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61 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
61 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
AppleTalk Emulation and Bridging for GSport
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Peter Neubauer, March 2014
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Introduction
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============
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The Apple IIgs shipped with a fantastic but often overlooked feature -- AppleTalk networking. AppleTalk is a low-cost, easy-to-maintain network technology that
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enables network booting, file sharing, and printer sharing between your Apple IIgs, Workstation Card equipped Apple IIe, and classic Macintosh machines. As of
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March 2014, GSport is the first modern emulator with support for AppleTalk. Now, you can just "drag and drop" files between your machines without thinking about
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disk images, FTP, or serial cables. You can develop new software with an emulator and test on real hardware. You don't need to think much about version control.
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Rather, you can update the file once on your file server, and all of your emulated and real machines have the new file. You can download the latest Apple II
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software and immediately run it.
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Using It
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========
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First, you need an AppleShare-compatible file server. A classic Mac or "netatalk" server could provide this function. For simplicity, I recommend Ivan Drucker's
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A2SERVER (http://appleii.ivanx.com/a2server/), which is a pre-configured and easy-to-use package with "netatalk" and other useful tools. You may run A2SERVER in
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a VirtualBox virtual machine, on an existing Linux server, or on a Raspberry Pi.
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Second, you need GSport 0.3 or later with ROM03 running on a Windows or Linux (x86 or Raspberry Pi) machine. Start GSport and press F4 to access the configuration
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menu. If necessary, select a ROM03 image. Select the "Ethernet Card Configuration" menu option. Change "AppleTalk Bridging" to "On". Change "Use Interface
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Number" to select the network where you have attached your AppleShare server or A2SERVER. Exit the GSport configuration menu.
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Third, party like it is 1989. Your GS is now connected to the AppleTalk network. Refer to Apple's documentation included with GS/OS System 5 and 6 for further
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directions.
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Internal Overview
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=================
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GSport with AppleTalk networking is functionally equivalent to a real Apple IIgs with a LocalTalk/EtherTalk bridge. Originally, AppleTalk employed the "LocalTalk"
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physical layer, which requires special hardware not found on modern computers. GSport converts LocalTalk to EtherTalk, a somewhat more modern physical layer using
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familiar Ethernet cabling. Internally, GSport emulates the Zilog SCC chip in the IIgs, communicates with unmodified Apple-provided networking software built-in to
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the IIgs and GS/OS, and converts the network traffic to EtherTalk.
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Limitations
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===========
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- A wireless network may not work because many wireless adapters drop EtherTalk packets. Instead, use a wired Ethernet connection.
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- AppleTalk bridging has been tested with System 6.0.1 and System 5.0.2 on ROM03. Booting from a local disk or from the network works. Other ROM revisions and
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system software may not work.
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- The SCC baud rate is incorrect because the SCC does not emulate line coding. Still, emulated network speed should be close to the 230.4kbps speed of a real
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LocalTalk network.
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- The bridge supports Windows using Visual Studio, Cygwin, and Linux (x86 and Raspberry Pi). Other platforms should be straightforward, but I do not have a suitable
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build environment.
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- The bridge requires a router on the network. The bridge should work in both a routerless and router-filled network.
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- The bridge works with simple networks consisting of a single network on a single segment with a single zone. The bridge should function with all valid network
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configurations and hardware routers. Other configurations might not work, and I welcome reports.
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- The bridge implements the non-extended method for acquiring the network number. Interoperability would likely be better using the extended method, but this method
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is much more complex.
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Credits
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=======
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Thanks to Gursharan Sidhu, Richard Andrews, and Alan Oppenheimer for creating and documenting AppleTalk.
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Thanks to Kent Dickey and the GSport contributors for GSport and the original SCC emulation.
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Thanks to David Schmenk for testing, encouragement, and Raspberry Pi support.
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Thanks to Ivan Drucker for A2SERVER.
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Thanks to the Gus emulator engineers for showing that AppleTalk emulation is possible.
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Thanks to James Littlejohn for discussions about extending the capabilities of the Apple IIgs. |