NET100 podule with RISC OS 5

I’m currently using a Net100 podule for the RiscPC, but it comes with 26-bit network drivers that don’t work under RISC OS 5. However, there has been discussion in the past that suggests that a 32-bit compatible driver does exist, but there are copyright issues involved with distributing it publicly.

My questions are:

• Would it be possible for me to have a copy of the 32-bit compatible driver?
• Are there still any major issues that prevent ROOL distributing it?

It’s been a little while since I last asked about this. Is this something anyone here can help with?

It seems like abandonware, so nobody has permission to distribute anything. While I imagine ROOL thus won’t want to, somebody could stick on their own website on a ’I’ll take it down if the copyright holders ask me to’ basis. Which would at least make it usable in the interim, until such time as the copyright position can be sorted out properly.

If I’m lucky, it might be possible to get in contact with Simtec regarding permission and/or original sources. I have looked briefly at the EtherS and EtherX modules and those seem to be primarily written in C instead of assembler, so it might be easier just to start again with 32-bit support if the sources are still available. That said, it would be useful to have copies of anything Colin might have done independently of Simtec in the other thread to avoid duplicating any effort and in case the original sources are lost.

The Net100 was not actually a Simtec product per-se, but rather something they created as a joint project between (IIRC) RISCstation, Stuart Tyrell Developments, and R-Comp Interactive. Each company was responsible for their own upgrades, support and documentation, with Simtec manufacturing the base hardware.

As such, it remains an R-Comp Interactive product, albeit one that we can’t get more stock of.

In that light, and with a duty of support to our customers, I do not see why R-Comp Interactive couldn’t offer and host a 32bit driver for the cards, if such a thing were provided to us. Indeed, I think we have some updated software (from the time/era) on our website as is.