On Wed, Jun 1, 2022 at 7:51 AM Paul Koning <paulkon...@comcast.net> wrote:
> > > > On Jun 1, 2022, at 5:53 AM, Warner Losh via cctech < > cct...@classiccmp.org> wrote: > > > > ... > > 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
