Re: Etherwave for IIgs (Farallon's Reply)

[dempson@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <madsci-0106960003260001@ppp-58.ts-7.nyc.idt.net>,
Eric Dietrich <madsci@tribeca.ios.com> wrote:
> I sent an eMail to Farallon TechSup re: the Etherwave PB adapter on the
> IIgs.  Here is their reply:

[snippage]

> The EtherWave Mac Adapter would probably work on your Apple IIgs but
> it will have limited features. It is not likely that you will be able
> to select anything other than the Localtalk driver.

That wouldn't be a major problem.  System 6.0.1 had support for
Apple's EtherTalk card, but the drivers were removed before it was
released.  All that is needed is for someone to work out how the
alternative medium is selected, and writea Network control panel to
do the dirty work.

It would also be necessary to write ELAP (EtherTalk Link Access
Protocol) and AARP (AppleTalk Address Resolution Protocol)
implementations that were able to work with the device, and probably
also a GS/OS driver that worked with the SCSI Manager to talk to te
EtherWave.  (This would require an Apple SCSI card.  I doubt it could
be done on a RamFast unless the driver was added to the card's ROM or
combined GS/OS driver, so it could only be done by Sequential.)

> This software was never tested on a IIgs and is likely to have some
> problems. The driver requires that you have at least 1 meg of RAM
> available and be running System 6.0.5 or higher. I do not know if the
> IIgs meets these requirements.  

:-)

Obviously they think the IIgs is some kind of Macintosh.  

It should be possible to use this device on the IIgs, giving AppleTalk
connecitons at considerably higher speeds than LocalTalk (given an
Apple High-Speed SCSI card with DMA enabled), but it would require
that Farallon supply technical information on the SCSI command set
supported by the EtherWave so that someone could write the necessary
drivers.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand