netboot65 update
I've been working on an update to netboot65, with an aim to getting a '1.0' release out when the first lot of 64NIC+ carts go out.
The 64NIC+ cart is a project initiated on retrohackers.com that offers an RR-NET compatible ethernet interface, plus a 16KB EPROM socket. There seems to be a nicely symbiotic relationship between this cart and netboot65 - the latest netboot65 release will include an 8KB image that can be burned into an EPROM (probably with CBM BASIC in the upper 8KB) that
- allows any 'single load' program (up to about 47KB in size) to be downloaded via TFTP and immediately executed,
- provides an API (called the NB65 API) that programs can use to write UDP based applications without being tied to a specific MAC and IP address, or a specific device type ( the A2 and C64 IP libraries I am familiar with are all tied to a single device type and all require each program to specify MAC and IP address). If this API gets some support, that may encourage future development of different network interfaces that are not simply cs8900a based RR-NET clones (for example, a wifi cart would be nice).
The API is documented as a word doc in the NB65 API Technical Reference