Ethernet on the Amiga!
As of May 1995, this page is no longer being
maintained. If you would like to take over maintanence of this
information, please let me know.
Ok--people on csa.* have been asking with increasing frequency how
they can get ethernet on their Amigas. This page is an attempt to
make life easy for everyone so people can be directed here and this
question does not need to be answered many times a day.
Anyway--if you have any additional information or find any errors on
this page, please email
gunnbr@cs.rose-hulman.edu
Now, on with the information...
Amiga 500
I now have many reports of various Ethernet cards for the 500. I
don't know if any of them are still in production or available, but
the Hydra card sounds promising. But first, there are a couple of
devices which sound like they might work on the 500, but they
currently do not:
- Parallel port ethernet: The hardware controlling the
parallel port on the Amiga is not capable of driving these ethernet
devices in the way they need to be driven. It has been suggested that
with hardware modifications of the Amigas parallel port, it would be
possible to write a driver, but no one has yet attempted such a thing
(AFAIK).
- SCSI port ethernet: AFAIK, it is physically
(electrically?) possible to use a SCSI ethernet device on the Amiga.
However, as I understand it, no companies will hand out programming
information for these devices, so we lose. :(
And here's what I have so far for Ethernet cards on the 500
- Amiganet
- Description
- Sidecar ethernet card for the Amiga 500
- Manufacturer
- Hydra Systems
- Red Lane,
- Kenilworth,
- UK CV8 1PB
- tel 0203 473333 FAX (44) 203-473333
- Distributor
- Interworks, Inc.
- (909)699-8120 FAX (909) 699-8279
- and others
- Price
- no information
- Connectors
- 10Base-2 (BNC) and AUI (DB15)
- Other technical specs:
- no information
- SANA2 support
- Yes
- NetBSD support
- Yes
- Linux support
- Yes
- Comments
- none
- Other support
- no information
- AEM-500
- Description
- Sidecar ethernet card for the Amiga 500
- Manufacturer
- Ameristar
- Distributor
- none--no longer in production.
- Price
- no information
- Connectors
- no information
- Other technical specs:
- no information
- SANA2 support
- Probably (it is based on the A2065 and the a2065.device may
work on it--if you have one of these cards, please let me know).
- NetBSD support
- no information
- Linux support
- no information
- Comments
- It is rumoured that very few of these were produced and that
they are thus very hard to find.
- Other support
- no information
- Quicknet
- Description
- Sidecar ethernet card for the Amiga 500 (a Zorro II version
may also be available)
- Manufacturer
- no information
- Distributor
- no information
- Price
- no information
- Connectors
- no information
- Other technical specs:
- no information
- SANA2 support
- Yes
- NetBSD support
- no information
- Linux support
- no information
- Comments
- I have very little information on this card and what little I
have I'm not sure about...
- Other support
- no information
Amiga 600/1200
Parallel and SCSI devices are not usable on this platform, either.
Please see the A500 section for the reasons why.
Also, the Amiga handles interrupts differently than "IBM"'s do, so
most PC cards are incompatible with the Amiga.
- I-Card
- Description
- Amiga compatible PCMCIA ethernet card with Amiga driver.
- Manufacturer
- Socket Communications, Inc.
- Distributor
- Interworks, Inc.
- UK: White Knight +44 1920 822321
- Price
- ~ 250 pounds
- Connectors
- 10Base-T, 10Base-2, 9VDC connector for 10Base-2.
- Other technical specs:
- no information
- SANA2 support
- Yes.
- NetBSD support
- no information
- Linux support
- no information
- Comments
- none
- Other support
- email: info@iworks.com
Amiga 2000/3000/4000
Here are your options on these systems:
- A2065
- Description
- Basic Zorro-II ethernet card
- Manufacturer
- Commodore
- Distributor
- None (No longer available new)
- Price
- US ~$230 used (see csa.marketplace)
- Connectors
- BNC (coax) and DB15 (AUI)
- Other technical specs:
- no information
- SANA2 support
- Yes
- NetBSD support
- Yes
- Linux support
- Yes
- Comments
- none
- Other support
- Scanned documentation (~245K)
- lance-test (diagnostic program) (9825 bytes) (AFAIK, there are no docs for this, but I do have some information on it.
- A4066
- Description
- Basic Zorro-II ethernet card
- Manufacturer
- CEI
- Distributor
- CEI
- Price
- US$ 300 to 350 new
- Connectors
- 10Base2 (thinwire), 10BaseT (twisted pair), and DB15 (AUI/thickwire)
- Other technical specs:
- Has a larger buffer and a newer ethernet controller chip than
the A2065 making it faster than the A2065.
- SANA2 support
- Yes
- NetBSD support
- -Current, not -1.0
- Linux support
- no information
- Comments
- none
- Other support
- no information
- Golden Gate II
- Description
- Zorro-II card which allows use of (inexpensive) ISA cards on the Amiga.
- Manufacturer
- Software Results
- Distributor
- Software Results
- Price
- US$ 125 new (ISA ethernet card is ~$30 extra (new))
- Connectors
- Depends upon the ISA card used.
- Other technical specs:
- no information
- SANA2 support
- Yes (drives NE1000 and NE2000 cards (using an NE2000 card is preferable))
- NetBSD support
- -Current, not -1.0
- Linux support
- no information
- Comments
- The current sana2 driver does not support the use of multiple simultaneious ethernet cards.
- Also includes drivers for ISA serial, parallel, and IDE cards.
- Other support
- URL: http://www.infinet.com/~erd/GG2/
- email: sales@kumiss.infinet.com
- Crosslink
- Description
- Zorro-II card which allows use of (inexpensive) ISA card on the Amiga. Also has 2 serial ports on board.
- Manufacturer
- no information
- Distributor
- no information
- Price
- no information
- Connectors
- Depends upon the ISA card used. On board serial ports use a DB?? connectors.
- Other technical specs:
- no information
- SANA2 support
- no information
- NetBSD support
- no information
- Linux support
- no information
- Comments
- Board includes 2 serial ports and an IDE controller.
- Supposedly works better than the GG2 on Amiga 2x00's with 8
megs of RAM.
- Other support
- no information
- Amiganet
- Description
- Zorro II Ethernet card
- Manufacturer
- Hydra Systems
- Red Lane,
- Kenilworth,
- UK CV8 1PB
- tel 0203 473333 FAX (44) 203-473333
- Distributor
- Interworks, Inc.
- (909) 699-8279 FAX (909) 699-8279
- and others
- Price
- ~ US $270
- Connectors
- 10Base-2 (BNC) and AUI (DB15)
- Other technical specs:
- no information
- SANA2 support
- Yes
- NetBSD support
- Yes
- Linux support
- Yes
- Comments
- none
- Other support
- no information
- Ariadne
- Description
- Zorro-II ethernet and parallel port card
- Manufacturer
- Village Tronic (of Germany)
- Distributor
- no information
- Price
- ~9200-12500 BEF ~ US $300
- Connectors
- 10Base2 (coax/BNC), 10BaseT, 2 female DB25 parallel ports
- Other technical specs:
- no information
- SANA2 support
- Yes
- NetBSD support
- no information
- Linux support
- Yes
- Comments
- Comes with Envoy software.
- Software claims to support upto 10 Ariadne cards in a single machine.
- Software is provided to redirect printing to the Ariadne parallel ports.
- Other support
- no information
- LAN Rover
- Description
- Zorro II ethernet card
- Manufacturer
- ASDG
- Distributor
- No longer available new
- Price
- no information
- Connectors
- no information
- Other technical specs:
- no information
- SANA2 support
- no information
- NetBSD support
- no information
- Linux support
- no information
- Comments
- none
- Other support
- no information
Thus concludes the information I have. As noted above, I will accept
any additional/correctional information at
gunnbr@cs.rose-hulman.edu.