[Coco] CocoNIC

[Brett Gordon]

>
>
> ALSO, if you really need more space, I can put 512kB on the board for
> $2.50 total (meaning, if the board was $40.00 without, it'd be 42.50
> with).  If so, I'd set it up like CocoFLASH, with 16kB visible in ROM, 16
> more for the Coco3, and a register to page through the ROM in 4kB chunks.
>
> Jim


Yup.. that would be nifty in many ways. how about ROM and RAM ?  how
painful is that? say 256k of RAM and 256k of ROM? Then the default PXE boot
ROM could slam either a network image or a built-in ROM image to RAM, and
hand off booting to normal BASIC.
RAM is easier and faster to write than FLASH.

BOOTP or PXE (or whatever it's name is now) is basically just a DHCP server
and a TFTP server.  TFTP is simpler than TCP to implement, and gives a
chance that a normal, stock BOOTP server for windows or linux could work
with a CoCo. (less work, less special software, more fun)

But really the next step is a IP/UDP stack in assembler. John Mark Mobley
has some 32 bit asm routines that could be re-used for this.  After working
with uIP, I notice how plain simple IP/UDP really is.  Even a TCP in asm
shouldn't be too horrible.  An ASM stack would be handy for BASIC or Nitros
noodling.

Maybe a PXE booter (using CoCo's internal ROM/RAM) should be my October
Retro Challange.  It would be kinda weird, but tastefully silly, to have to
load via TAPE in order to boot via PXE :)

cheers, brett