Date   : Tue, 22 Jun 2004 19:13:27 +0000
From   : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: PC/Econet

On Tue, 2004-06-22 at 18:24, John Kenyon wrote:
> > 
> > >It might be easier to graft on a master interface instead of fitting 
> > >all the chips and components.
> > That would be the approach I was thinking off. Take the master econet
> > interface and simply graft it onto a PC comms interface. Would USB be at
> > appropriate in solving polling times that the parallel interface may have
> > problems with? You could even graft on a 6502 and use the 
> > microcode from the
> > ISA card :-)
> 
> 
> Or even create an ISA card with a TUBE ULA on it, and connect the PC
> to the TUBE interface. Then you could have the PC acting as a co-processor,
> using standard MOS calls over. the TUBE interface to access any hardware
> in/connected to the "host" Beeb.

I've got a Torch Graduate system *somewhere*, which is an XT-class
machine that uses the BBC as the I/O processor. Technically it too could
form a gateway between Econet and Ethernet (it has a couple of 8 bit ISA
slots IIRC). Somebody gave me the machine a few weeks ago but I haven't
had a chance to look it over yet - I don't have any software either
(although amazingly I found a set of manuals for it a couple of weeks
back)

Same problem as with the ISA Ecolink board though, in that it'd be a
complicated setup and of course it doesn't help anybody else who doesn't
have the hardware!

Doing *something* simple with a 68B54 chip hooked up to a modern PC
would seem the best solution as it's open to anyone who can source the
relevant IC (plus the line drivers).

Personally, I'd prefer a parallel port solution that could quickly be
swapped between machines, if the hardware's fast enough to drive it.
Next up would be an ISA board (much simpler in design to the Ecolink due
to faster PC CPUs), simply because I have old ISA cards I could hack
around with to bodge something together with. I have no clue about
building PCI cards, and I imagine prototyping boards are not cheap... 

cheers

Jules