Nereid capabilities

[z964]

I recently obtained a Nereid (Ethernet/USB/Memory) board, and since information on the capabilities of these things is very sparse, especially in English, I'd like to share some findings.

- The board is extremely usable for FTP file transfers.  The ftpf program is a side-by-side FTP client with a decent UI, so you're not left typing out ftp commands on the command prompt.  Ftpf unfortunately can't handle spaces in file names, and anything thusly named on your ftp server will be inaccessible.
- Bandwidth (in ftpf) is like 60/100KB/s on an XVI/x68030.
- The computer drowns in broadcast packets on my very populated modern LAN.  Ping times go crazy and even if I just let the machine idle with it connected, I start getting "memory exhaust" error spam that just starts showing up wherever the cursor currently is.  This problem went away when I connected the Nereid on its own subnet with my NAS's second ethernet port.
- Ping times on the new isolated LAN are about 20ms-100ms, and tend to follow cycles like 80, 60, 30, 80, 60, 30, etc.
- The USB port supports joypad, mouse, and I believe also external storage.  All of this is supported in human68k, there is no need to run netbsd.  I've only gotten mouse fully working myself.  The mouse performance is excellent and feels better to use than a USB->x68k mouse adapter.  It is also slightly more compatible with somewhat newer mice, though the newest ones still don't work.  Unfortunately, Simcity is unstable if I use this mouse driver.  I haven't tried other games much yet.  I have been able to get it to detect my various usb joypads, including x-input controllers, but the controls don't work in games for me and I haven't figured out why just yet.  The mouse and joypad driver is called usbjoy, and the latest version I found was 1.3e.
- The 16mb of dram memory on the Nereid can be used to top up your x68000 to a full 12mb in human68k.  There are jumpers to set the starting address so you can use it alongside another ram expansion.  The Nereid ram can also be easily used as a RAM disk.  If you use ANY of the ram for main memory expansion, your max ram disk is 4mb.  Otherwise, you get a 16mb ram disk.  There is no in-between.
- TCP/IP drivers being loaded breaks some games, so I load them only when I start up an FTP connection.

[trixster]

Great info! Thanks for the write up. How did you manage to obtain such a rare board?!

[z964]

Great info! Thanks for the write up. How did you manage to obtain such a rare board?!

Japanese Mercari, for too much money.