Internal Falcon Ethernet controller

[mghodge]

This project started out as a "I wonder if I can do it" challenge to myself. Two years later I've got the first working prototype. The adapter plugs directly into the Falcon's expansion port and provides an RJ11 jack in place of the joystick-b port. I chose to do it this way so that no cutting or permanent modifications would be needed to the Falcon. Just yesterday I finally got 16-bit DMA working between the Falcon and the RTL8019AS. This is using STiNG and the EtherNE drivers. I tested some FTP transfers over the local LAN using LITCHI and couldn't measure any appreciable speed increase though. If nothing else I've learned a great deal from the endeavor about IP, ARP, ICMP, ISA buses, 68000 coding, and the Falcon's maddening "emulated 68000" expansion bus. It would be neat to get interrupts working, but that may be above my abilities on the software side. Hardware wise, just a couple of jumpers to the CPLD could have it hooked up.

DSC_0080.JPG

[catmando]

Looks good

[shoggoth]

Ah! Nice project! And it brings back some memories for me : I started doing the exact same thing 10-15 years ago, as a "I wonder if I can do it"-project I made a prototype, but I never dared to try it in a real machine. I also used the RTL8019, and I highly doubt my card would do anything but to fry the machine!

Document the card well, release the sources for your drivers, and I bet someone will add interrupts later on!

Nice work, card looks really nice, DMA and everything. Mechanical solution looks *genius*.

Next - production in batches of millions!

[Dal]

Very elegant solution.

[EvilFranky]

Look really good! Well done.

[dml]

Very nice work!

[dbsys]

Brilliant idea and great work.

Do you have any plans to make this prototype a "product" other Falcon users can get from you?

[cyberish]

Holy cow… - looks GREAT! - Give it to the people

[wongck]

Nice "wonder if it can be done" project

[MM41]

Nice card, good work!
It's possible to view a picture of the joystick side port ? (without RJ11 cable)

[instream]

Excellent project! The "I wonder if I can do it" kind of spirit is just what made me and my brother start the EtherNat project and then the SuperVidel.

[hencox]

Cool board! A few months ago I was thinking of making such a board, because my ct60 is broken and the cartridgeport as well, so there was no way to get reasonably fast ethernet in my falcon anymore. But you beat me to it

[mghodge]

Nice card, good work!
It's possible to view a picture of the joystick side port ? (without RJ11 cable)

DSC_0095s.jpg

It should be noted that the alignment of this prototype is off a little. There is just enough room for the RJ45 and the LED column on the next rev.

[paul92706]

looks very clean! great job there!

[mghodge]

So I found the stats display on Litchi and got some better results.

Receiving 2MB file:
Cartridge: 41,500 B/s
Expansion: 91,500 B/s

Sending same file:
Cartridge: 12,300 B/s
Expansion: 12,400 B/s

So the results are actually pretty good for receive. More than double the speed. Sending is odd though. Why are both so slow?

[calimero]

Very nice project! Much better looking than NetUSBee ROM port (if you have free CPU expension slot).

btw you compare speed cartridge speed is from NetUSBee ROM port?

[Dal]

That's an RJ45 port, not RJ11 by the way.

[ICS]

Looks awesome, but...
My joypad B port is used to connect the Screenblaster to the Falcon.
Is there a possible solution for your card with leaving the joypad port intact?
Or maybe a "Version B" for people that need the joypad port...

Thanks for considering it!

[calimero]

Looks awesome, but...
My joypad B port is used to connect the Screenblaster to the Falcon.
Is there a possible solution for your card with leaving the joypad port intact?
Or maybe a "Version B" for people that need the joypad port...

Thanks for considering it!

why ScreenBlaster need Joystick port? Is it only used for powering ScreenBlaster with 5V?

[sqward]

mghodge: With very low effort you could convert my tool to use your device. This should yield some better speeds.
http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.ph ... 7ba75dc161

[joska]

why ScreenBlaster need Joystick port? Is it only used for powering ScreenBlaster with 5V?

It is used to control the ScreenBlaster's adjustable oscillator.

[mghodge]

The speed tests are comparing to the EtherNEC Cartridge port adapter for ISA cards (the card has the same chip on it)
http://hardware.atari.org/ether/

As for not using the Joy-B port, I can't see anywhere else that would not require cutting up a Falcon.

[calimero]

So I found the stats display on Litchi and got some better results.

Receiving 2MB file:
Cartridge: 41,500 B/s
Expansion: 91,500 B/s

Sending same file:
Cartridge: 12,300 B/s
Expansion: 12,400 B/s

So the results are actually pretty good for receive. More than double the speed. Sending is odd though. Why are both so slow?

I just notice strange behaviour using Falcon030 16MHz, Litchi, plain TOS, STing, Hydra (NetUSBee):

If files are smaller than 1MB than download speed is around 60KB/s (up to 70KB/s).
If files are larger than 1MB than speed is around 24KB/s.
and I try 7MB file got only 8KB/s!!

What could be the problem? (I try dozen of files and only size does matter)

Uploading is always around 18KB/s, files size does not matter.

[christos]

I think that's probably a software issue, either litchi or sting. IIRC I used to get better speeds with ethernec, mintnet and aftp, I believe joska has created a ready to copy mint setup for the falcon that might be helpful.

[Rajah Lone]

If files are smaller than 1MB than download speed is around 60KB/s (up to 70KB/s).
If files are larger than 1MB than speed is around 24KB/s.
and I try 7MB file got only 8KB/s!!

- Litchi tries to download/upload the file entirely in RAM to avoid writing on the disk during the transfer. It warns you in the console window if it can't allocate the required memory and will have to do it by parts. Also, Litchi is a GFA program, C coded would be quicker, my goal is to have more convenience and security than quickness. There are some fixes in the changelog about the TCP/IP layer usage: better have the latest version of Litchi.
- The TCP/IP layer is also important: try to set a better timing in the STING.CPX and you can allocate more RAM for STING I/O buffers.