DOC
Starcraft Multiplayer
DOS Games

A fine piece of hackery! I do hope that you are proud of it

cheers Zetro

i knew you d like it cos your one of main culprits who got ball rolling in the first place. i need to get the PC side and gaming bit running more smoothly before i can think about networking the thingy. Unfortunately this thing (i guess) can only run Doom at max. I dont think ISA is quick enough to run Quake!

But i can just use that on the Amiga anyway, i ve overclocked it so should run a bit more smoother!

I was hoping keropi would chip in this thread as he seems to be the Amiga/DOS gaming king!

I will have to download tons of DOS stuff and see how hard i can push this thing and find out how to get it all going! ie sound/controllers etc

seuden · 10 July 2009, 10:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by gordonbennett

Sorry mate please explain this project in basic terms. pretend im your gran

lopos2000 · 10 July 2009, 12:02

Looks great. Nice machine. Well done.

Charlie · 10 July 2009, 12:23

Micronik PCI A4000 Busboard would be my suggestion...
...you can get some pretty d*mn good PCI-based SBC's and with a PCI-based Video Toaster-ish card you could have the lot for 1/1,000,000-ish of a real Toaster. (ok, slight exaggeration)

Oh, and I'd be tempted to stay with W98 for the 'doze side. Most classic DOS games can be made to work with '98 AND you'll have the option to Siamese the two sides together...
...SAMBA & SMBFS then beckon if you're brave, then there's VNC - with a bit of jiggling you'll hardly know where the Amiga side ends & the 'doze side begins.

10 July 2009, 14:52

I was thinking of doing the same, I have a nice ISA SBC (Pentium 3 1Ghz, 2GB ram) which I would like to use for exactly this type of fooling around. Yes, I even have a real Siamese I would like to use.

However!!!! Power is a real issue!! Seeing you are using a Micronik board, even more! These have seriously underpowered 12V and 5V lines, be really carefull not to fry your precious busboard! My SBC has it's own AT power connector which I intend to use, just to be on the safe side!

Don't yet gamble on a PCI SBC, these can be really tricky to get working. First off, the tend to have 2 edge connectors. One PCI that MIGHT fit the busboard, the other which would sit in the Zorro slot and cause a serious short circuit. The active PCI slots could very well be the ones fitting in the Zorro slot which would render the other PCI's useless.
And ofcourse, you would either need to remove the Zorro slot alltogether or use a PCI extender and fit the SBC elsewhere in the case....

Other than that, nice project!!

CU_AMiGA · 10 July 2009, 15:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tahoe

I was thinking of doing the same, I have a nice ISA SBC (Pentium 3 1Ghz, 2GB ram) which I would like to use for exactly this type of fooling around. Yes, I even have a real Siamese I would like to use.

However!!!! Power is a real issue!! Seeing you are using a Micronik board, even more! These have seriously underpowered 12V and 5V lines, be really carefull not to fry your precious busboard! My SBC has it's own AT power connector which I intend to use, just to be on the safe side!

Don't yet gamble on a PCI SBC, these can be really tricky to get working. First off, the tend to have 2 edge connectors. One PCI that MIGHT fit the busboard, the other which would sit in the Zorro slot and cause a serious short circuit. The active PCI slots could very well be the ones fitting in the Zorro slot which would render the other PCI's useless.
And ofcourse, you would either need to remove the Zorro slot alltogether or use a PCI extender and fit the SBC elsewhere in the case....

Other than that, nice project!!

hhhhmmm!!!! i have ran my Amiga sometimes several hours a day and have had no problems with the SBC. Is it possible that my SBC requires a lower power consumption? Also i dont use the Amiga 4000D PSU is use like a 300W one from Micronik (if that means anything).

07 July 2009, 19:01	#1
CU_AMiGA Banned Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Exeter Age: 39 Posts: 970	CU_AMiGA's Amiga 4000/Pentium PC Hybrid Project Hey Yo! OK My second project is a bit more adventurous. It started out as just building a kickass classic 060 Amiga 4000. Until i read this thread from keropi and Zetr0 (aka laurel and Hardy!): http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=29265 I was already thinking about getting a Goldengate 486 until i read Zetr0/Secret Vampire/keropi's cost cutting method. Thanks to the 3 of them (and Zetr0 for modifying my SBC to fit into the ISA slot!) i ended up buying the much cheaper SBC method. Well this project has taken me a lot longer than it should've done (thanks to me being lazy/life issues, etc), but now i am at the stage where i am satisfied to share my project. Bearing in mind, although this project is pretty much finished, this is still sort of work in progress. The specs have changed slightly over time, but should more or less stay permanent now. Anyway, enough waffle, here are the full specs: --- -:Amiga 4000/Pentium PC Hybrid Tower:- ---------------------------------------- Amiga:- -------- Amiga 4000 (Commodore Rev B) Kickstart 3.1 Cyberstorm MK3 060@66mhz RAM: 128MB (CSMK3) / 16MB (A4000) Picasso IV Paloma IV SunRize AD516 8.5GB 3.5" SCSI Hard Drive 32x IDE CD ROM Drive 12x10x32x SCSI CD RW Drive 2x HD Floppy Drive Amiga OS 3.9 Micronik A4000 ISA/PCI Tower Micronik 6960 A4000 ISA Busboard --- PC:- ----- ISA SBC PentiumMMX@233mhz 256MB RAM ISA Soundblaster 16 ISA ATI Mach 64 (2MB VRAM) 20GB IDE Hard Drive 48x24x48x IDE CD RW Drive 1xHD Floppy Drive Windows 98se --- Micronik 6960 A4000 ISA Busboard Layout:- ------------------------------------------ Inline Slot 1: Picasso IV (Video) Inline Slot 2: None Inline Slot 3: SunRize AD516 (Zorro) Inline Slot 4: None Inline Slot 5: SBC (ISA) Inline Slot 6: Soundblaster 16 (ISA) Inline Slot 7: ATI Mach 64 (ISA) (Refer to attached pic) --- Other Hardware:- ----------------- Monitor Switcher (to flip between Amiga/PC Screens) Audio/Headphone jack audio splitter (to output Amiga/PC sound onto 1 speaker) --- Anyway thats just about it for this project. As i said this is still work in progress and i still have a few problems on both sides but i think this can be easily sorted with some help and advice and me not being lazy lol Things include: Setting up the SCSI CD RW (Amiga) Setting up Soundblaster 16 to work in PC/DOS gaming (PC) I will update this thread as i continue with this project and hopefully iron out those faults. But anyway, enjoy the story, enjoy the specs and enjoy the pics (sorry for the quality!) Attached Thumbnails Last edited by CU_AMiGA; 07 July 2009 at 23:26.

07 July 2009, 19:03	#2
CU_AMiGA Banned Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Exeter Age: 39 Posts: 970	More pics!!! Enjoy!!! Attached Thumbnails

07 July 2009, 20:10	#3
Graham Humphrey Moderator Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Norwich, Norfolk, UK Age: 37 Posts: 11,167	I'm sure I just heard a massive explosion while reading this thread... must have been Zetr0's head exploding EDIT: Sorry, would be rude not to add: fantastic! Last edited by Graham Humphrey; 07 July 2009 at 20:20.

07 July 2009, 23:56	#9
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	@CU_AMiGA A True Masterpiece!!!! well done chap.... well done indeed... now we need to talk about siamese network integration Some Quake/Doom multiplayer SAMBA volume sharing and DOC Starcraft Multiplayer DOS Games A fine piece of hackery! I do hope that you are proud of it

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07 July 2009, 20:13	#4
Gordon Settler Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Serf City Posts: 1,760	Sorry mate please explain this project in basic terms. pretend im your gran

07 July 2009, 20:25	#5
TCD HOL/FTP busy bee Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Germany Age: 46 Posts: 31,606	It lives! Now that's some strange hackery (at least for a complete HW n00b like me). Second gordon's request Oh and looks really nice so far

07 July 2009, 22:01	#7
Charlie . . Mouse . . Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Nowhere Age: 55 Posts: 1,792	Ohhh, Baby! Hell of a project. Hmmm, I wonder if SiameseRTG could be used to integrate the two sides more closely...

07 July 2009, 22:05	#8
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,863	You seriously need a new camera. :-) A digital KVM might be just the ticket also.

08 July 2009, 00:09	#10
Shoonay Global Caturator Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Porando Age: 43 Posts: 6,106	That's some wild stuff Dr. Frankenstein, keep pumping life into that project!

08 July 2009, 01:33	#11
Zetr0 Ya' like it Retr0? Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: United Kingdom Age: 49 Posts: 9,768	Heres the MAD-SCIENTIST convention that bore fruit of the Franken-A4000 one of the scienists taking turns to have having a brain cleaning ahhhh fun days.....

08 July 2009, 09:27	#12
Merlin AmiBay MegaMod Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Manchester, UK Age: 62 Posts: 1,163	Now THAT's a computer!! It even puts the WOPR to shame!! Absolutely awesome!!

09 July 2009, 12:24	#13
cosmicfrog The 1 who ribbits Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: leek, Staffs, UK Age: 56 Posts: 3,557	Kewl stuff there i was waiting for the Siamese bit as well but the laurel and Hardy more than made up for its abcence

09 July 2009, 18:07	#14
CU_AMiGA Banned Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Exeter Age: 39 Posts: 970	Hi Thanks for the words guys! I am pretty pleased with the project. It was sort of a bugger to get everything going. Still need some work to do. I am gonna try and get to the bottom of that Amiga SCSI CD RW trouble (ie getting it working!) and also try and grasp the concept of getting DOS/WIN gaming working cos my machine doesnt seem to know whether its a DOS or WIN machine!!! lol But i can remember me playing some DOS games and it running well, maybe i ran it in a DOS environment rather than in WIN 98 I do also remember playing Worms onit, and i have got Worms 2 installed but the game seems to crash during mid play (as well as other reliability issues). I think i will have to ask on forums for a hand! Anyway i have one more major upgrade (from a possible 2 sources). I am debating about either getting a Video Toaster 4000 or a Micronik PCI A4000 Busboard - for better PC gaming and faster graphics (for mid 90's games!). Which should i pick!

10 July 2009, 12:02	#17
lopos2000 Zone Friend Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Cider is best In The West Posts: 1,238	Looks great. Nice machine. Well done.

10 July 2009, 12:23	#18
Charlie . . Mouse . . Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Nowhere Age: 55 Posts: 1,792	Micronik PCI A4000 Busboard would be my suggestion... ...you can get some pretty d*mn good PCI-based SBC's and with a PCI-based Video Toaster-ish card you could have the lot for 1/1,000,000-ish of a real Toaster. (ok, slight exaggeration) Oh, and I'd be tempted to stay with W98 for the 'doze side. Most classic DOS games can be made to work with '98 AND you'll have the option to Siamese the two sides together... ...SAMBA & SMBFS then beckon if you're brave, then there's VNC - with a bit of jiggling you'll hardly know where the Amiga side ends & the 'doze side begins.

10 July 2009, 14:52	#19
Tahoe Posts: n/a	I was thinking of doing the same, I have a nice ISA SBC (Pentium 3 1Ghz, 2GB ram) which I would like to use for exactly this type of fooling around. Yes, I even have a real Siamese I would like to use. However!!!! Power is a real issue!! Seeing you are using a Micronik board, even more! These have seriously underpowered 12V and 5V lines, be really carefull not to fry your precious busboard! My SBC has it's own AT power connector which I intend to use, just to be on the safe side! Don't yet gamble on a PCI SBC, these can be really tricky to get working. First off, the tend to have 2 edge connectors. One PCI that MIGHT fit the busboard, the other which would sit in the Zorro slot and cause a serious short circuit. The active PCI slots could very well be the ones fitting in the Zorro slot which would render the other PCI's useless. And ofcourse, you would either need to remove the Zorro slot alltogether or use a PCI extender and fit the SBC elsewhere in the case.... Other than that, nice project!!

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