[Oberon] TCP/IP for FPGA Oberon

[Skulski, Wojciech]

Joerg wrote:

I changed the subject. Achieving Internet interface is really a very different issue from using or not using git. 

> I transfer file to and from Oberon with tftp (RFC1350, 
> tftp client on OberonOS, tftp server on other side).
> tftp offers two transfer modes „netascii" and „octet“. 
> In netascii mode, every OS has to translate the newline 
> code to its internal convention.

The tftp point is moot as the TCP/IP for the 2013 Oberon has been neither specified nor published. It is hard to appreciate the benefits of the interface which does not officially exist.

I believe that great progress would be achieved if the Internet interface was specified for 2013 Oberon System. The interface physically can consist of Wiznet chips W5500 (low performance SPI) and W5300 (high performance parallel 16-bit words). These chips share the on-chip TCP/IP engine, but the details are quite different. The official Oberon interface needs to wrap both the W5300 and W5500 into a single API. It would open the path to actual hardware implementation.

Such an official interface can be prototyped under an emulator, wrapping the host TCP/IP under Windows/MacOS/Linux into a single universal Oberon Internet API suitable for Wiznet. The V4 and/or System-3  Internet suite can be then put on top of the wrapper, still under the emulator. The actual FPGA implementations could then follow. The prototype of such boards exists (RiskFive board) and it can be distributed across the community. However, it makes better sense to use the emulator at this point as the stepping stone to achieving Internet connectivity with real FPGA boards.

I think that using Wiznet will go a long way. One day someone may want to put the software TCP/IP stack into 2013 Oberon, but frankly Wiznet will probably serve 99% of needs.

Thank you,
Wojtek