Mediator PCI 3000D
The Mediator is a PCI implementation for connecting PCI devices in Amiga computers,
allowing expansion of Amiga with all kinds of industry standard hardware products
like graphic, sound, network, USB, TV tuner, ISDN and MPEG-2 hardware decoder PCI cards.
Moreover, the Mediator PCI busboard is ready for SharkPPC PCI cards based on the latest
PowerPC G3 and G4 processors.
The minimum hardware configuration is: Amiga 3000D in tower case.
The recommended configuration is: towerised Amiga 3000D, any 68060
(or PPC with 68060) turbo card with 64MB RAM, a SharkPPC G3/G4 card with
128MB SDRAM, a Voodoo3 graphic card.
The Mediator PCI 3000D features:
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5 PCI slots (PCI 2.1 compatible)
For simultaneous use of up to five PCI cards fully assimilated in the Amiga environment.
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6 Zorro III/II slots and one video slot
For simultaneous use of up to six Zorro III/II cards.
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33MHz PCI clock (66MHz with SharkPPC G3/G4)
With the PCI clock running at 33MHz, data transfers are executed with the bandwidth
of up to 132MB/s and up to 264MB/s for 66MHz clocking.
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32-bit PCI datapatch
Longword transfers are supported in all data transfer types: PCI to Amiga,
Amiga to PCI and PCI to PCI.
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4GB PCI memory space
Mediator PCI 3000D allows access to the entire 4GB of the PCI memory space. Access
to the entire PCI memory space is executed through the 512MB window in the Zorro III
space. With a hardware-supported paging mechanism, PCI memory access is executed
without any slowdown compared to the linear memory access.
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Busmastering/DMA in all PCI slots
Mediator PCI supports the busmastering mechanism in all its PCI slots. The PCI cards
in the busmaster mode can offer extremely fast DMA access (up to 132MB/s) without any
CPU load. Up to five PCI busmaster cards may be used simultaneously in Mediator.
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SDRAM/SGRAM of PCI gfx card as system memory
Mediator PCI 3000D can use part of the graphic card memory for Amiga system needs.
Thus, the entire system gains in effectiveness as graphic card's SDRAM/SGRAM memory
modules are about 10x faster than FastRAM memory in Amiga turbo cards. With very
short access time in SDRAM/SGRAM, several PCI busmaster cards may use this memory
simultaneously. The PCI cards may then rush at the data transfer rate of up to
132MB/s without any CPU load whatsoever.
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DMA to A3000 motherboard space
Mediator PCI 3000D includes a busmastering controller supporting transfers between
PCI cards and the A3000 motherboard space.
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Address and data parity control support
Address and data parity are supported in all Mediator slots. Parity support is
necessary for using PCI cards like Sound Blaster Audigy, Sound Blaster Live! or
ForteMedia FM801-based PCI cards.
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Interrupt controller (4 lines)
The Mediator Interrupt Controller manages four independent PCI interrupt lines.
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PCI and Zorro
Mediator PCI 3000D enables simultaneous operation of up to five PCI cards and
up to six Zorro III/II cards.
Mediator PCI 3000D is compatible with all A3000 processor card models.
Mediator PCI 3000D can be installed in any towerised A3000D though this may require
some physical modifications of the tower.
The following PCI cards are currently supported in Mediator PCI 1200:
The following PCI card support is currently being developed:
- I/O cards
- MPEG-2 hardware decoders
The Mediator PCI 3000D is available with a standard software pack: 2D and Warp3D
Voodoo3 graphic drivers, Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 24-bit 2D graphic drivers, S3 ViRGE and
S3 ViRGE DX 2D graphic drivers and Ethernet 10Mbps network drivers.
Mediator PCI 3000D can also be obtained with an extended software pack including
the Mediator Multimedia CD.
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