Re: Ethernet card?

[mvgfr@netcom.com (Marc Farnum Rendino)]

On Thu, 10 Oct 1996 23:46:38 GMT, Marc Sira
(toh@freenet.Victoria.BC.CA) wrote
(<Dz33Dr.H7I@freenet.victoria.bc.ca>):

> In our last episode, mvgfr@netcom.com (Marc Farnum Rendino) said:

> >On Wed, 9 Oct 1996 12:16:12 GMT, Marc Farnum Rendino
> >(mvgfr@netcom.com) wrote (<mvgfrDz0Cr0.L49@netcom.com>):
> >
> >I meant to mention another idea. I'm sure I'm not the first, but maybe
> >it's time to think about it again - SCSI Ethernet boxes.

> I think this is the way to go. I have an Asant� Mini EN/SC that I
> bought for under $50, and drivers for it on my Powerbook Duo. At some
> point I'm going to have a go at writing a device driver for it on my
> Linux box at work. I obviously don't need to use such a device under
> x86 Linux :) but this would be in preparation for a GS driver (so far I
> have neither the tools nor the expertise on the GS; also, the Linux
> generic scsi interface is quite nice, which gives me an easy foundation
> that I already understand to start from)

Sounds like a good plan - most of the SCSI part of things should
translate readily. The Apple II networking stuff is going to be
different, but there are, as far as I remember, good docs.

> I haven't yet contacted Asant�
> about technical information, but this is my plan. If they turn out to
> be recalcitrant about giving this out...

As I think all of them might - the best bet might be to peek at the
Mac code. No magic there; code is code.

> I've no idea what
> sort of throughput one might expect from the GS...

That can come later - just getting something working is the important
part. :)

> The only issue I can think of with such a driver on the GS is that the
> Ramfast appears to have specific device support built into the ROM, and
> this might interfere with an unexpected device like a communications
> adaptor. The more generic Apple HS SCSI might be better suited, though I'm
> sure it has its own issues.

I don't know what issues the Apple HS SCSI might have, if any, but I'd
definitely not even try with the RamFAST.

> I can actually think of one other issue - the Appletalk support on the GS
> is likely to be totally tied to the Localtalk port, so providing Ethertalk
> support with a third-party driver might be tricky.

Maybe, but my guess is that speed is a very secondary issue; AppleTalk
over LocalTalk (slow) is fine, but Ethernet is not even available yet,
so just getting Ethernet for the sake of IP would be the big
benefit. If you can do EtherTalk afterward, that's an incremental
benefit.

> I imagine the main desire for most people is to have other protocols
> supported, though (TCP/IP).

Right. :)

- Marc