[Coco] CocoNIC

[Barry Nelson]

I think it would be useful to have a HDBDOS in ROM that uses the NIC to talk to a DriveWire server over the becker port protocol. It could still use DHCP or BOOTP to get an initial IP address. The DriveWire server name and port to be contacted could be returned in the 64 byte "vendor" field of the bootp response. The sequence would be to run a BOOTP client in an initial ROM bank, get the client IP address and DriveWire server address, store this information either some where in CoCo system RAM (the cassette buffer?) or RAM on the NIC card, then transfer control to another ROM bank that would run HDBDOS. If needed, that ROM bank could call out to another bank for TCP/IP routines to send receive packets.

> Brett Gordon beretta42 at gmail.com 
> Fri Sep 16 09:34:08 EDT 2016
> >
> >
> > 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