Subject: Re: Found DEC branded AU, need specs
To: None <port-vax@NetBSD.org>
From: der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
List: port-vax
Date: 01/19/2004 01:30:18
Okay, let's try this again, and see if I can get the headers right.

> And that one, that DESTA device, is what I have here.  Which is why I
> started this thread.  By the way, der Mouse, do you have anything
> resembling documentation on it?

No.  I never looked for any, though; I just looked at the device, said
to myself "thinnet transceiver", and filed it with "Ethernet stuff I
don't need now but don't want to junk".  It just happened to be out
when I was looking for things that colour, and I recalled DESTAs being
mentioned upthread.

> It seems that even though I know enough about Ethernet, and something
> about the AUI concept, courtesy the book by Spurgeon on the Ethernet
> concepts, that's the one bit of documentation I don't have.

What do you need doco on?  Both of its interfaces (AUI and thinnet) are
pretty well-defined....

> As for cables, if you don't need them, I would also be glad to take
> them off your hands.  We've got a project starting in about a week,
> that's based on the AUI, and we've only got two of them.  We need
> about six.

If your transceiver is close to your host, you can just use two DB15
connectors with 15-pin ribbon cable between them.  Keep the length
below about two feet and you can get away with a lot - the signals on
that interface are only on the order of 10MHz, which corresponds to 30
metres.  I did this once for a box where the cable had to leave through
a wide but thin gap - appropriate for ribbon cable but not for round
cable.  Worked fine.

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