Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!bw0i+
From: bw0i+@andrew.cmu.edu (Bryan Wu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Networking, ST's and Spectre 128
Message-ID: 
Date: 22 Sep 88 02:28:09 GMT
References: <8809101819.AA23376@duttnph.patroon.nl>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon
Lines: 35
In-Reply-To: <8809101819.AA23376@duttnph.patroon.nl>

Note: I hoped to send this to David Small, but couldn't e-mail to him..

I don't know if it is even possible, but since you are making a new cartridge
for the 128k ROMs, will you also be putting in AppleTalk network port in?
Perhaps by putting in the Zilog chip onto the cart itself (since the chip can
be bought by anyone) you would be able to get networking into the Atari series
via AppleTalk.  Perhaps making the Zilog chip available to the ST via. cart
slot and bypassing the Mac ROMs you could also introduce high speed nets to the
ST w/o using the Mac part of the cartridge? .. This way you could put a high
speed port on the Spectre 128 cart itself and wouldnt have to use the Atari's
hardware ports (as they are supposed to be slow compared to the AppleTalk
ports) for networking.


One of the big reasons I'm asking this is because I'm at Carnegie Mellon and we
have a computer net. called Andrew (as in Andrew Carnegie, MIT had a similar
system called Athena I think) which is a campus wide (even in the dorm rooms)
file server system.  Just last year, they released a handler for the Macintosh
that allows you to access the network via the AppleTalk port.  (This project is
a joint effort between CMU and IBM and recently Apple (using Mac II's as
workstations soon)) Now the project is going to start at the University of
Michigan (I think) as well and will be trying to get all kinds of computers
(not just IBMs and Macs) onto the fileserver.  The Andrew project is aimed
towards Universities it seems.

If you could get the Spectre 128 to work with AppleTalk, then you would offer a
"cheap" alternative to buying a $2000+ Mac SE and would get the business of
students buying STs at colleges with the Andrew System..if the Andrew system
goes over well.  In addition, you could get the ST to share printers w/ Macs if
necessary, send info between the two and so on.. a great aid to the ST line
which has no really good networking to speak of.  Having AppleTalk networking
capabilities certainly won't hurt the product. eh?

Besides, it would be nice to use the laser printers in the clusters from my
room.. sigh..