From: jerry@msi.com (Jerry Shekhel)
Subject: Re: Future Amiga chipsets
Organization: Molecular Simulations, Inc.
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 15:53:25 GMT
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Wendell Dingus (wendell@medsys.rn.com) wrote:
:
: >Nice try to change the subject, Skip.  Read my comments above, and tell me,
: >how is my machine crippled?  How come I don't notice it, and I'm not exactly
: >a beginner myself?
:
: Are you trying to say ISA is anything other than utter trash Jerry? If so,
: no matter how much experience you claim to have, it's not enough. The whole
: concept of IRQ's, and memory port addresses sucks majorly! 
:

"Utter trash?"  Of course not!  Suits me just fine (and millions of others,
apparently)!  But along comes Wendell to tell us all that we're stupid
and we don't know what we're talking about.

:
: 1) Plug in an Ethernet card using Memory addresses and IRQ that should be 
: miles away from anything video. Don't work. Plug in another VGA card and 
: things work. Result: Move memory on the Ethernet because the VGA card is
: using non-standard things or memory areas it shouldn't be. 
:

Sure, blame the bus for the bad VGA card.

:
: 2) Try to make an Iomega Tape250 Insider tape drive work under Windows 3.1
: It will work if you take the machine out of turbo, but not in! (on a 486).
: Call Central Point and find out that it's a known bug they're working on. 
: Too much DMA is eaten up they say... (using Central Point Backup).
:

Bad hardware/software exists for every platform.  BTW, I use an ArchiveXL
(comparable to the Iomega Tape250), and I've never had any problems with
Central Point 7.2 or UNIX.

:
: 3) Here's a good one. Make basically any internal modem and serial IO card
: work using the standard COM3 or 4. There are still some around that will, 
: but MOST won't. I don't know what manufacturers have changed, but for the
: most part I've only gotten COM3 or 4 to work by using a non-standard IRQ
: (like 5) and telling the software (mouse drivers and such) to use that
: instead of the standard DOS device COM3:
:

I'm not too familiar with the COM3/4 situation, but I've seen it work just
fine.  All you have to do is avoid buying the wrong hardware.

:
: 4) I'm getting tired of this.. no more examples. The basic point is that 
: anyone in the business of making PC peripheals work on lots of ISA based
: systems learn lots of cuss words and where the aspirin is kept. It's a 
: major headache...
:

There's good hardware for ISA, and there's bad.  At least there are lots of
choices.  Get the facts and shop around, and you won't have any problems.

:
: -- Wendell Dingus    internet:  wendell@medsys.rn.com       //  
:
--
+-------------------+----------------------------+---------------------------+
| JERRY J. SHEKHEL  | Molecular Simulations Inc. | Time just fades the pages |
| Drummers do it... |     Burlington, MA USA     | in my book of memories.   |
|    ... In rhythm! |        jerry@msi.com       |         -- Guns N' Roses  |
+-------------------+----------------------------+---------------------------+
Xref: sparky comp.sys.amiga.advocacy:31115 comp.sys.amiga.misc:18430