[unix-pc.general] SOCKET CODE & alex%nerwin.uucp@umbc3.umbc.edu

alex@umbc3.UMBC.EDU (Alex S. Crain) (10/05/89)

	I was wandering through the process table on umbc3 today and found
several processes that looked like "uux - nerwin!uucp". Closer inspection
reveiled that people are still sending mail to umbc3!nerwin!alex, so I 
thought that a clarification is in order.

	nerwin's disk died about 2 months ago, and has yet to be repaired.
I've got a good price from at&t on a repair ($250 for 67eg miniscribe), but
I'm broke right now, so it sits. I don't know where mail to nerwin goes,
but I don't see it (I assume that it gets bounced).

	As far as the socket stuff goes, nerwin died right after I finished
version 1.1, so I don't even know what works/barfs in the code. Bradley Smith
has been working on it for the last couple of months, and has added lots of
neat stuff like support for select() and ptys. I expect nerwin to be up by
november, and I'll be back into the code by christmas, but until then the
code is sort of an orphan. I still consider it to be my baby, but right now
I can't even accept bug fixes because I can't verify them :-(.

	If you're wondering where all this is going, the idea is that the
socket driver will support a serial line network, which in turn will support
the standard internet netwrong utilities running over SLIP. The video 
hardware mod built by Brian Botton makes an X server a viable option, so
I presume that one will be forthcoming, using the socket driver for IPC.

	I've done some research into the serial line driver in the unix-pc,
and I should have something up by say, spring, in terms of a AF_INET socket
type, in the mean time the AF_UNIX sockets are pretty complete. I am also
interested in an ethernet interface if someone will loan me a pair of
ethernet cards ...

	In the mean time, I've set up umbc3 for anonymous ftp to distribute
what I have. The pub directory here contains most of the stuff that I've
done for the unix-pc, ie:

	pub/3b1port.shar	The 3b1 code forKoyto Common Lisp
	pub/3b1prolog.shar	The diffs to make SBProlog work on a 3b1
	pub/dis.tar.Z		The dissassembler (still lacking a man page)
	pub/gcc-cpp.Z.uu	a gcc-cpp binary for bootstrapping gcc
	pub/ipctut.tar.Z	a socket tutorial (roff format)
	uipc-1.1.tar.Z		version 1.1 of the socket code
	uipc-1.2.tar.Z		version 1.2 of the socket code (the latest?)

umbc3's inet # is [130.85.1.3]. I'll be happy to add stuff to this list, if
you have anything that needs a home.

-- 
#################################		:alex.
#Disclamer: Anyone who agrees   #    University of Maryland Baltimore County
#with me deserves what they get.#	alex@umbc3.umbc.edu
#################################	

david@ms.uky.edu (David Herron -- One of the vertebrae) (10/13/89)

I'm curious on something ...


Over in the amiga groups a guy there (Mat Dillon) is developing some
networking stuff which uses funky parallel cables as the network
medium.  The software is fast enough that remote file systems off
a remote hard disk work faster than a local floppy.

Since I have an Amiga as well as the Unix PC I'm interested in using
this network between my two machines.

I tried reading through this in the (good) hardware reference manual
but got a bit lost and haven't gotten back to it yet.  Will the parallel
port on the 3b1 do both input and output?  Will I need to write a
device driver before I can do input & output?  Anybody else attempting
the same?

(I know that I can do it -- It's just that I've just moved to the new
jersey (piscataway to be exact) area and I'm still unpacking and all that
garbage)  (btw, I'd be interested in meeting up with other people
in the nj area ...)
-- 
<- David Herron; an MMDF guy                              <david@ms.uky.edu>
<- ska: David le casse\*'      {rutgers,uunet}!ukma!david, david@UKMA.BITNET
<- 
<- New official address:  attmail!sparsdev!dsh@attunix.att.com

ssb@quest.UUCP (Scott S. Bertilson) (10/14/89)

david@ms.uky.edu (David Herron -- One of the vertebrae) writes:
>.....................................................  Will the parallel
>port on the 3b1 do both input and output?  

I wondered about something like this from the perspective of hooking
relays and sensors.  I discovered to my dismay that the UNIXpc doesn't
use a nice flexible parallel i/o chip, but rather a simple latch for
output and a couple of other bits of input to test for data strobe
and printer ready.  If you can be satisfied with just a few bits,
you might be able to write a replacement driver and use it, but
it doesn't look fun.
					Scott S. Bertilson
					ssb@quest.UUCP
-- 

Scott S. Bertilson   ...uunet!rosevax!rose3!quest!ssb
			scott@poincare.geom.umn.edu

thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan) (10/14/89)

David Herron asks:

	Over in the amiga groups a guy there (Mat Dillon) is developing some
	networking stuff which uses funky parallel cables as the network
	medium.  The software is fast enough that remote file systems off
	a remote hard disk work faster than a local floppy.

	Since I have an Amiga as well as the Unix PC I'm interested in using
	this network between my two machines.

	... Will the parallel port on the 3b1 do both input and output?  Will
	I need to write a device driver before I can do input & output?
	Anybody else attempting the same?

I, too, have a buncha Amigas flanking my UNIXPCs, and the agony of not being
able to network them except over the serial port at 19.2 KBaud is frustrating.

The Amiga's parallel port (the "printer" (hah) port) is a programmed I-O port
along the lines of what is common among Motorola chips, with a data direction
register whose bits are congruent to the data lines and whose values (0 or 1)
control whether ANY given data line is an input or an output line.  Thus, it is
a true I/O port and very flexible.

The parallel printer port on the UNIXPC is just that, a port for connection to
a parallel printer, and it is essentially uni-directional.  For those of you
with schematics, page 15 documents the parallel interface of the UNIXPC.  The
chip is an 'LS374 whose outputs (directly connected to the parallel connector)
follow the data bus on a rising clock pulse.

I checked this a l-o-n-g time ago (the idea of connecting the Amiga and the
UNIXPC through each's parallel ports), and it won't work.

HOWEVER: with thanks to Lenny for locating the person with all the StarLAN
cards, I ordered some StarLAN cards for my UNIXPCs, and it "should" be possible
to develop a hardware interface for the Amiga's parallel port such that it
can connect to the StarLAN.  Note I said HARDWARE interface.  The area that
will require work will be software.  Perhaps TCP or KA9Q or something similar
can be used.

Because I have a great personal interest in connecting the two types of systems
together, I am interested in hearing from anyone who has information about the
StarLAN interface (either/both hardware and/or software).

Also, any info about Ethernet <=> StarLAN would be appreciated.

Just in case anyone's interested, the Amiga is capable (with either the Dos-
to-Dos or the CrossDOS software) of writing flopppies that can be read on the
UNIXPC (and vice versa).  But using floppies to move material between the two
systems is a pain, and I have a LOT of software to move on a regular basis
because I use the Amiga for all FTP (Internet) file gathering since it has a
lot of disk space (> 1GB (all SCSI)).   Hmmm, anyone ever hear what happened
to Mike Thompson and his SCSI project for the UNIXPC?

Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]