Date   : Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:39:30 -0600
From   : jules.richardson99@... (Jules Richardson)
Subject: Beeb Networking - Was: No wonder CompSci graduates

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       <009101cb8519$4fa08e70$eee1ab50$@bbcdocs.com>
Message-ID: <4CE1C4B2.2010000@...>

Mark Usher wrote:
>> I suspect that there's some software voodoo that could be worked on the PC
>> side to make this work and route Econet data across IP networks, or allow
>> emulators to easily talk to real machines on the Econet the other side of
> the
>> USB widget, with the software translating between IP and Econet data and
>> sending/receiving it over the Econet as necessary.
> 
> Why bother with the USB. If the widget translates between IP and Econet,
> surely there is no need for USB as most machines that have USB capability
> would also have Ethernet capability.

No, my thinking was that the hardware should be simple (and cheap!) - just a 
way to twiddle the Econet data lines under software control. The software on 
the host system is responsible for translating IP to Econet and vice-versa (or 
encapsulating Econet within IP, depending on which approach is more sensible)

A board with on-board firmware (and Ethernet rather than USB) would be nice, 
but also a lot more expensive - and I suspect there'd still be a need for 
off-board configuration, so it's not like it'd be plug in and go.

As far as the host system's OS is concerned, it'd all look like another IP 
interface, but the low-level driver would be munging between IP and Econet 
(and, I assume, mapping IP addresses to Econet station addresses according to 
some config file)

cheers

Jules