Re: Appletalk on IIC

[jruschme@hiway1.exit109.com (John Ruschmeyer)]

In article <5k3ei0$gbj@pith.uoregon.edu>,
Neil Parker <nparker@cie-2.uoregon.edu> wrote:
>
>As I understand it, the idea behind the IIc Appletalk implementation (had it
>ever been completed) was that there would be an external box with two or
>three serial ports.  One would connect to the IIc, and would speak some
>kind of slow, asynchronous, not-quite-Appletalk protocol. The other ports
>would be controlled by Z8530s, and would speak the synchronous Appletalk
>protocol at full speed.  The box would contain firmware to translate
>between the two protocols.

Sitting here on the sidelines, I'm sort of curious as to whether it would
be possible to reverse engineer and complete the //c LocalTalk implementation.
It seems to me that we know several things:

1) Generally, what Apple intended to do.

2) The contents of the relevant portions of the //c ROM. (Has anyone tried
   to disassemble the Localtalk section?)

3) What the Workstation card does and how it implements LocalTalk.

We can probably also make some assumptions. Mainly that the external box
definately contained a Z8530 and probably contained a 65C02. (The latter
assumption is based on the fact that both the Workstation card and the PC
LocalTalk board had 65C02/Z8530 hardware.)

The question then becomes whether some enterprising hardware hacker could
but the equivalent of a Workstation card in a standalone box and implement
the //c-to-card protocol.

Anybody want to take that challenge on?

<<<John>>>