Re: Spectranet - ethernet for your Spectrum
Yes, those Wiznet chips are really handy. They have the Ethernet interface and TCP/IP stack all built in, so the host microcomputer only has to say "open a socket to this address please" and it will. They make implementing internet applications on an 8-bit micro quite straightforward.
All the smarts on the Spectranet must be in the Wiznet chip. The XC9572 is a very old CPLD which doesn't contain much logic - just enough to make a few counters and gates, so it's probably used as glue logic, or maybe to create an SPI interface to talk to the Wiznet chip (though the W5100 has a parallel bus interface), as well as doing some bank switching to allow the RAM chip to be used (more memory comes in really handy when doing network stuff).
Chris
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