PCI Riser cards

Hi everyone,
I'm looking to expand my Micro A1. I need another free PCI slot, does anyone know of a two or three slot riser card that works?

Thanks in advance.

Wizz.

@wizzard_o

I need the same info!!!! Thx ;)

@wizzard_o

Sorry to tell you guys, but a riser card won't work in a micro. A shame as I'd like one as well. No riser card, no gfx card for micro owners.

@sundown

nice :( but whay dont work?where is problem?

@wizzard_o

No riser cards, even though the spec said it was supported...
Also no PCI GFX card support either! So, I can't even upgrade to the recommended GFX card for OS4.1 & use all of the new features!
What's the point of owning a Micro if the OS that's meant for it requires that you have either an SE or XE!

And now it looks like I have just bought a useless GFX card!

Isn't life just grand?

Wizz.

@sundown

Quote:

Has anyone figured out why? Is there a PCI to PCI bridge card that might work? That would be a PCI bridge with multiple PCI ports on the other side.

I have read that no-one has managed to find a PCI riser that works, but I haven't seen anything as to why, or whether it's fixable.

Hans

@wizzard_o

Onboard Radeon 7000 is bad but OS 4.1 does not certainly require XE.

@Hans

Olegil's posts from September, 2007

some prior history (2006) on same topic

#6

@number6

Quote:

UBoot doesn't initialize bridge chips properly. Sure, you'll be able to see the cards on the other side, but accessing memory or I/O on those cards is never enabled.

I discovered this while working with the Radeon X1300 PCI card that I have (inside an A1-XE). It has a PCI to PCI-Express bridge on it. Figureing out what was wrong wasted a good chunk of my time too. Strangely, UBoot was able to initialize this graphics card in text mode, so exactly what's going on I don't know.

I was hoping that someone had figured out whether this was a hardware or a software issue.

Hans

I have tested an active riser card and a normal riser card. They don't work in either a micro or XE.

Also, as was said many times before, the Micro can not use a PCI graphic card probably because of the so called fix to get the onboard IDE working reliable.

Also, since no one pays for a BIOS update, NO AmigaOne of any kind will ever get a BIOS update again.

Basically, the Micro, SE and XE are what they are and that is the end of it.

@wizzard_o
You should have paid attention because it was already said that the micro can not use PCI graphic cards and there would be no more BIOS development for it.

@Hans

Quote:

Depends somewhat on how you interpret:
"Since this is primarily for the ?A1 I kinda put it on hold until the ?A1 can handle bridge chips (which it doesn't at the moment)."

I always took that to mean hardware.

#6

@PulsatingQuasar

Oh, so sorry to have bothered you! Perhaps next time I wont try to support the community by paying well over the odds for a buggy PCB that's fails to come anywhere near spec!


@Thread

I hope the next 'Amiga' actually comes close to what it promises on specification!
As for 4.1, I guess some of the features wont get to be appreciated by the majority of Amiga One users!


Wizz.

@wizzard_o

Well, we have all learnt valuable lessons here with regard to overpriced hardware.

It has and always been the task of the hardware developer to create a BIOS that works with the hardware but MAI didn't for fill that role very well.

The MicroA1 isn't the only ITX based hardware that can't work with riser cards though. The Intel Atom based ITX you can get for as low as 50 euro or the Intel Celeron based ITX that goes as low as 60 euro doesn't support all riser cards either but can take a PCI based graphic cards.

The only people that could possibly do anything about the AmigaOne BIOS have already told in many forum threads that since this is an unpaid thing there would be no more support.

So this is the unofficial position to the A1 hardware:
It is what it is. There will be no more hardware fixes or BIOS fixes. What works, works and that is the end of it.


As for me; I will never buy expensive hardware again unless it's proven it works. I can get over a 50 or 70 euro ITX board that doesn't work 100% but hardware that costs at least 10 times of that and doesn't work 100% is not going to happen to me again.

@wizzard_o

Cool off a little before you post, this isn't breaking news & has been known for quite some time. As far as 4.1, it will work fine on our micro's. Only issue will be the video memory on the 7000 vs screen size selected. I'm using a 1280x1024x32 WB screen without problems on a 19" tft. Bigger monitors may require a 16 bit WB because of the limited gfx memory.

Nobody is happy about the limitations of the micro.

There seems to be 2 different fixes for dma.
1. dma fixed but stops gfx cards from working.
2. dma fixed that allows gfx cards to still work.

The micro has the #1 fix & this probably stops riser cards from working as well.

There's a thread here gfx card problems

Hi @wizzard_o


@Thread

I hope the next 'Amiga' actually comes close to what it promises on specification!
As for 4.1, I guess some of the features wont get to be appreciated by the majority of Amiga One users!
Wizz.

Thanks for starting this thread; it was very enlightning! Now I really confused...
Hyperion just recommended the 9250 GFX card and if I have the A1-micro, I can't use it?
Hello Sundown!
Never mind...

HammerD has the best explanation:
@Stephen_Robinson

Yes, the microA1 on-board Radeon 7000 is capable of the new transparency and compositing modes in OS 4.1, and overall the performance is quite good.

The main problem, when using higher-resolution screens, is the limited 32MB of on-board graphics memory. If you are running screens like 1680x1050 or 1920x1200 you are going to see the effects of the limited graphics memory. As OS 4 manages this situation you may experience some slow-down. Best in that situation to keep open screens to a minimum, use 16-bit instead of 32-bit, or just use Workbench instead of custom screens.

With more graphics memory you are fine, obviously.

@sundown

Quote:There is only one and it's the same on an ?A1 and an A1XE with the 'IDE fix'. It doesn't stop gfx cards from working, "only" using 2 gfx cards (one in the AGP or PCI66 slot and one in a PCI33 slot) at the same time.

@joerg

So if we ?A1 owners could remove the on-board Radeon 7000, then we could use the PCI slot with a better graphics card?

Anyone out their brave enough to try this? (not me )