MikeV Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 I came by this accidentally while scanning some old newsletters. I could find little reference to the company named except: Asgard News Does anyone know if it was actually manufactured, if so, did it live up to its claims? Thanks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 This was a bit of classic vaporware. I don't think it even made it to the working prototype stage. . . 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickyDean Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 11 hours ago, MikeV said: I came by this accidentally while scanning some old newsletters. I could find little reference to the company named except: Asgard News Does anyone know if it was actually manufactured, if so, did it live up to its claims? Thanks Yea I remember this, it was this ad that made me, eventually, want to see if I could make an adapter to use 8-bit and 16 bit PC hard and floppy controllers with the ti and geneve. Still to this day think it is very possible, but I'm not an engineer only a mech and tech. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkdrummer Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 If I remember correctly they were one of our vapors, er, vendors at my clubs FESTWEST. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeV Posted March 11, 2020 Author Share Posted March 11, 2020 Thought that it might not have ever come off the planning stage, or, it would have been quite popular. However, the write up in Asgard News seemed very specific especially in how they planned to address several short-falls of the Myarc controller. Thierry's IDE design seems to meet these requirements? I do not know of anyone who actually built one of them. Thanks for the notices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted March 11, 2020 Share Posted March 11, 2020 Thierry's IDE design works well--especially once you add the excellent DSR for it that Fred Kaal wrote. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeV Posted March 12, 2020 Author Share Posted March 12, 2020 On 3/11/2020 at 9:45 AM, Ksarul said: Thierry's IDE design works well--especially once you add the excellent DSR for it that Fred Kaal wrote. Have you had an opportunity to build one of these? I saw another notice on the ESD company. They appear to have been at one of the Chicago shows (probably the same one sparkdrummer mentioned), but had nothing to demo. Will have to wait for the new HRD production! Thanks everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted March 12, 2020 Share Posted March 12, 2020 2 hours ago, MikeV said: Have you had an opportunity to build one of these? I saw another notice on the ESD company. They appear to have been at one of the Chicago shows (probably the same one sparkdrummer mentioned), but had nothing to demo. Will have to wait for the new HRD production! Thanks everyone. I have one of them using Thierry's design/layout. On the HRD production--I'm starting to assemble boards now. I do have a couple of assembled prototype boards for those wanting one immediately, or you can wait a few more weeks until I have enough assembled/tested boards to put them into folks' hands. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick99 Posted March 13, 2020 Share Posted March 13, 2020 13 hours ago, Ksarul said: I have one of them using Thierry's design/layout. On the HRD production--I'm starting to assemble boards now. I do have a couple of assembled prototype boards for those wanting one immediately, or you can wait a few more weeks until I have enough assembled/tested boards to put them into folks' hands. To clear my understanding: Are you saying that you will make a hard drive controller?? Does it work with the Geneve? Are there any specific IDE hard drives that it works with or that should be avoided? What´s the price? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted March 13, 2020 Share Posted March 13, 2020 No. I have built one of the Nouspikel cards for my own use, using a bare board I purchased as part of a group buy fifteen years ago. I am building new Horizon RAMDisks, and they work with the TI-99 and the Geneve. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeV Posted March 13, 2020 Author Share Posted March 13, 2020 22 hours ago, Ksarul said: I have one of them using Thierry's design/layout. On the HRD production--I'm starting to assemble boards now. I do have a couple of assembled prototype boards for those wanting one immediately, or you can wait a few more weeks until I have enough assembled/tested boards to put them into folks' hands. I am definitely interested in one assembled. I believe I still have a bare board from Clulow (sp?) from 25+ years ago (don't need another one of those!), but the UG fell apart before the "group assembly" phase could occur. It appears they are more advanced now. Thank you for the note. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeV Posted March 13, 2020 Author Share Posted March 13, 2020 22 hours ago, Ksarul said: I have one of them using Thierry's design/layout. That's good to hear. It is always nice to learn that some hardware projects actually took form. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted March 13, 2020 Share Posted March 13, 2020 (edited) 26 minutes ago, MikeV said: That's good to hear. It is always nice to learn that some hardware projects actually took form. There are probably 50-60 of the IDE boards in circulation, although not all of them were assembled (and some of the parts are getting very HTF, so the bare boards aren't as useful as they used to be anymore). Edited March 13, 2020 by Ksarul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted March 13, 2020 Share Posted March 13, 2020 8 hours ago, Nick99 said: To clear my understanding: Are you saying that you will make a hard drive controller?? Does it work with the Geneve? Are there any specific IDE hard drives that it works with or that should be avoided? What´s the price? the only hard drive controllers working with the Geneve are the scsi controllers and myarc hfdc.. The TIPI works as a hard drive-like experience but only in TI MODE.. so far.. the IDE controllers are not being manufactured by anyone in particular, the entire project is open source, you are welcome to build your own if you are able to do surface mount.. and find the parts to actually build it I personally would use it with a cf ide adapter.. makes the most sense in today's world.. rotating drives are failures waiting to happen. Greg 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+9640News Posted March 13, 2020 Share Posted March 13, 2020 I've got two Geneve's setup with Myarc HFDC's with the DREM that uses a SD card. I got away from spinning drives. One of my Geneve's has a TIPI in it. In GPL/Rompage mode, I have full TIPI "hard drive like" access and speeds. If someone was a good programmer, they should be able to rewrite the eprom code to load a System/Sys file from the TIPI to boot the Geneve. Then, they would need floppy access to get to GPL mode as MDOS itself would not support the TIPI. I have two TI-99/4A's setup. One has a SCSI with a SCSI2SD interface with it configured to 7 x 256 MB drives. The PEBox also has a TIPI in it as well. It isn't getting too much use right now as I have been focusing on some other software for the TI-99/4A (separate topic elsewhere). My other TI-99/4A has a sidecar TIPI w/ 32K. If you have no PEBox, then the sidecar TIPI would be the logical choice. The TIPI offers so many advantages with the ability to network into the PI for backup capability, it almost renders all other mass storage options a secondary option unless they have SD card options. The one exception would be the HRD that is about to be offered. Ramdisks have always offered more speed than hard drives. With a Ramdisk, backups would for peace of mind would require saving to floppies or to a TIPI PEBox configuration. The SD99 would be even faster, however at this point in time, it is unknown when it will reach market. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dhe Posted March 13, 2020 Share Posted March 13, 2020 The ESD Floppy & Hard Drive Controller works great when paired with Tony Lewis's Co-Processor Card (I crack me up)! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed in SoDak Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 2 hours ago, dhe said: The ESD Floppy & Hard Drive Controller works great when paired with Tony Lewis's Co-Processor Card (I crack me up)! I've got a fistfull of Three Dollar Bills I've been saving just for something like this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 5 hours ago, dhe said: The ESD Floppy & Hard Drive Controller works great when paired with Tony Lewis's Co-Processor Card (I crack me up)! I actually have the prototype Tony Lewis Coprocessor card (and the rights to make more of them). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 Coprocessor board?Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeV Posted March 14, 2020 Author Share Posted March 14, 2020 I have really been out of the loop. Never came across (heard of) any of these things except for the "Three Dollar Bills". 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 5 hours ago, arcadeshopper said: Coprocessor board? Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk It has a Motorola math coprocessor on it. Unfortunately, both the coprocessor used and one of the TI chips used to interface it are extremely HTF. I picked up a few of the correct coprocessors (when the price was right), but I only have two of the necessary TI chips to do the interfacing--and they rarely show up anywhere. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 It has a Motorola math coprocessor on it. Unfortunately, both the coprocessor used and one of the TI chips used to interface it are extremely HTF. I picked up a few of the correct coprocessors (when the price was right), but I only have two of the necessary TI chips to do the interfacing--and they rarely show up anywhere.Interesting is there any docs or flyers/adsSent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 I have a complete set of the developmental docs that were included with the card when I bought it from Tony Lewis about ten years ago. I don't think there were ever any ads/flyers for it, although there were a couple of blurbs on it from Asgard, as they were planning on bringing it to market at one point. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 And it seems more of the TI TMS9650 chips have been coming out of the woodwork lately, as I found two sources with small numbers of them when I went searching today. That may help me get the card to the point of making some tests. . . 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dhe Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 At the time, I didn't figure Tony Lewis would have spoken about a card, unless he was pretty far down the road, not like Randy Holcomb of Computer Shopper, who for almost a year said 'next month' well put a tms9995 accelerator in a console.... Since we strayed to relatively rare hardware, there where some guys at a Chicago Show in the late 90's - they where hot in to the Geneve. I think they wrote a hypercard application in forth. I also seem to remember they were going to make a forth processor card for the geneve, I didn't pay much attention at the time, because their projected price for the card, was more than the geneve itself. But they were showing some demo's and boy that card could compute. I think, it was based around a commercial chip that was just a forth engine? Maybe on of these: http://www.ultratechnology.com/chips.htm That card would be another truly RARE item, if it made it's way to ebay! ? d. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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