Serial/Parallel to Ethernet

[nyteschayde]

While waiting for my Mediator 4000Di to hook up my ethernet and whilst reading the A500/A600 thread I started thinking about how else to get an Amiga on the internet. There are several serial and parallel (more serial) port to RJ45 ethernet adapters out there.

Has anybody tried to use these to get the Amiga on the internet, I mean we all have parallel and serial ports and if we max out these ports we should be able to get slow DSL speeds out of them which should be more than enough for most applications.

Many of these devices claim there is no software development needed to hook them but I doubt that'd be the case here. That being said it seems that perhaps a simple device driver or library that Genesis or AmiTCP could recognize would be sufficient.

Anybody up to the challenge? Has it been done?

UPDATE
While this particular adapter is expensive, this document details everything you might need to write your driver.
http://www.barcode-manufacturer.com/serial-ethernet/converter/ecov115_manual.htm
http://cgi.ebay.com/10-100Mbp-Serial-Ethernet-Mini-Converter-RS232-Internet_W0QQitemZ7561780447QQcategoryZ71474QQssPageNameZWD10VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Other links for a parallel models are here
http://www.home.unix-ag.org/nils/accton_linux.html
http://search.ebay.com/Pocket-Ethernet-Adapter-Xircom_W0QQfromZR40QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQfstypeZ1QQssPageNameZRC0022

Implementation for the Atari computers
http://www.asamnet.de/~hilgarte/ether_e.php

[nyteschayde]

What about this device. It comes with a complete dev kit for $129 (hardware and software and api docs). Individual units would be 75$/1qty or 57$/10-99qty. It would require some small case and port adapter to connect to the amiga. We could go through the most programmable port available (serial I believe).

A driver would have to be written but I think we have enough great programmers on the A.org alone to facilitate this. Just a thought.

(Product in question is the 3800)
http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/products/PowerCore/

PowerCore FLEX Data Sheet PDF ( 1.9M )
http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/products/PowerCore/PowerCore.pdf

PowerCore User's Manual
PDF http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/documentation/docs/manuals/PowerCoreFLEX/UsersManual/PCoreFLEXUM.pdf
HTML http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/documentation/docs/manuals/PowerCoreFLEX/UsersManual/index.htm

PowerCore Schematic PDF ( 608k )
http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/documentation/schemat/090-0193.pdf

Dynamic C User's Manual
HTML http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/documentation/docs/manuals/DC/DCUsersManual/index.htm
PDF http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/documentation/docs/manuals/DC/DCUsersManual/DCPUM.pdf

Dynamic C TCP/IP User's Manual Vol. 1
HTML http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/documentation/docs/manuals/TCPIP/UsersManualV1/index.html
PDF http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/documentation/docs/manuals/TCPIP/UsersManualV1/tcpV1.pdf

Dynamic C TCP/IP User's Manual Vol. 2
HTML http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/documentation/docs/manuals/TCPIP/UsersManualV2/index.html
PDF http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/documentation/docs/manuals/TCPIP/UsersManualV2/tcpV2.pdf

[nyteschayde]

lol yep Piru is right, cause I have an A4000D. Remember, the A600/A1200 are the only machines with a PCMCIA slot. There are plenty of other Amiga's out there that don't have that luxury.

I was just looking for an opportunity to bring alternate ethernet capable devices to the Amiga. I have an old SCSI<->Ethernet device but it only works on ancient Macs. Pre OS 8 I believe. While this may be a good combo for shapeshifter/fusion on a classic miggy and I might try it later on now that I have a faster 040 and more ram, I was looking for an acceptable speed ethernet solution for even an unexpanded (ok well slightly expanded) A1000/A500/A2000/A2500/CD32?/A4000/A3000 etc...