Fresh Fish 9/FreshFishVol9-CD2.bin/bbs/reviews/ports.lha/ports/GoldenGateII

Internet Message Format | 1994-04-17 | 11.7 KB

Path: news.uh.edu!barrett
From: [e-mail] (Adrian C. Black)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews
Subject: REVIEW: GoldenGate II
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Date: 17 Apr 1994 01:30:59 GMT
Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett
Lines: 283
Sender: [e-mail] (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator)
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <2oq3gj$[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Adrian C. Black)
NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu
Keywords: hardware, Zorro, IBM, serial, parallel, IDE, commercial
Originator: [e-mail]


PRODUCT NAME

    GoldenGate II ("GGII")


BRIEF DESCRIPTION

    The GoldenGate II is a Zorro-II card that lets you use IBM AT ISA
bus cards in the Amiga.  The card comes with software to support IBM I/O
cards, Ethernet cards and IDE hard disk controllers.


AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

    Name:        Software Results Enterprises
    Address:    2447 N. 4th St., Suite B
            Columbus, OH 43202-2706

    Telephone:    [phone]

    E-mail:        [e-mail]
            [e-mail]


LIST PRICE

    $119.95 (US) (Preliminary price - call for details.)

    I paid $135 (US) for it but that was before Software Results
Enterprises bought the board from its creator, David Salamon.  I guess
economies of scale is taking place here.... (I actually learned something in
my macro economics class!!)

    There may also be a bundle deal available later with the Golden Gate
II card, a NE2000 compatible ethernet card, drivers, manuals, and a copy of
AmiTCP.


SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS


    HARDWARE

        An Amiga with a Zorro-II compatible slot AND an IBM ISA type
        slot.  (A2000, A1500, A3000, A4000, etc.) You preferably
        want to have at least two open IBM slots to plug in the
        GoldenGate II and an IBM card, or it wouldn't be much use.

        Hard disk recommended, but not required.

        You need to have at least 1 megabyte of AutoConfig type
        memory available.

    SOFTWARE

        You should have Kickstart 2.04 or higher, but you might be
        able to get it to work under 1.3. Software Results
        Enterprises says that the serial, parallel and Hard Disk
        support will work under 1.3, but the ethernet and support
        programs line IOWEDGE and SWITCHCONTROL need 2.04 or
        higher.


COPY PROTECTION

    None.


MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

    Amiga 2000 w/ GVP G-force 40Mhz   (This is my machine; the one the
    1 800k Disk Drive                  card will live in...)
    4 SCSI Hard Disks
    8 Megs of 32bit Fast RAM, 1 meg Chip RAM
    Kickstart 40.62, Workbench 40.13

    Amiga 3000
    1 800k Disk Drive
    2 SCSI Hard Disks
    8 Megs of 32bit Fast RAM, 2 megs Chip RAM
    Kickstart 40.9, Workbench 40.13


INSTALLATION

    The installation of the GoldenGate II is really simple. You simply
open your Amiga, pop the full-length card into a ZORRO/IBM ISA slot, plug in
any IBM cards you want to use, and then close the computer. You then need to
copy some files from the GoldenGate II software disk to your startup disk.
The disk does not use the Commodore installation program to install the
software.

    [MODERATOR'S NOTE:  If you are not comfortable opening up your
    Amiga, then you should have the work done by an authorized Amiga
    service center.  Opening your Amiga yourself may void your warranty,
    and careless work may even damage the machine.  - Dan]

    Now boot up your computer and run a "SysInfo" program to find out if
the card is working.  The software disk that comes with the GGII has a
SysInfo program on it in case you do not have one.  The SysInfo program
shows a Zorro-II card with the name "GoldenGate II", manufacturer "D.
Salamon" and memory size "1 megabyte."

    NOTE: I bought my GoldenGate II card from the creator of the board,
David Salamon. The board now belongs to a new company, Software Results
Enterprises, so the software installation might change.  (They might make an
Installer script for it....)


REVIEW

    The GoldenGate II card is an excellent product.  This is not like
the GoldenGate bridgeboard or the Commodore bridgeboard that let you run IBM
software on the Amiga.  The GGII lets the Amiga OS communicate to the cards
on the IBM bus in your Amiga!  You probably thought that you could never
access those slots, but now you can.  With the card in your computer, you can
add serial ports to your Amiga by simply sticking those cheap IBM AT
Multi/IO card into you Amiga.

    When I got the GGII, I added two IBM AT Multi/IO cards.  One of them
was a card that had two high speed, buffered serial ports, a printer port,
and a IBM joystick port.  Currently, you cannot use the joystick port, and
the printer port is not bi-directional.  The latter is fine for printers, but
you cannot use bi-directional products like Audio Digitizers, scanners, etc.
The card set me back only $25 (US), and I now have two high speed serial
ports!  The other Multi-IO card is the same, but the serial ports are not
buffered.  (Being non-buffered, the ports act in the same was the internal
Amiga port does.)

    To use these cards, you have to set up the cards to use COM1-COM4
and LPT1-LPT2. If you have never worked with IBM compatible products, you
might have a problem figuring out IRQ's and IO addresses that you need to
deal with in the IBM world. (I love Amiga! ;->)  You could always ask some
IBM people to help you, or can try to figure it out yourself. The
documentation that came with the GGII card also gives you some information
on what to do.

    So, my Amiga now has a total of 5 serial ports, 3 parallel ports,
and two non-functional, IBM type joystick ports. These are all the IO ports
the current GGII software supports.

    To access these ports, all you have to do is tell you program to use
ibmser.device for the serial ports, or ibmprint.device for the printer
ports. You then set the unit number in your program to tell it which of the
ports to use. If your program does not let you pick which device or unit to
use, the GGII comes with a little program called IOWEDGE which lets you
redirect the serial.device or parallel.device.

    You can also use IBM Ethernet and IBM IDE cards in your Amiga. I do
not have a need for either of these, so I have not tried them. I do know that
you access these in the same way as the serial or parallel ports. (Through
device drivers.) The Ethernet is also SANA-II compatible so it will work
with all Amiga networking programs that support this type of device, like
AmiTCP/IP.

    The GoldenGate also works with Chris Hames's excellent PCTask
program.  That program lets you emulate a IBM PC/XT on your Amiga through
software. (A demo version of available on Aminet.)  With my GoldenGate II
card and PCTask, I did something that most people thought wouldn't work. I
took one of those cheap IBM television cards you see for sale all over the
place (I bought one from a friend for $65), put it into my Amiga in a free
8-bit ISA slot and installed the software that came with the board in PCTask.
No one here would believe that it would work in my Amiga; but when I booted
up PCTask, my VGA screen flicked for a second, and then I was watching
television!  Now this is no big deal for you guys with 1084's, but I have a
flicker fixer and a SVGA monitor, so I cannot watch TV like you guys can.
But now I can.  The card I got has a built in CATV compatible tuner that is
controlled through a little MS-DOS program.  And it worked perfectly on my
Amiga.

    Amazing, if you ask me!


DOCUMENTATION

    My board came with excellent documentation. It was on high quality,
stapled paper; that is, not bound in book format.  The manual may change now
that the board is sold by Software Results Enterprises.

    The manual is thorough and covers just about everything, including
how to program the board. I read it from cover to cover. The distribution
disk also comes with a README file that has some useful information in it.
All the info in the README file is in the manual too, but you may have
missed it by just skimming the manual.


LIKES AND DISLIKES

    I like everything about the product except two things.  One is that
it does not come with any kind of VGA video drivers for the Amiga that let
you use a VGA card to display Amiga graphics. I asked Software Results
Enterprises about it, and they said it is definitely possible, but without OS
4.0 and RTG (retargetable graphics), it would be extremely difficult.

    Another problem with the board is because of a flaw in all Amiga
2000's. When you have a 68020 or higher in an Amiga 2000, you have to shut
off the DATA CACHE when any Zorro-II card is accessed.  I cannot remember
the technical reasons for the problem, but the manual covers it fully.
There are two solutions for this problem. One is to run Enforcer by
Commodore. (Enforcer comes on the disk with the GoldenGate II in case you do
not have it.)  Enforcer automatically turns off the DATA CACHE when anything
accesses a Zorro-II card. This is fine, except that I cannot use Enforcer on
my Amiga because it requires an MMU. I have only a 68EC030 CPU that does not
have an MMU, so I cannot run Enforcer.  The other solution to the problem is
to turn off the DATA CACHE with the "CPU" command.  That is what I have to
do. The problem with doing that is I lose performance by shutting off the
cache.

    [MODERATOR'S NOTE:  Would any readers from Commodore like to
    explain the problem in a followups article?  - Dan]

    If you do not do one of these two things, your Amiga will behave
strangely sometimes. I have had it happen to me when I turned on the DATA
CACHE and accessed the IBM cards a lot.  I don't think this is a problem in
the A3000, but if it is, all A3000's have MMU's so they can all run Enforcer.


COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

    I have only heard of one other product that can be compared to the
GoldenGate II:  the OnmiBus card (or something like that).  It supposedly
does the same thing. I do not know of anyone who owns this card, so I cannot
talk about it. I also know that this card has a VGA driver that lets you use
VGA cards for Amiga display. (Something the GGII lacks.)


BUGS

    None that I know of, except that Zorro-II and DATA CACHE problem,
which is the Amiga's fault, not the GoldenGate II's.


VENDOR SUPPORT

    I have talked to Software Results Enterprises a number of times via
Email and they have been incredibly nice. Ethan Dicks, the guy behind the
company, has always responded to my Email promptly and given good answers
to my questions.

    My impression of customer support at Software Results Enterprises:
Up there with the best of 'em. (Much better than MicroSoft and Apple!)


WARRANTY

    My board came with a ONE YEAR WARRANTY from David Salamon.  David no
longer deals with the board, but Software Results Enterprises said they
would do work on my board for $25 plus shipping. I am not sure how I feel
about this, but if the time comes for repair, I will have to think about
whether I should demand a free repair (if my warranty would have still
applied with David Salamon.)

    A new board bought from Software Results Enterprises should have a
ONE year warranty too, but they did not say.  Please contact then for more
information.


CONCLUSIONS

    The GoldenGate II card is a great card. I could not have bought a
high speed serial/parallel board for my Amiga with 4 serial ports for less
than the price of the GoldenGate II. And I still can get Ethernet, IDE, etc.
I definitely think it was worth it.

    Rating: 5 out of 5.


COPYRIGHT NOTICE

    This review is freely distributable. You can put it or use it
anywhere as long as you do not alter it and you leave my name in it.

    Copyright 1994  Adrian C. Black.  All rights reserved.
    EMAIL: [e-mail]

---

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