> > > ... > > > I believe the DEPCA was based on the venerable > > > SONIC chipset, but it may have been the LANCE. It wasn't NE-2000 > > compatible > > > (that came later) :). > > > > LANCE seems plausible, or perhaps one of the later chips designed by DEC > > Jerusalem (SGEC etc.). What's a SONIC? > > > > SONIC was NatSemi part that a lot of workstations of the early 90s used. It > does post-date LANCE by a few years. > > > > The non-LANCE non-DEC Ethernets I remember are in the DEUNA (no idea > > what), QNA (Fujitsu???) and CNA (Intel 82586, *groan*). The LANCE was > > designed well, with a fair amount of DEC input, and the subsequent > > internally produced chips were constructed along similar lines. Once DEC > > learned how to make them at not quite insane cost, they became a very good > > choice and were generally used in DEC products. > > > > The LANCE and its children were nice chips. > > There's several DEPCAs for 8-bit ISA on ebay for about $50 (and a couple > for a lot more), and as others have pointed out it is a variation of the > Am7990. > > Warner
I found two in my inventory of related controllers. AM7990DC/80 When I added more RAM to the system to bring up to 512K and installed the DEPCA controller I was able to get the system to boot up and run the connection scripts that search for a DEC network and associated services. Alas, the network is long gone....I would have to attempt to recreate it! Anyway, I love that I was able to learn at least how a PC might be configured for such work. It would not be impossible at all to connect this PC to a VAX 4000 driven DECNET by editing the script with the correct names and services on both ends. Anyone here doing this kind of thing? Bill
