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My favorite multi-CPU system was the Apple ][ card for the Macintosh LC line, which is essentially an entire computer on an expansion card to allow schools to g

My favorite multi-CPU system was the Apple ][ card for the Macintosh LC line, which is essentially an entire computer on an expansion card to allow schools to get newer computers and keep running their older educational software. Still looking for one for my LC II, someday. Honorable mention to the MacCharlie, which was a PC in a box that stuck on the side of an original Macintosh and allowed running PC software over a serial connection. (I've heard there was a similar Amiga sidecar for the Commodore, but that's outside of my scope of experience.)

duskwuff 4y ago
Some later Macintosh systems also had a PC Card -- an expansion card with an x86 CPU and chipset on it. The x86 system could (somehow!) use the RAM and storage of the host computer, and took over the system's video output with a weird adapter cable.
- vidarh 4y ago
  That's similar to the Bridgeboards for the Amiga 2000[1], with the added bit that the A2000 had two buses so you can see the board has connectors for both the Zorro bus on the Amiga and an ISA bus for the "PC side". For the Amiga 1000 there was also the "Sidecar"[2] [1] https://bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=328 https://bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=328 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_Sidecar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_Sidecar
vidarh 4y ago
Sidecar was for Amiga 1000 [1]. For Amiga 2000 there was the somewhat simpler Bridgeboard / Janus, which plugged into both the Amiga Zorro bus and a separate ISA bus in the A2000, and kept the whole thing internal, and let it access hardware on both buses (mostly used for IO, and to show the video output from the PC side in a window on the Amiga. The Sidecar plugged into the expansion port which was basically mostly the internal bus just exposed as-is. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_Sidecar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_Sidecar

duskwuff 4y ago

Some later Macintosh systems also had a PC Card -- an expansion card with an x86 CPU and chipset on it. The x86 system could (somehow!) use the RAM and storage of the host computer, and took over the system's video output with a weird adapter cable.

vidarh 4y ago
That's similar to the Bridgeboards for the Amiga 2000[1], with the added bit that the A2000 had two buses so you can see the board has connectors for both the Zorro bus on the Amiga and an ISA bus for the "PC side". For the Amiga 1000 there was also the "Sidecar"[2] [1] https://bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=328 https://bigbookofamigahardware.com/bboah/product.aspx?id=328 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_Sidecar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_Sidecar

vidarh 4y ago

Sidecar was for Amiga 1000 [1]. For Amiga 2000 there was the somewhat simpler Bridgeboard / Janus, which plugged into both the Amiga Zorro bus and a separate ISA bus in the A2000, and kept the whole thing internal, and let it access hardware on both buses (mostly used for IO, and to show the video output from the PC side in a window on the Amiga. The Sidecar plugged into the expansion port which was basically mostly the internal bus just exposed as-is. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_Sidecar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_Sidecar