Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!a186
From: a186@mindlink.UUCP (Harvey Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: ULCNet
Message-ID: <1453@mindlink.UUCP>
Date: 9 Apr 90 23:54:32 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Lines: 36


  Excuse the repost, but this one seems to been lost in the flame wars.

  Some time ago I was asking about a cheap serial network for the Amiga.
 I have the school teaching friend who wants to network 14 Amigas.
    I received an encouraging reply from Doug Walker to the effect that
 Matt had said something like this was possible, with the right cable.
 I fired off some mail to Matt Dillon asking about the feasibility
 of this & eventually, got a reply that the problem was the serial port
 chips.
    Meanwhile I had started reading up on Networks myself & came up with
 a couple of relevant magazine articles.
    Byte, October/1981, Page 50: Ultra-Low-Cost Network for Personal
        Computers by Ken Clements & Dave Daugherty
    Circuit Cellar, April/May/1989, Page 46: Creating a Network-based
        Embedded Controller by Jeff Bachiochi
    This last reference shows how to use a 75176 (Differential Bus
 Transceiver RS-485) with a garden variety serial port. ie it solves
 [for up to 32 nodes] the problem of overloading the serial chips which
 Matt Dillon mentioned.
    Now the thing I wonder about is the DNET code. I have poked around in
 the DNET source, although I am not all that conversant in C, and I don't
 see anything resembling Collision Detection. It seems to me that if I
 put 15 A500s on an ULCNet, they are quickly going to hang with garbage
 generated by collisions.
    Could someone more conversant with the DNET particulars comment on
 this, please.

    <-Harvey

 "Now, more than ever, it is evident that `good taste' only refers to
                that which reinforces the status quo." -Andre Peret

      Harvey Taylor      Meta Media Productions
       uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!Harvey_Taylor
               a186@mindlink.UUCP