X-Surf
X-Surf is a 10MBit networking card for Zorro II slots. In addition to that, it features non-autobooting IDE ports, two clockports and a 26-pin expansion port.
It was superseded by X-Surf-100 and X-Surf-500.
- PPPoE drivers included
- broadband internet without expensive additional software!
- for all Amigas with Zorro-Slots
- compatible with A1200 Zorro boards: Z4, Mikronik, RBM
- Auto-negotiation acc. to IEEE 802.3, 10Base2 and 10Base-T supported
- BNC and Twisted-pair (RJ-45) connectors
- automatic Choice of the used connector
- 20MBit transfer rate (fullduplex, twisted-pair only)
- 16KByte buffermem for maximum performance
- Autoprefetch for another increase of performance
- automatic polarity correction for 10Base-T
- Realtek chipset
- Noise Filter Bus Interface ensures proper function in heavy-loaded Zorro-systems
- compatible with Miami, Genesis, AmiTCP and all TCP/IP Stacks that can access a Sana-2 driver
- Sana-2 driver included, NetBSD driver available in the latest distribution
- Nordic Global has announced an MNI driver for X-Surf in Miami
- all programming docs open (for Linux-drivers)
multiple expansion possibilities
- two clockports for A1200 expansions such as Silversurfer and Hypercom3+
- 26-pin expansion port just like Buddha/Catweasel Z-II controllers
- two IDE ports 3,5" and 2,5" for harddisks and CD-Roms
- all expansion ports are independant from each other and can also be used at the same time
X-Surf ("Cross-surf") is the cheapest network card you can find for Zorro-Amiga computers, but looking at the functionality, it does not have to hide behind it's competitors. Although the included software is reduced to a minimum, the full performance that you expect from a network card can be reached with OS 3.5. Since the TCP/IP stack is already included in the operating system, you don't have to pay for it again with the network card. Everything you need is the X-Surf's Sana-2 driver to make the TCP/IP stack of your choice work with it.
The large variety of expansion possibilities is an unparalleled added value for most Amiga users. Most users are short of Zorro-slots, so the possibility to connect a serial interface like the Silversurfer or the Hypercom3+ module can solve most space-problems in your Amiga. Since there's two clock-ports on the X-Surf, you can connect two Silversurfer boards at a time. Both can be accessed with the same silversurfer.device, just use the next unit number. The clock-ports are two fully-featured ports that are hardware-compatible with the pin header in A1200 computers. The driver software for A1200 expansions only has to be modified in some details in order to make the add-ons work with the X-Surf. There are no conflicts between the ports already present in the system (A1200, the four clock-ports of the Z4 board or the Buddha Flash port) and the new clock-ports of the X-Surf - they all can be used at the same time.
The two IDE-ports should be considered as a free add-on. The ports should not be considered as full IDE ports, because you can't boot from them, and the timing is not configurable. If you want these functions, we recommend a Buddha Flash controller. The IDE ports are to be considered as temporary solutions if you want to connect a 2,5" harddrive to an A2000, A3000 or A4000 without buying further equipment such as a 3,5inch -> 2,5inch adapter. Owners of an A3000 for example can boot off a SCSI harddisk, and activate a cheap IDE harddrive and an Atapi CD-Rom with the IDE drivers. You shouldn't use a CD-writer on these ports, because only one IO-request at a time can be issued by the X-Surf controller. That means a preemptive use of IDE devices - necessary for CD-writers - is impossible on the X-Surf. For this purpose we recommend a Buddha Flash controller.
Finally there is to emphasize that all expansion ports can be used at the same time. For going to extremes, you can use a Hypercom3+ module, a Silversurfer on one, a Catweasel MK2 on the other clock-port, and four IDE/Atapi devices at the same time while the network functions are not affected. All this occupies only one of your precious zorro-slots!
Contents |
Download
- X-Surf-100 and X-Surf Ethernet Sana2 driver, x-surf-100.device and x-surf.device version 1.16 (Sep 3rd, 2018): All-in-one version for all CPUs, configurable debug output, etc.
- X-Surf2 manual
- X-Surf3cc manual
- X-Surf Ethernet Sana2 Driver, AmiTCP and Miami config-files - x-surf.device version 1.2 (July 15th, 2000)
- X-Surf IDE driver for activating the IDE-ports - XSurfIDE version 104.1 (July 3rd, 2000) with .info file from August 9th.
- X-Surf DSL (PPPoE) driver release version incl. appp.device - xsurfadsl.device version 37.7 (April 29th, 2002) - appp.device version 3.4 (April 29th, 2002) - installer version 1.1 (January 9th, 2002)
- X-Surf Ethernet Linux driver patch - Lets you use Ariadne II Linux drivers on X-Surf. Untested!
Old:
- X-Surf Ethernet Sana2 driver, config-file - x-surf.device version 1.4 (april 30th, 2013)
basic Hardware info
Vendor ID: 4626 ($1212)
Product ID: 23 ($17)
Serial ID: 0
The autoconfiguration of the X-Surf is completely implemented as Commodore has defined. All the features are available, including shutup_forever and storage of the whole address word, meaning, the card can be mapped anywhere in the 24-bit memory space. Even computers with bad or missing clock-signals are supporded.
Memory map
$0000-$007c Config-Nibbles.
in config nibbles:
$0040 Bit 7 and bit 5 represent the status of the
Ethernet IRQ. Bit 5 and Bit 7 are always identical, it's
implemented this way because Commodore has specified these
bits as IRQ bits. See autoconfig docs for further info.
$007e bit 7 represents the status of the IDE IRQ line. Both
IDE ports use the same IRQ, so you shouldn't start more than
one IOrequest at a time.
Writing to this register controls the A11 line of the local
ISA bus. This is necessary because of the limited address
space on the Amiga side (only 4K for the ISA). A11 adds $800
to the address of the ethernet card, allowing you to reach
the Plug'n'play registers. Writing $80 adds $800 to the
address, while writing $00 gives you the normal IO address
space of the ethernet board.
!!Be careful: Reading this register may also affect the A11
line, so after a read, the A11 status must be restored!!
Since the normal status of the A11 line is 0, writing 0 to
this register after the status read is recommended. For
further security, you should disable all IRQs during the
Plug'n'play isolation phase. If you want to make it
Amiga-like, only disable the IRQs while the A11 line must
be high.
$0080-$7fff mirrors of the above. Do not access, it's reserved for future
use, don't rely on these mirrors!
$8000-$8fff ISA bus IO addresses. All addresses are "times two", so if
you want to access 0x300, the address is located at $8600 on
the Amiga side. All read-accesses allowed (even and odd
bytes, words, long-words), writing should only be done with
word-accesses.
$9000-$9ffe 26-pin expansion port. This port is 8-bit wide, and it uses
even addresses.
$a001-$afff clock-port 1. The clock-port is 8-bit wide, this one uses
odd addresses. Spare_CS only. Address lines used are the same
as in the Amiga 1200.
$b000-$bfff 2,5 inch IDE port. Lower CS only (IDE-fix style).
Alternate status register and reset register are not
available with this style of controller.
$c000-$cffe clock-port 0. The clock-port is 8-bit wide, this one uses
even addresses. Spare_CS only. Address lines used are the
same as in the Amiga 1200.
$d000-$dfff 3,5 inch IDE port. Lower CS only (IDE-fix style).
Alternate status register and reset register are not
available with this style of controller.
$e000-$efff ISA bus memory mapped area. Since only the memory area from
0x0000 to 0x0800 can be accessed, this address space can be
considered as "nirwana" - writing will not access anything,
and reading will give random data. Totally useless.
$f000-$ffff Unused.
expansion port timing
All expansion ports of the X-Surf cards are driven by the same IOR/IOW timing as shown here. Please note that these shots were taken from an X-Surf 2 card. X-Surf 3 timing is different (more like ISDN surfer and VarIO).
