On Sat, 20 May 2000, Castor Fu wrote:

> > > > If (or a BIG IF) that should make sense, take a RM5231 for it. So you could
> > > > run nearly the same design (but still different boards) for the 5000/1xx &
> > > > 5000/2xx workstations.
> > > > 
> > > > realistic ? YES.
> > > > 
> > > > Who would like to have one ?
> > > > 
> > > > That's the problem. I asked the same question, probably 1-2 years ago, and
> > > > nobody was interested :-(
> 
> Wow, people are really running wild with this.  I know our ASIC guys
> mentioned the sysad bus had a fairly funky protocol on the 5231.  I'd
> be pretty surprised if they had anything in common.  You'd probably
> have about as much luck trying to make a playstation into a daughtercard.

Actually the sysad bus is not the problem, its the SysCmd bus... The trick
would be to find a newer processor that has a similar set of bus timing
and control signals to the original R3000...

> 
> If you want a 52xx based system, the cheapest thing out there is
> probably the WebTV boxes. . .  the Echostar/WebTV dishplayer has
> a pretty nice subsidy attached to it.
> 
> 	-castor
> 
> 

Peter Wallace
Mesa Electronics