Update for X-Surf networking card
 

The X-Surf networking card has been sold out for a few years now, but it got back into focus for many users with the release of the new TCP/IP stack "Roadshow". Although Roadshow lacks a graphical user interface and thus does not offer any comfort in setting up a network, the performance is stunning: In certain cases it's more than three times faster than AmiTCP or Miami, and for the first time now, the 10MBit limit of the X-Surf card could be saturated.

This has triggered bugs - not just in the X-Surf, but also in equipment that is connected to the card: When the X-Surf had to handle a defective packet, the computer would freeze sometimes. This bug has been fixed in version V1.4 of the x-surf.device.

Although official support for the X-Surf has ended years ago, we will answer support tickets for this card in the next few weeks for a limited time.

that's great.. maybe you should update the link on the product page as well?

Does the new version work with OS 4.0 and Morphos, too, or do you still need a patched ariadne.device for these systems?

Forgot to upload the updated English page - thanks for the hint.

If MorphOS can use ClassicOS binaries, it should work. However, I don't guarantee it to work with MorphOS, so I won't answer any support tickets.

OS4 is based on the same source code as the classic device, and if this new classic device is reported to fix the freezes, I will hand over the new source code to the OS4 team like I did before. However, at this point, we've only tested under classic OS with AmiTCP but no other stack, so please report back if you have anything to report with other stacks.

Jens

V1.3 had a bug that caused an enforcer hit when config-defaults had to be used. In that case, a nullpointer was passed to the string-compare function, which caused an enforcer hit.

Also, the version string information was not correct, so the version command couldn't work properly with this device.

V1.4 fixes both: http://www.icomp.de/products/xsurf/XSURF_V14.LHA

Jens

Thanks for your great work with version 1.4
It works really well on my Cyberstorm PPC604e@233MHz

Users on a1k.org have reported a speedup with AmiTCP that Roadshow can't keep up with (over 42% speedup).

This new device has an optimized transfer routine, but I did not expect it to be *that* much more efficient. Since I don't have a test-setup here, please do some load tests and report how fast and how reliable you can go with V1.4.

thanks,
Jens

Ejem... Can't you make such a miracle like the X-Surf for a desktop A1200? :shocked

A1200 has uber cheap PCMCIA ethernet cards both wired and wireless. You can get them for under £5

Ah, ok, so the X-Surf is slower then.

I can do about 650kB/s through FTP from my A1200 with a 10 Mbps PCMCIA NIC with cable. If he can saturate the 10 Mbps, it should be slightly faster than that, but who would pay big bucks for a device that is only slightly faster than an almost free solution?

Never mind that, can't you make some more x-surfs? The prices on eBay for network cards are INSANE!

I've done designs with way better chips than Realtek in the meantime (it's been 14 years!), and I don't want to go that low any more. Realtek is re-defining the meaning of "low-cost" with every chip(set) that they release, and that doesn't help quality or usability. Having worked with Broadcom (which is the other end of the scale), I have something different in mind. I do agree that prices for Zorro networking cards are insane.

Jens

Hmm does this mean there may be a new product in the pipeline? I will buy several immediately that is for sure.

Yeah I'm dead keen for a more affordable and newer zorro networking solution. Put me in line for any new networking product in the pipeline :)

Just bumping this thread. Could there or will there be any new zorro network cards being released in the near future?

lost

Yep, that's a 100MBit Z2/Z3 autosensing card, will go into beta next week. I'm just ruling out any incompatibilities with Z3 GFX cards (still looking for someone who has a Merlin and is actually using it).

Target price is 129,90 EUR and pre-ordering will be started as soon as the last connectors are here.

Jens

@Schoenfeld

Will it work with Micronik ZII busboards? And on DraCos?

Mikronik Z-II is not certain; I did a few tweaks on the X-Surf 3cc to deal with the bad signal quality and bouncing on the bus that supposedly worked for a few customers, but I will only guarantee proper operation in Commodore daughterboards. DraCo is a candidate for "works fine, but also not guaranteed", because that was already stable with the X-Surf 2. Needless to say that all the knowledge about those bad bus boards went into the design of the new card as well.

Just in case someone might wonder: RBM OnBoard 1200ex and the Winner Z4 board are also candidates for "might work, but not guaranteed". However, the old RBM board with long flat cables (Ramiga in the BigBook) doesn't work properly with anything - that's not even worth a try.

For Mediator Z3, the "swap" jumper must be closed. Funny behaviour with this board is that Ethernet performance is slower in Z3 mode, so you might want to close the Z2-downgrade jumper on the X-Surf-100.

Jens