Date   : Fri, 29 Jul 2005 21:41:42 +0000
From   : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: Econet-Ethernet bridge

On Fri, 2005-07-29 at 21:15 +0200, Mark Usher wrote:
> >I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking that. A 6502-based gateway would 
> >be rather cool :) I've certainly got spare 6502 CPUs, ROM and RAM chips 
> >lying around here doing nothing (and a programmer). Or, failing that, 
> >what about hacking the ethernet chip onto the 1MHz bus of a standard 
> >beeb and just fitting it with a custom ROM? Saves a lot of building 
> >work!
> Just no existing apps would be compatible without hacking around. That is
> part of the beauty of the Econet<>Ethernet box, or designing an interface at
> the PC end for it to attach to econet.

But it *is* an Econet<>Ethernet box, just using a beeb with a custom
ROM; no different to the level of code needed to build an
Econet<>Ethernet box from more modern components (as Phil and Eelco are
designing), just using either an off-the-shelf BBC + Ethernet chip, or a
custom 6502 board + Ethernet chip. The level of software design's the
same (roughly) in all three, presumably.

I'm not thinking of a device that'll run any intelligent apps
(fileserver or whatever) on the box; it'll just be a plain old gateway.

I think the 'classic' nature of using a 6502-driven gadget to do this
appeals for some reason :-)

> Of course, there is a lot to be said for attaching an ethernet controller
> directly to the Beeb. I just can't help thinking though, that it would mean
> writing a hell of a lot of software for the Beeb to get it to take advantage
> of some of the things we would then want.

Yep, but no different to any other approach really. Or at least no
different to a gateway built from scratch. Using a Linux box (say) for
the Ethernet and control side of it does have the benefit of lots of
relevant code already existing and make the use of development tools a
*lot* easier!

Actually someone mentioned Contiki over on Classiccmp a few hours back;
I always thought that was just a 'modern' OS (supporting things like
Ethernet) for the C64, but from what was said it supports other
platforms these days too. Maybe a beeb version would be nice, talking to
an Ethernet chip on the 1MHz bus for connectivity...

cheers

Jules