Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!grebyn!ckp
From: ckp@grebyn.com (Checkpoint Technologies)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: External floppy port for network? (2nd try)
Keywords: NET:, PD, Floppy
Message-ID: <24712@grebyn.com>
Date: 15 Jan 91 22:47:03 GMT
References: <1991Jan14.223623.19008@dcdwest.uucp>
Distribution: na
Organization: Grebyn Timesharing
Lines: 39

In article <1991Jan14.223623.19008@dcdwest.uucp> steve@dcdwest.dcdwest.com (Steve Meloche) writes:
>Hmmmmm....  I tried this a few months ago and got zero replies.  Perhaps 

I don't recall seeing the first try.  I should have remembered, because
I exlored this possibility myself...

To simplify, you ask if some of the available PD/shareware net software
(DNET, etc) can be adapted to run on the floppy drive port.
Straightforward answer: no.

However, if one thinks about the floppy controller as being a serializer/
deserializer, with a data rate (before encoding, which is vital) of 500K
bits per second, with a DMA port to chip RAM, with a DPLL for clock
recovery even, then one might think that creating a floppy port based
network interface would be possible.

You'd need a very simple circuit.  It would contain device config and
select logic, and line drivers for the network.  The data rate is
low enough to use simple twisted-pair wiring, or phone wires, yet it
would be faster than Appletalk. If the line drivers are done right you
could hook multiple Amigas together on the same net, rather than being
limited to simple point-to-point like DNET and Parnet.  And by being DMA
driven, the system performance would be high, not at all like a serial
or parallel port device which suffers an interrupt for each character.

I once considered implementing this and trying to sell them.  I have
soured on the Amiga somewhat since then, and no longer believe it would
make enough to pay for it's development let alone turn a profit.
The serial card project convinced me of that.

On the other hand, this is the kind of cheap kludge hack
that the Amiga marketplace so thrives upon. It would be a good project
for the Distillery or Matt Dillon, they don't care whether they make
money.
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