Re: Porting the TFE (Re: IIgs and OS X filesharing solutions)

["Glenn Jones" <rg.jones@rogers.com>]

"Lee Cremeans" <lee@lcremeans.homeip.net> wrote in message
8cec8633.0402251212.d49e707@posting.google.com">news:8cec8633.0402251212.d49e707@posting.google.com...
> mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon) wrote in message
news:<20040224135522.24987.00000302@mb-m26.aol.com>...
>
> > Ironically, we are now in this very situation, with a third-party
> > Ethernet card for the Apple II line, with limited IIgs software
> > support and no //e software support.  This may be why Apple
> > decided to drop their card.
>
> I have to wonder...the C=64 community has not one, but two working
> Ethernet adapters (TFE and RR-Net), while Apple II has one that kinda
> sorta works (but only really on the IIgs, and only with TCP/IP), is a
> closed design and costs 10x as much as a PC 10/100 card (as well as
> one that got to the late design stage, but was never completed). Now
> that it's 2004 and you can get Ethernet parts for cheap, I'd like to
> try. I don't think I could get the cost per board down to $15, but
> considering how simple the design I'm pondering is, it could easily be
> cheaper than the LANceGS.
>
> I went over to TFE's website (http://wwww.dunkels.com/adam/tfe), and
> looked at the schematics. The overall design of the thing is even
> simpler than the CFFA card; it's just a (third-party) board with the
> Cirrus CS8900, 20 MHz crystal and Ethernet isolation transformer on
> it, plus an address decoder (all of 1 74LS139!) on the cartridge PCB.
> It'd be easy enough to port to the II; just change the wiring so that
> it decodes to slot DEVSEL space instead of C=64 cart space (very
> simple). The CS8900 register window is 16 bytes long, so if my
> understanding of II DEVSEL space is correct, it should fit perfectly.
> It'd also be easy enough to program (since Contiki comes with working
> driver code for it), and since the CS8900 has full documentation
> available from Cirrus, modifying or improving the drivers would not be
> a problem.
>
> The one thing that bugs me is the US$70/qty 1 cost of the required
> CS8900 module. I'm wondering if it'd be cheaper to move the contents
> of the module onto the board, then put a 8-pin header on the end for a
> dongle (similar to what LANceGS does). Maybe if enough people want it,
> I could also include the header for the Embedded Ethernet module.
> Also, I'm wondering if we would need a working interval timer to use
> this board...I'm doubting it, since even on the C=64 it's not
> interrupt-driven, but it's something to look out for.
>
> Going from this, I should have a first draft of the II port in a
> couple of days, once I get PCB123 figured out (it's a bit funky at the
> moment). I'll post here again with a location once I have something.
>
> Comments, questions, please address them to me here.
>
> -lee

Lee I am working on a Apple 2 ethernet project you may be interested in
..... Similar to TFE but the module I went with is cheaper @ $22 USD qty 1.
(the only downside for prototyping is that the header is 2mm spacing instead
of .1" ..which require the aquistion of 2 converter boards)

The module I am using is the wiznet IIM7010. The module is based on wiznets
W3100A chip. It is a 3.3v based device that has 5v tolerant io. My current
schematic can be found at
http://members.rogers.com/rg.jones/IIM7010_appleII_ethernet_schematics_v_1_2.htm.
Done with eagle.

For more info have a look at my website
http://members.rogers.com/rg.jones/apple.htm ... from there choose hardware
projects -> a2ethernet ...

The entire thing could be squeezed onto a 1.5 x 3 inch PCB

I was planning on doing a link layer driver for Marinetti but may look at
getting uIP running on it first since I am more familar with c and 6502
assembler vs 65816

I just finished redoing the board in wirewrap and it's looking good  ..my
simple starter code sets up an interupt handler, then sets up the mac, ip,
mask and gateway  ...does a sysinit ... from there it's pingable from
another machine on the network...

Let me know if you have any questions ...

Glenn