On 1/9/02 at 11:22 PM Dexter wrote: >> If it had MultiIO/Ethernet as well, it seems to me that such a card would >> be a very good preparation for your XY-Fire!
>This has me thinking. In what ways does the Q60 ISA implimentation differ >from the PC implementation? The CS8900 is a nice general purpose ethernet >(10baseT) that looks like minimal fuss and sits happily on an ISA buss. I was thinking about a SMSC 91C96 - works with 8 and 16 bit busses, has more buffer memory, and most important: it's 99.9% software compatible with the 10/100 non-PCI 91C111 (the only non-PCI 'all-in-one' 10/100 I know of) - considering how difficult it is to get the drivers, at least we can avoid doing it more than once. Oh, yes, and there are Linux drivers for both. The only down side of the 91C96 is that it isn't easy to get it in the tiny 100 TQFP package (you have to buy a lot of them), whereas the CS8900 comes as a TQFP (yes, I considered it - and the RTL 8019 - which has the unique distinction of having the most ridiculous minimum quantity requirement ever - 50000! - and can only use half of it's 16K buffer when connected to a 8-bit bus). Of course, on the Q40/60 the ISA is implemented as 16-bit so this appears not to be a consideration. On the GoldFire it's an 8-bit implementation to ease routing. The SMSC chips are nice about this because they can be made to look exactly the same regardless of bus width. Not that I am doing a plug here, but as I said, maybe we can avoid doing drivers more than once... >> All drivers could be written on the Q40/Q60 and would immediately work on >> XY-Fire, by just changing the register locations. >How do people actually use their machines these days? What's in demand? >From my experience, there are no two QLs (of any sort!) that are alike - even in this respect! Nasta
