Re: The PPC factor.

[Eon Man <eonicman@erols.com>]

Martin-Eric Racine wrote:
o scarce and GE Soft seems gone...
> 
>  >Why is it that PPC boards for the VMEbus can't be used on MegaSTe's
>  >and TT's (Maybe even Hades)?
> 
> Really?  Has anyone tried them, before saying they cannot work?

> 
> On a similar issue, I've started looking into Lance-based VME Ethernet
> cards that could substitute for the Riebel card made for Atari Germany.
> There are some out there, but without complete Riebel specs, I can only
> speculate if they would work...
> 
> Does anyone know where I can find those specs, or any detailed info on
> the Riebel VME cards for Atari?
> 
> Thanks.

Curtis Vendell, the guy who has done tremendous work to rediscover lost Atari
hardware and documents should be able to help on the Riebel issue.  Also the
guys that are making a new ethernet card (the ones that created SCSI Link).

About the PPC cards for VMEbus, I read sometime in the past that the problem
with Atari VME is that you can't make the main system the slave.  However, if
the secrets to the ATW are revealed, then it should be possible.  It's
basically a MegaST-1 which somehow switches control over to the T800 daughter
board.  Therefore, it must be possible. Perhaps not via the VMEbus,  maybe via
Megabus (which can be fitted onto ST computers).  If the TT memory slots have
a wider data/address bus, then perhaps a PPC based accelerator could be
devised that would sit on the memory expansion slot.   Before the Falcon,
project Sparrow was supposed to be an accelerator card for regular ST/e that
would add the DSP and the 68030 to these computers.

Note:  Realize that I am not a hardware guy and all of these assumptions are
mainly speculation on my part.

Peter