16-Apr-2024 11:37 GMT.		 UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Anonymous, there are 33 items in your selection
[News] G-Rex detailsANN.lu
Posted on 18-Nov-2000 14:17 GMT by Teemu I. Yliselä33 comments
View flat
View list

Vision Factory Development have posted a new ad for the G-Rex PCI-busboard from DCE. According to the ad, the board will have 5 PCI-Slots and ship with drivers for ViRGE, Permedia2, VooDoo3 2000/3000 and Ethernet. Forthcoming drivers include UW SCSI, TV Tuner, Soundblaster and Voodoo4-4500 support. The boards costs 399DM.

G-Rex details : Comment 1 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Mark Smith on 17-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
I'm not so sure having an "Exclusive Distributor" is such a good idea
... bet the rest of the world gets a bit starved for the boards.
G-Rex details : Comment 2 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 17-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
"Extreme schnelles"...?
G-Rex details : Comment 3 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Anders Kjeldsen on 17-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
Who the hell cares about silly ads?? (Make the card!)
G-Rex details : Comment 4 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Mads Bakholt on 17-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
And from the picture I read "5 PCI 2.1"... But on the same picture only 4 slots are exposed??? ;-)
G-Rex details : Comment 5 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Christian Kemp on 17-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 4 (Mads Bakholt):
> And from the picture I read "5 PCI 2.1"... But on the same picture only 4 slots are exposed??? ;-)
The text in the ad says that the sales version will feature 5 slots.
Of course this might mean that they haven't even produced a final prototype, and as such it might just be another example of "announce now, design later". But then again, I'm not really in any position to judge.
G-Rex details : Comment 6 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Martin Baute on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (Anonymous):
Extrem schnelles -> extremly fast. Translator fumbling. ;-)
G-Rex details : Comment 7 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Remco Komduur on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
Ok, this thing will come. It was created by Phase 5. DCE just to took the design out of a box after the Mediator was anounced. We actually could have gotten this thing a lot sooner but didn't have to up too now.
This thing is the best choice for BlizzardPPC and NG owners. It's fast and will have a lot of drivers. I hope there will be drivers for a PCI IDE adapter so that UDMA-33 and 66 will also work. And it was created by Phase 5 so it will work and work great.
G-Rex details : Comment 8 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Frederik on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
Ok, add ons add ons.. this is all very good..
gut what the h..l will happen when the main board stops working..
Make an new motherboard.. like the boxer, just, just finish one, and do it fast and as cheap as possible..
add ons, its is almost like the pc... And I would hate that..
G-Rex details : Comment 9 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by . on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
Why would anyone buy anything from DCE.?
If you have a problem there is no support and they
will not even respond to your emails.
I have been trying to get a replacement cable for a BvisionPPc card
for the last 6 months through my dealer,who orders from them on a
regular basis. I have also tried to email DCE directly with the email
address given to me by my dealer through which the place orders.
The have not even replied to so no cable available.
This is a dangerous situation for customer support.
G-Rex details : Comment 10 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
I for one dislike P5 and DCE's actions concerning the PCI board... P5
could have released it months if not years ago! But they obviously
prefered to develop and sell expensive custom add-ons... All of a
sudden DCE smells the nice flavour of the mediator cake and wants a
piece of it. I would have rather seen DCE continue the G3/G4 project!
Most Amiga companies do not act in sense of technological progress!
I hate this!
G-Rex details : Comment 11 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Joe on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 9 (.):
I have bought a mediator and it does not work for me. Not one single driver
is working, although I have only approved cards. The pci.library stuff throws lots of
Enforcer hits and crashes my system all day and night in 5 minute intervals.
Elbox is not responding to any emails. Just one time I got a reply that said: You
must be doing something wrong. Try setting jumper in the other position. It is
all your fault.
They really have no support and are extremely arrogant.
I will never again buy anything from Elbox.
Don't buy the Mediator, it sucks !!!
Joe
G-Rex details : Comment 12 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 10 (Anonymous):
Phase 5 could NOT have released this "months" ago, as they went bankrupt almost a year ago. But hey, don't let facts get in the way of your ranting, eh?
Ph yeah, and if such a thing should have been released "years ago", then why are you not flaming Elbox et al for not releasing THEIR products "years ago"?
G-Rex details : Comment 13 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Ralph Schmidt on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 10 (Anonymous):
I partly agree with you about the
"not acting in the sense of technical progress" but the reason
why this doesn`t happen is that the required investments are so
huge while amiga users wouldn`t accept the necessary costs with
significant higher product costs.
That leads to old/cheap solution being sold for several years
to get back the necessary investments.
You only have to look at the required software prices...let`s
just assume somebody would want to develop AmigaOS PPC.
For a real professional competitive approach to do this
you would need 10-15 full time programmers + support
stuff people + external contract stuff/licences + HW costs-
All the expenses would easily meet 1.5-2 Mio $/year.
2 Mio $ * profit / number of buyers ==
As number of buyers is a very unsure number...let`s just say
10000 with old and new HW. (milk man calculation) as first if
you`re lucky.
That would require easily over $200 fixed profits on one OS
CD. Now you can add the sales tax + dealer profit and the
companies`s own tax stuff is ignored at the moment.
You now must sell a new OS update about the same price *each*
year to cover the current operating costs as the market would
expect new developments and bug fixes.
Ok..the end price could probably be lowered if you hope that
the sales rises.
For more realistic prices you would probably need about 30000-50000
new OS unit sales each year. But betting on such numbers in the
beginning would ask for bancruptcy.
Sure..this is no way some real business plan here but a rough sketch
what kind of money would be involved.
Maybe somebody listens here and understands the situation.
G-Rex details : Comment 14 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 11 (Joe):
I tried:
VirgeDX...Working
Ethernet...Working after trying another card
Voodoo 3 3000 PCI...Working and it ROCKS
It's YOUR problem if nothing works.
I tried the board with BliZZard (both 68k&PPC)
boards, Apollo Boards and a Viper 030.
Everything working fine except that the Voodoo 3
didn't work with the 030(not suprised).
Before posting such comments try to tweak some stuff
and stop acting that stupid.
AND join the mediator mailing list to get some help...
They WILL help you...
G-Rex details : Comment 15 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Alcemyst on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 11 (Joe):
have u registered your Mediator & got the update sw.
if your useing CGFX RTG its will be more unstable as the gfx drivers
are not as up to date as the ones that use P96.
& for u to expect all the card & driver to work perfectly after just
over a month of being on sale is mad. this is not a PC.
custom gfx card & network cards for the Amiga will work better sooner
because the firms makeing that make the driver while doing so.
Elbox dont make any of the cards u r pluging in including the
accelerater cards that it has to get around.thats y the other PCI
board firms are forceing u to just use there accelerater cards.its
easyer for them the Voodoo3 card is more powerful & technicaly advance
than any gfx card ever on the amiga & to make a full working driver
will take time.i but it took 3DfX longer than a month to wright 1
i hope this makes sence, cant be bothered to read it through :)
G-Rex details : Comment 16 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 13 (Ralph Schmidt):
Okay, that's a nice admission there by Ralph S.
This basically means that by his own admission MorphOS will never go anywhere because the resources in terms of people and money are not there.
Glad to see he realises that but why go on then and not join the QNX team?
G-Rex details : Comment 17 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Ralph Schmidt on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 16 (Anonymous):
Now i`m puzzled...what has this to do with QNX ?
What i`ve talked about above was a real professional development
to move AmigaOS on a modern level again outside of its hobby user
state.
That requires a lot new software components the AmigaOS is missing.
G-Rex details : Comment 18 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 6 (Martin Baute):
Yes, I know, just wonder if it even reaches 20MB/s...
G-Rex details : Comment 19 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Mark Bowman on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 8 (Frederik):
Add ons like the PC??
What are you talking about - this is what -MOST- if not all Amiga users want - access to proper addon's like soundcards,video,network etc.. I get sick of people who obviously have not used a PC since 1991 talk aboiut stuff they know nothing about. You really shouldn't critise something that is vastly superior to the current state of Amiga hw whihc in all fairness has had no siginificant development for many years.
One of my PC motherboards at home has TNT2,10/100nic,56K modem, integrated sc,2 ATA66 channels etc on a 133mhz FSB. The only thing you have to add is a CPU + drives which is a pretty good level of integration - way better than a classic Amiga. This is obviously something that will happen with Amiga motherboards I guess sometime down the track
With no core development from the parent company all Amiga expansions are going to take on this hacked form until something like the boxer (yeah right) surfaces.
G-Rex details : Comment 20 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by victor # on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 19 (Mark Bowman):
Maybe you should also mention, the biggest drawback is: Winblows... :)
Though, there are others: the crap intel base-architecture (with the past-compatibility), and some mess with some noname HW.
G-Rex details : Comment 21 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Mark Bowman on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 17 (Ralph Schmidt):
You hit the nail on the head there...
But unfortunately its a catch22 situation, to make the OS more modern to attract new people to it you need new developers and they aren't going to spend the big $$$ required as the existing user base is too small and doesn't appear to be as cashed up as their PC counterparts. Of course this perception could have been brought about by a lack of new hw on the market as it seems that people seem to be buying the mediator/voodoo3 etc now they are available.
Looking from the outside in you would have to be fairly skeptical about investing serious money into what is seen as a pretty frugal userbase. Amiga users have a pretty bad rep as sw pirates and hw stinges (ie hanging on to base a1200's or 030 amiga etc). Before you flame check out my previous comment re this perception.
Despite the friction between DCE/Elbox and whoever else it seems that people are starting to buy new stuff which will hopefully aid in improving the overall image of the Amiga market.
G-Rex details : Comment 22 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Andreas Meyer on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 15 (Alcemyst):
sorry to you and the other guy, responding to message 11. I just posted it
anonymous as reply to message 9 to show this idiot how stupid it is to post
stuff like "DCE has no support" or "Elbox sucks", especially without giving
a valid name and mail address. Everybody can post sh*t like this.
Sorry for the bad joke, but...
I think I'll do this again from time to time, just to see the reactions ;-)
Andreas
G-Rex details : Comment 23 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Amiga Idiot on 18-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 22 (Andreas Meyer):
Do you represent DCE ?
If so maybe I can email you with my problem.
If you don't then maybe you have a way to contact them.
I have not attacked them only related my personal attempts to
contact them over the last 6 month for a solution to a problem
that prevents me from using one of their products.
or maybe there is a language problem and i need an interpreter.
G-Rex details : Comment 24 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Mark Bowman on 19-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 20 (victor #):
Sure...
WindowsNT/9x/2K are not optimal solutions and are hampered by the backwards compatibility issues and feature bloat.
But most stuff works pretty well and I am not sure what problems with the architecture you are referring to that are a problem but I have never really come up aganst any severe limitations. Sure things like IRQ's etc can be a pain but most modern mb's and sw and things make sure conflicts and like rarely occur. I have less throuble with PNP cards on my PC's than I had with my a2000's and A4000's but I guess that's the lack of recent development showing.
Do get me wrong I recognise the weaknesses in the PC architecture but I know what I would prefer to use
G-Rex details : Comment 25 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Andreas Meyer on 19-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 23 (Amiga Idiot):
:Do you represent DCE ?
No.
:If so maybe I can email you with my problem.
You already described your problem, so I know it anyway ;-)
:If you don't then maybe you have a way to contact them.
Never tried it up to now, was't necessary for me.
:I have not attacked them only related my personal attempts to
:contact them over the last 6 month for a solution to a problem
:that prevents me from using one of their products.
:or maybe there is a language problem and i need an interpreter.
I can understand your anger, but tell me :
"Who would buy anything from DCE anyways..." is no attack ???
I don't say, your point about DCE lacking support is invalid, in fact I don't know anything about it. I just think, your way of anonymously posting offending stuff is not really nice. Even if DCE wanted to clear up this issue, they couldn't, as you don't give your identity. This just su**s.
Andreas
G-Rex details : Comment 26 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Troels Ersking on 19-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 22 (Andreas Meyer):
Ok I don't like these anonymos posts either but the message itself was ok. He clearly states what his problem is and how he has tried to get in touch with DCE with no luck (shame on you DCE).
Having said that, I see no reason why people can't use their real names, what are they afraid of? I have always used my real name/email and it has never been abused (yet!) in any way.
So people please don't post anonymus...
G-Rex details : Comment 27 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Happy Idiot on 19-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 25 (Andreas Meyer):
Thank you all for your comments.
Maybe as a result of these posts I have today received a response
from DCE to my last Email sent 10 days ago.
They have appologised for the lack of response
and will send me a replacement cable via my dealer free of cost.
I thank them for this and wish them all the best with
their present and future products.
PS: I must say that I was not angry but rather I was scornful.
G-Rex details : Comment 28 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Balder Mørk on 20-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
I'm just wondering... Looking at the pictures, and the ads for the G-Rex, I see that it sports both AT and ATX power-connectors - all well and good. But what are they for? In my tower, the powersupply leads are hacked into the A4000 standard power connector. Will this mean that I have to buy an additinal powersupply to use the G-rex, or is this a feature for A1200 users? If anybody here has good knowledge about the card (Ralph?) I'd be happy to know...
Balder Mørk
G-Rex details : Comment 29 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by db on 21-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 7 (Remco Komduur):
you wrote:-
Ok, this thing will come. It was created by Phase 5. DCE just to took the design out of a box after the Mediator was anounced. We actually could have gotten this thing a lot sooner but didn't have to up too now.
This thing is the best choice for BlizzardPPC and NG owners. It's fast and will have a lot of drivers. I hope there will be drivers for a PCI IDE adapter so that UDMA-33 and 66 will also work. And it was created by Phase 5 so it will work and work great.
BUT how many PPC owners are there?. I'm not one, my friends across the road have'nt got one. We tried to get a PPC but get fobbed of by power or blittersoft or eyetech. And as for now i wouldn't even waste my money on a 5 year old technology. DCE are going to lose out alot here!!.
G-Rex details : Comment 30 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Daniel Allsopp on 21-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 29 (db):
Exactly. Who wants to pay 400 quid for a five year old, slow, obsolete piece of PPC technology just so they can use a G-REX. It's stupidity.
Now, if they came out with a new PPC board with a G3/G4...I would have no problem spending 400/500 quid on one of those then extra for the G-Rex, but as it stands, DCE will get nothing from me.
G-Rex details : Comment 31 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Ralph Schmidt on 21-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 30 (Daniel Allsopp):
There are roughly 10000 people with a PPC card and from a dealer perspective
you can savely assume that these are the people which actually spend money
on amiga products in the recent past(3 years) and therefore may even spend
money again.
G-Rex details : Comment 32 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Amifan on 21-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 31 (Ralph Schmidt):
Oops, i'm a PPC owner and guess what...i'm a mediator owner too, and i'm more then happy with it.
And I won't buy a G-REX because that stupid move of an exclusive driver......
You can't fit them both anyway.....
That makes 9999 potential buyers
I assume that the PCI bridge is on the BlizzardPPC what makes DCE think that they can beat the 14MB/sec of the Blizzard->BVision.
So what's this FAST bridge about?
G-Rex details : Comment 33 of 33ANN.lu
Posted by Remco Komduur on 24-Nov-2000 23:00 GMT
In reply to Comment 29 (db):
No, they won't because they are also going to create an NG version of the PPC. That is without the PPC so you will have a very fast bus without the PPC chip. As far as I know DCE is able to supply BlizzardPPC quite fast now.
Anonymous, there are 33 items in your selection
Back to Top