ragge@duvan.UUCP (Ragnar Sundblad) (11/16/85)
In Article 138 of swnet.mac C.CS.CMU.EDU!RALPHW writes:
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From: Bill Croft <seismo!su-safe.arpa!croft>
SBE (415-680-7722) makes a multibus CPU/communications board that is
almost ideal for AppleTalk use. It has 8 or 4 ports of Z8530s
with built-in DMA and an on-board 68000. In our original SEAGATE
(Stanford Ethernet AppleTalk Gateway) we used a CPU board from
Forward Technology, but if we were doing it at this date, we'd
probably use SBE instead.
Another good use for the SBE board would be as a smart AppleTalk
interface in existing gateways or ethertips. Since the SBE has
its own processor and DMA, it could handle most of the low level
(LAP) protocol details for several AppleTalk lines without bogging
down the main CPU of a multiboard gateway or ethertip.
------- Forwarded Message
From: masscomp!xorn!clemc@ucbvax.berkeley.edu
Date: 11-Nov-1985 08:42-EST (Monday)
To: masscomp!ucbcad!croft@sumex-aim.stanford.edu
Subject: News from SBE
Bill:
News about SBE (they sent their President and VP of
engineering out to see me again).
Well they (finally) seem to have the bugs out of their 68KCOM
board. We are up to artwork D (and will probably have a E yet to
come). We have not seen the D board yet, but they are close (we should
have one shortly). Most of the HW seems to work now as promised, but
you will need s daugther card for anything other than TTL signals. We
use a card that attaches to the end the SBE module to produce either
RS-232C or RS-449. In the latter case we have internal modem for
clocking at high baud rates. (I call the combined product the SCP-232
or SCP-449 for Serial Communications Processor)
Now the big news. The Com-4 board is a rework of this board
that drops 2 of the USARTs (4 lines from the 8 it had previously) and
adds another 68450 DMA controller so you get all 4 remaining lines
under DMA control (as opposed to 2 DMA lines previously and programmed
I/O on the other 6). They are about to beta the module. It looks
pretty good on paper and since it basically the previous board - the
multibus interface should be the same as before). This is the module I
would look at for an AppleTalk board given what I know today.
Anyway, when I talked to their President (Tom Anderson) and VP
(Bill Gage) I explained the Appletalks hacks that you folks
have been working on and mentioned that you had given them kind words
about their products. They will probably give you guys a call about
their new board and how it relates to Appletalk. By the way, they are
ALSO about to produce Y.A. Ethernet controller for the Multibus. It's
SUPPOSED to have a 8530 on it also, so it might make a fine gateway --
but I have not seen anything about it yet.
Hope this helps,
Clem Cole, Masscomp
------- End of Forwarded Message
-Thougt this could be fun to know.
/ragge
--
================================================================================
Why not have a nice day? Wonders:
Ragnar Sundblad, NADA, KTH Numerical Analysis & Computer Science
Phone: +46-8-787-7147 Royal Institute of Technology
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