Prometheus FAQ:

1. When will it be released?

We are presently in the production stage of the first card series. Prometheus will be available through our distributors (the list will be soon published on our website) in first days of May.

2. How much will it cost?

The prices for foreign customers will depend on the local Amiga distributors through which we will sell. For people from countries with no Amiga dealers, we prepare a special offer.

3. Will "Prometheus" and PCI cards be "hanging in the air"?

Certainly not. With every board we bundle a set of two metal holders. One will attach Prometheus to the back of the Amiga case, second will be used to screw the PCI cards to Prometheus itself. The holders are universal and any Amiga case that allows Zorro III cards. The whole set is absolutely stable.

4. Will there be available other extension cords besides the graphics card cable bundled with the board?

No. There are many different PCI cards (network, sound, tv cards, etc.) on the market and there is no technical possibility to make extension cords for all of them. Only a standard SVGA connector for the graphics card will be provided. For other cards, you will need to plug the external cables inside the case, directly to PCI cards. It does not affect the stability of the PCI cards plugged into Prometheus!

We will soon publish photos of Prometheus mounted inside tower and desktop casings on our website.

5. What PCI cards will be supported when Prometheus hits the stores?

2D Picasso96 drivers for Voodoo3 2000/3000 are about to be finished. Warp3D drivers will also be available before the shipment starts. We also plan to provide you with drivers for a network and sound card (popular models) before the shipment. Other drivers will follow and will, of course, be freely available for download from our website. There will be no details about the planned drivers until we at least have them in beta stage.

6. Why should Prometheus be better than other PCI solutions. Why not faster than 12 MB/s?

First of all, we guarantee the best quality and of our product (see the pictures and compare different PCI bridges circuit boards design) and error-free work. There are no "undocumented features" in our board, it is the most universal PCI solution for Amiga computers available. We do not discriminate Amiga users without the dautherboard, with Zorro slots integrated with the motherboard. Prometheus fits all Zorro III tower cases and does not cover all Zorro III slots. In the largest tower cases with 7 Zorro III slots, it even enables you to insert a second Prometheus board in one of the lower slots. From the construction point of view, it was designed to work in such pairs. The only limitation is there will be no access from our planned G3 CPU card to the PCI cards on the second Prometheus board. We want to be perfectly honest with our customers and do not overestimate the real transfers possible with our board. Transfers over 12 MB/s are highly improbable without drastic changes in the structure of the Amiga motherboard, the Buster chip to be exact. Please be aware that the transfers strictly depend on the CPU card you have in your system installed. Our test show that 040 processors (regardless the type of CPU card is) reach from 7 to 8 MB/s. Interesting is that with 030 CPU installed, the transfer rates are slightly higher than with the poorly designed 040 card.

Another thing in favour of Prometheus is it can completely take over the control of the Amiga. With our planned G3 card installed (more information quite soon), Prometheus will practically become your main board, while the old Amiga motherboard with the 68k processor will only supply power to it. With PPC CPU (68k emulated on the fly), memory, graphics, sound and I/O ports on PCI cards, approx. 90% of all computing will take place on the board with the practical transfer of 120 MB/s. Besides, our completely free development kit guarantees Prometheus to become the best programmed PCI solution for Amiga. From the very day of our announcement, we receive offers from Amiga programmers who want to write drivers for our board. If you're a programmer too, join our effort to make the best and most open to its users PCI solution for Amiga!

More really interesting information will be published on our website and mailing list. As usual, feel free to email us at prometheus@matay.pl or fei@matay.pl about anything you want to know.