Mediator PCI 1200 ZIV Black expands the Amiga 1200 with 4 PCI slots

ELBOX has launched the Mediator PCI 1200 ZIV black, a new PCI expansion board for Amiga 1200 systems fitted with a Z-IV busboard. It gives these machines four PCI slots and adds a 3.3 V power rail, opening the door to a wider range of PCI 2.2 hardware. That matters if you’re running a heavily expanded Amiga 1200. Instead of being limited to traditional Amiga expansion cards, you can add familiar PCI hardware for graphics, sound, USB, networking and other jobs. The basic idea isn’t new. ELBOX has been producing Mediator boards for years. This version builds on that design with a black PCB, 3.3 V support and compatibility aimed at Z-IV-equipped A1200 systems.

Four PCI slots and a 32-bit bus

The Mediator PCI 1200 ZIV black provides four PCI slots. All four support PCI 2.2, and the bus runs at either 33 or 66 MHz. It’s a 32-bit design, with a quoted maximum transfer rate of 264 MB/s. ELBOX also specifies 4 GB of PCI memory space, address and data parity checking, and four interrupt lines for every PCI card. There’s support for bus mastering and DMA too.

That allows compatible PCI devices to transfer data more directly instead of relying on the CPU for every operation. The board can also use SDRAM or SGRAM fitted to a PCI graphics card as a DMA buffer. For a classic Amiga setup, that’s a fairly substantial amount of expansion capability.

The board isn’t designed for a stock desktop A1200, though. You need an Amiga 1200 fitted with a Z-IV busboard. In a fully expanded system, ELBOX says you can run four PCI cards, one Z-IV card and up to five Zorro II cards at the same time.

Graphics, sound, USB and networking

Hardware support is where the Mediator becomes more interesting. For graphics, the supported list includes Voodoo 3, Voodoo 4, Voodoo 5 and Voodoo Banshee cards. S3 Virge and S3 Virge DX boards are also supported.

Drivers provide 2D graphics acceleration for compatible cards. Warp3D support is available for Voodoo 3, Voodoo 4 and Voodoo 5 hardware, so users can also take advantage of 3D acceleration in software that supports it. Sound options are fairly broad too.

Compatible hardware includes the Sound Blaster 4.1 Digital, Sound Blaster 128 and PCI sound cards based on the ForteMedia FM801 chipset. If you want USB, Spider and Spider II USB 2.0 cards are supported through the Poseidon USB stack.

Networking is covered through SANA-II drivers. That includes both 10 Mbit/s Ethernet and 100 Mbit/s Fast Ethernet PCI cards. There are even drivers for PCI television tuner cards. ELBOX lists support for more than 100 models. So this isn’t just about adding one fast graphics card. The Mediator can become the centre of a much larger A1200 expansion setup.

Designed for accelerated Amiga 1200 systems

The Mediator PCI 1200 ZIV black supports Amiga 1200 systems fitted with Motorola 68030, 68040 and 68060 accelerators. It’s also compatible with PowerPC turbo cards. That gives owners some flexibility.

An older 68030-based tower can use the board, but so can a much faster 68060 or PowerPC configuration. The actual performance you’ll get still depends heavily on the accelerator, PCI card and software involved, but the busboard itself isn’t tied to one particular CPU generation. It’s also worth stressing that this is specialist hardware.

You can’t simply open a standard Amiga 1200 case, drop the board inside and start adding PCI cards. The Mediator PCI 1200 ZIV black is meant for machines already built around the Z-IV expansion system, typically towerised A1200 configurations with considerably more hardware than Commodore originally supplied.

Price and package

ELBOX introduced the board at €333.95 including VAT. A 10 per cent pre-sale offer reduced the price to €300.56 for orders placed by 23:59 CET on 26 August 2026. ELBOX said boards ordered during that promotion would ship within four weeks of payment.

The package includes the black 3.3 V Mediator PCI ZIV board, the Mediator Multimedia CD and a user manual. ELBOX also includes a two-year warranty and technical support.

A practical PCI upgrade for Z-IV systems

The Mediator PCI 1200 ZIV black is aimed at a very specific type of Amiga 1200 owner, and that’s exactly what you’d expect from this kind of hardware. If your machine already uses a Z-IV busboard, this version gives you four PCI slots, 3.3 V support, DMA, bus mastering and access to a long list of supported PCI peripherals.

That can mean Voodoo graphics, Sound Blaster audio, USB 2.0 and Fast Ethernet in the same A1200. It’s a straightforward expansion product with a clear purpose: give Z-IV-equipped Amiga 1200 systems more PCI options and let several types of expansion hardware work together in one machine.

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