I`ve been wondering about the 44-pin IDE connector. Would an IDE Splitter, such as what is used with an Amiga 1200, work for having both a hard disk and CD/DVD-rom? Are there any plans to make an ide splitter for the Efika?

_________________
Pegasos-II board G3/600 MHz CPU
Flex Micro ATX tower/ 256 MB DDR ram
32 MB ATI Radeon /DVD Sony DDU-161216speed/40speed
Harddisk AT/IDE 3.5\\\", 60 GB

You would have to use a tuner card that has a video output (if they work in 3.3V). VDR and mythtv support these.

AFAIK, the IDE/ATA standard grants two devices per channel/controller, one master and one slave. I have heard nothing about the IDE controller in the 5200B should be cripled in regards to master/slave, only that it's a single controller. The 44-pin IDE connector and 2.5" units should be about saving physical space on the mainboard and in the case, nothing else. Then it should mostly be about buying the proper cables, like this for instance. AFAIK, there are also 2.5" to 3.5" cables and adapters.

Please anyone, correct me if I'm wrong ...

@ takemehomegrandma
Looking at the Efika board I see a female connector. I think the cable would need one male connector and two female connectors. Have you heard of any cables like that? Perhaps a simple adapter would be away to use a regular cable.

_________________
Pegasos-II board G3/600 MHz CPU
Flex Micro ATX tower/ 256 MB DDR ram
32 MB ATI Radeon /DVD Sony DDU-161216speed/40speed
Harddisk AT/IDE 3.5\\\", 60 GB

All kinds of adapters exists, and certainly the one you are looking for (male in both ends). Search around a little for best price/availability, but in any case they shouldn't be more than a few dollars ...

The Efika on the pictures are meant to have a HDD mounted on top of the board, hence the "L-shaped" female connector that the HDD plugs directly into. I think that's a good idea, but I would be interested in having another version of the Efika *as well* that has a *regular* male connector meant for cables. Wouldn't be difficult at all from a production point of veiw; it would only be a matter of replacing one component with another during one of the production batches ...

@ takemehomegrandma
Thanks for the tip. I`ll have a look around and see what I can find for my needs. I agree about having a different ide connection, perhaps it`s something that can be considered in future revisions.

_________________
Pegasos-II board G3/600 MHz CPU
Flex Micro ATX tower/ 256 MB DDR ram
32 MB ATI Radeon /DVD Sony DDU-161216speed/40speed
Harddisk AT/IDE 3.5\\\", 60 GB

In PCI, I've only found this one :
SAPPHIRE All-in-Wonder VE 64 Mo PCI (PAL)
http://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00027644.html
I don't know which driver is needed under Linux for its TV tuner. The GPU is an ATI 7500.

In AGP, for twice the price there is this one : Club3D Radeon All-In-Wonder 9200 SE 128 Mo (CGA-AIWS92)

But the AGP riser allows you to connect AGP All-in-Wonders too, so I don't see the problem. That AGP will be 3.3V I think, so you can't connect newer ATI cards like X1300, but older 9250 should work. Some 9800 too, but you will have to search a little for one that have "two notches"(meaning one that can work with 3.3V).
About Linux drivers, I don't know nothing - I don't use tuners - but I remember reading some docu which stated that All-in-Wonder was supported... Unfortunatly I don't remember what this documentation was all about, so it's possible that this was X.org docu, stating that All-in-Wonder are supported as normal 3D gfx...
Sorry, but you will have to ask somebody else, as I don't know nothing about TV-tuners(I don't use them) nor Radeons(I use dual-head Matrox G450).

For the tuner drivers, I will have a look into my kernel into the V4L section (Video for linux)...
Thanks for info anyway...

About X1300, I hope it will be supported.
At the moment the drivers made by ATI are only for x86.
I think a 9200/9250 is enough for that small board anyway.

Found this

"GATOS project provides enhanced drivers for many videocards made by ATI (in particular All-in-Wonder series"...
See here : http://gatos.sourceforge.net/supported_cards.php


Hope that works on PPC.

You mean under PPC Linux or by Efika? If the later, then I don't think so, as all AGP X1300 Radeons I saw, were AGP x4/x8(meaning - they can't be used in 3.3V AGP slot)... Well, I've heard some Taiwan (or was it China?) corporation is planing to release PCI X1300(sic! ), so who knows? Maybe in future... I know. Those bloody %&*#! But hey, Genesi recently got ODW certified by ATI and ATI was bought by AMD, so maybe thing will turn better for PPC Linux(and maybe for whole FLOSS). We'll have to sit, wait and see what happens.

This certification is for an ODW with the ATI 9250.
See here : http://www.ati.com/products/certified/genesi.html
It says nothing about the EFIKA or another ODW gfx board. I don't think something special will happen for the drivers with ATI, and I think we must rely on what is already working on Pegasos and on Linux.
Anyway, I don't think we need a big gfx card for an EFIKA. But this is not the same for the OSW.