Looking for drivers for ODS Ethernet cards

[Dj Mike]

I’m looking for drivers for two PDS Ethernet cards.

Card one is a Macanese E430 PDS slot Ethernet card

Card 2 is an Asante LC3 PDS Ethernet card.


I am looking for drivers for both cards. Any help is welcome.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Asante made dozens and dozens of different models of network card. Without knowing which one you have exactly, can only point you to generic drivers that might work. Some of them I think work with the Apple provided Open Transport driver in 7.5.3/7.5.5/7.6.1

Mac Driver Museum: Network Card Drivers

As for the other card, no idea what that is. Need to take some pictures of those cards.

 

[njroadfan]

Pictures would help. Many of these cards simply used the same chips that Apple's cards did (ex: the National DP839xx "Sonic") and worked with the built-in drivers.

 

[Dj Mike]

I figured it out. Got it working but I sure with this was a 10/100 card but not just a 10 card. This was easy before broadband so I’ll take what I can get.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

I figured it out. Got it working but I sure with this was a 10/100 card but not just a 10 card. This was easy before broadband so I’ll take what I can get.

If a 100 mbit network card ever did exist for PDS/Nubus, it would be entirely wasted. The network link bandwidth equals or exceeds the slot capability, as well as the CPU's ability to move around that much data. A late 68040 machine with Nubus 90 would have benefited from it.

 

[njroadfan]

There was one 10/100 NuBus card made by Asanté. Its performance left much to be desired. Below is an old comment of mine from the 68kMLA forum

Besides classic MacOS being slow at networking, it could just be a lousy application of the Ethernet chip used. The SMC FEAST (what a weird name) supports both 16-bit and 32-bit bus applications. The datasheet gives examples for ISA (16bit), EISA, and VLB (32bit) operation. Asante might have gone the 16-bit route with NuBus if they recycled an earlier 10Mbit Ethernet card design as a base. It's doubtful the card was designed for burst transfers or anything like DMA, likely just polled I/O.

Basically, they never seemed to outperform a Quadra's onboard 10Mbit Ethernet.

 

[Dj Mike]

the only classic Mac I have is a pair of Performa 460s (LC3+) . I have zero expectations to use this machine for any Ethernet networking beyond ftp or AppleTalk over TCP/ip to another Mac acting as a bridge machine. The Intel Mac Pros do all the heavy internet lifting, I just need a local network to shuffle over 68K files.

Since I just recently brought these machines es back from the dead with a blue scsi 2.0 and if I ever figure out the Pi SCSI correctly I’ve needed to relearn a lot of 68k stuff. Getting past the lack of multitasking at the moment is the most frustrating. I’ve taken it for granted that I can run safari, burn an .iso to a thumb drive and have mp3s playing in the background all simultaneously. Right now the act of copping a file from one drive to another and not being able to click on another window to check a directory is just a bit too much of the case of hurry up and wait. I mean this in a way that makes me appreciate how far we’ve co e.

My dive into retro - for me is approaching it all as puzzles - “ how can I get that to happen on a 30 year old machine” - how did I do that task on 93 ? Oh, I need to be in 356 color mode .. oh wow. I found this ancient software that I wanted but could not afford as a teenager… I explain the process to friends it’s like restoring a classic car. It’s a labor of love

 

[Dj Mike]

the only classic Mac I have is a pair of Performa 460s (LC3+) . I have zero expectations to use this machine for any Ethernet networking beyond ftp or AppleTalk over TCP/ip to another Mac acting as a bridge machine. The Intel Mac Pros do all the heavy internet lifting, I just need a local network to shuffle over 68K files.

Since I just recently brought these machines es back from the dead with a blue scsi 2.0 and if I ever figure out the Pi SCSI correctly I’ve needed to relearn a lot of 68k stuff. Getting past the lack of multitasking at the moment is the most frustrating. I’ve taken it for granted that I can run safari, burn an .iso to a thumb drive and have mp3s playing in the background all simultaneously. Right now the act of copping a file from one drive to another and not being able to click on another window to check a directory is just a bit too much of the case of hurry up and wait. I mean this in a way that makes me appreciate how far we’ve co e.

My dive into retro - for me is approaching it all as puzzles - “ how can I get that to happen on a 30 year old machine” - how did I do that task on 93 ? Oh, I need to be in 356 color mode .. oh wow. I found this ancient software that I wanted but could not afford as a teenager… I explain the process to friends it’s like restoring a classic car. It’s a labor of love

*256 color mode - not 356 color mode

 

[GiGaBiTe]

the only classic Mac I have is a pair of Performa 460s (LC3+) . I have zero expectations to use this machine for any Ethernet networking beyond ftp or AppleTalk over TCP/ip to another Mac acting as a bridge machine. The Intel Mac Pros do all the heavy internet lifting, I just need a local network to shuffle over 68K files.

Make sure you have a switch that can auto negotiate 10BaseT, lots of modern switches and routers won't do that anymore.

Getting past the lack of multitasking at the moment is the most frustrating. I’ve taken it for granted that I can run safari, burn an .iso to a thumb drive and have mp3s playing in the background all simultaneously. Right now the act of copping a file from one drive to another and not being able to click on another window to check a directory is just a bit too much of the case of hurry up and wait. I mean this in a way that makes me appreciate how far we’ve come.

Install Speed Doubler 8: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/1348-connectix-speed-doubler-8

This will drastically improve I/O performance on 68030/68040 and PowerPC Macs by patching the terrible I/O routines in the system software.