Date : Wed, 27 Jul 2005 11:46:02 +0000
From : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: [Bulk] RE: RE: Econet-Ethernet bridge
On Wed, 2005-07-27 at 12:27 +0100, Phil Blundell wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-07-27 at 10:49 +0000, Jules Richardson wrote:
> > The only critical thing is what interface to use between the Econet
> > module and the PC. PCI and ISA are probably dead ends for the reason of
> > changing times as mentioned before. That probably leaves SCSI, USB,
> > serial and parallel.
>
> I'm not really sure what these interfaces would buy you as compared to
> Ethernet. Almost any computer that anyone would want to use can be
> trivially outfitted with an Ethernet card if it doesn't have one
> already.
Precisely my point; maximum flexibility. The interface I'm talking about
is just the bit of hardware that connects a computer to Econet.
Everything else - network stack, routing, drivers for the network
hardware on the other side of the link (whether Ethernet or something
else) is done by a tried-and-tested, supported, optimised, debugged OS.
The only bit of hardware design is in the Econect interface, and the
only software design in writing a driver for that interface. Existing
hardware and software do the rest.
It seems like a much simpler way of doing it, and opens the project to
more people (because even if you don't have a spare PC say, all it needs
is 5 minutes on a freecycle list or whatever to get one). My hope would
be that the requirements for the hardware side of it need an Econet
module (the hard bit), a few readily-available *cheap* (or free from old
junk) components, a bit of stripboard, and a soldering iron. No need for
any expensive (relatively) chips, custom-programmed stuff etc.
Of course whether it's viable or not would need to be discussed. Maybe
any PC-type hardware which could be used to do the bulk of the work is
too crippled speed-wise at its external interfaces to made some kind of
"dumb" Econet interface work. If it would *need* a CPU / buffer memory
at the interface to work, then I'd then be thinking that a dedicated
board is the only way to go.
cheers
Jules