Date   : Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:24:44 +0100
From   : rick@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: Econet packet size

I remember recently a discussion on Econet packet sizes. Was idly 
reading stuff on the MDFS server, and I came across this paragraph:
--8<--------
The econet is a low cost, moderate speed (50-300kBit/S on-net) network 
for connecting together microcomputers. It allows one machine to 
transmit a packet of data to another which has a suitable reception 
enabled to receive that data. A packet contains at least one byte, and 
at most 1280 bytes, of data.
--8<--------

Source: http://mdfs.net/Docs/Comp/Econet/RISCiX.txt


It is an undocumented Acorn document. RISCiX is an ARM based system that 
was, I believe, a Unixy contender to RISC OS that never quite caught on. 
The Rxxx workstations (looking a lot like souped-up A440s to me!). That 
would date it late-80s. I would imagine the 1280 is likely a limitation 
of the 6502-based machines, >1K is a lot in a 32K computer! At any rate, 
this seems the Acorn-quoted value so reasonable to figure it is reliable 
enough.

FWIW, skipping the ARM/RISCiX stuff, this document is a lengthy but 
pretty complete introduction to the ins and outs of how Econet works.


Best wishes,

Rick.

-- 
Rick Murray, eeePC901 & ADSL WiFI'd into it, all ETLAs!
BBC B: DNFS, 2 x 5.25" floppies, EPROM prog, Acorn TTX
E01S FileStore, A3000/A5000/RiscPC/various PCs/blahblah...