>The PC part is probably easier than the MSX part, because you can use a
>language like Pascal or C to write the software and it will still be fast
>enough.
Na, on MSX C or pascal or modula-2 will be fast enough I guess. The
communication is rather straight-forward..
>But transfer rate doesn't depend just on the speed of the software... Both
>ICs and wires introduce delays. Does anyone know how fast an average MSX
>joystick port is?
Donno, but with a sync-signal it doesn't really matter. Don't expect very
high bandwith, but we're not asking for that really (do we? As long as it
works it would be nice :-) The joystick-port is implemented using the.. PSG!
I don't think this chip is a wonder of speed, although it's possible to use
it for digital audio at a desent quality.
And take in mind that we have 2 joystick-ports, so we can have 5 data bits +
1 sync-signal. That'll be fast enough.
>Is the MSX parallel port bidirectional? If so, it would be ideal for data
>communication.
No, it's not. It has only one input: printer on-line. We can use it's output
capabilities 8-bit + strobe but that's it. Timing will become too hard.
>>An other possiblity is, as I've mentioned before, the MIDI ports of PC and
>>MSX, but this requires extra hardware.
>
>Also, MIDI will give you a low transfer rate. Enough for multiplayer games,
>too low for file transfers. And for multiplayer games the joystick
>connection is good enough.
MIDI not fast enough you think? MIDI is 31.5kb/s, so faster than a 28k8
modem! There is a tetris-clone which you can play with 32 players at once,
using the MusicModule as "lan". Does somebody know's how this is achived? I
guess using the MIDI-IN and MIDI-OUT and a piece of software that relays the
data for other computers. Using the interrupt-capabilities of the MusMod I
guess it is possible to make a reliable network, in which you can hook up a
PC quite easily.
>>So, if somebody would think about transferring files using the
joystickport
>>and LPT port (perhaps even a toke-bus network using both joystickports?
>>wha!)
>
>If you connect your joystick port 1 to one MSX and port 2 to another, you
>don't get a token bus network. The reason it's called token bus is that
>there is one bus for all nodes (computers) and the one who has the token is
>allowed to send.
Oeps, token RING I mean..
Ok, this is what we have:
-Connecting one PC to one MSX using RS232. That's possible and easy, but I
guess I'm ot the only one without a RS232 interface for MSX (which are too
expensive for me and for what I want to do with it)
-Connecting one or more PC'es to one or more MSX'es in a real token RING
(hehe) LAN using MIDI-IN and OUT. On MSX, a lot of people have a MIDI-port.
MusMod, tR-GT and a bunch of others. Special drivers could be written for
every module. On PC, this requires a soundcard and a (rather expensive)
cable, however it's not THAT hard to make this cable yourself. Problem here
is that there isn't a real standard for the MIDI-port used in all cards. I,
for example, have a GUS PnP which is quite different from a SoundBlaster
(fortunatly; SB stinks IMHO) although there are emulators. AND on PC we have
Windows, which does provide a standard for using MIDI. I've looked at it,
but it seems rather complicated to achieve raw data transfer in VC++5...
Perhaps it's easier with Delphi.
Using MIDI, it's possible to make a REAL LAN. Not too fast, but doesn't
require rare or expensive hardware.
-Connecting PC's and MSX'es using the PCs LPT port and MSXs joystickport.
There is some kind of standard (could somebody give me the URL to the
scheme?) for connecting 2 MSX'es and I guess it's not too hard to use a
compatible standard using the LPT port. So, with standard hardware we can
hook up MSX'es and PC'es together in a LAN. We only need some wires, plugs
and a soldering-iron and ofcourse the software.
Drawback is that on MSX this can't be interrupt-driven so you need polling
which is not very suited in a token ring LAN IMHO.
Looking at this, I prefer MIDI for data-transfer...
Randy
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