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| PCI ethernet card for Mac OS 7-9? (or Token Ring) |
Posted by: rieSha. on 2026-03-28 02:34:23
Besides the rather demanding RTL8139, what other Gigabit options are there with driver support?
And are there any PCI Token Ring cards that are supported? |
Posted by: obsolete on 2026-03-28 06:46:39
RTL8139 is 10/100; what about it is demanding? They are still widely available for $20 or less. RTL8169 also works and is gigabit, but you won't get gigabit speeds in classic Mac OS.
Anything with a DEC 21140 controller will also work, as that's what Apple used on their branded 10/100 PCI cards. |
Posted by: rabbitholecomputing on 2026-03-28 12:03:01
Besides the rather demanding RTL8139, what other Gigabit options are there with driver support?
And are there any PCI Token Ring cards that are supported? It's really important to remember that OpenTransport can't even manage line rate Ethernet @ 100Mbit/sec. OS X can, but not Classic Mac OS. |
Posted by: rieSha. on 2026-03-29 09:52:01
RTL8139 is 10/100; what about it is demanding? They are still widely available for $20 or less. RTL8169 also works and is gigabit, but you won't get gigabit speeds in classic Mac OS.
Anything with a DEC 21140 controller will also work, as that's what Apple used on their branded 10/100 PCI cards. The open source drivers for the early Realteks are quite opiniated about its lack of (API) quality, and that these cards put quite a bit of burden on the CPU. |
Posted by: finkmac on 2026-03-30 05:26:11
PCI token ring cards do exist, and a number (all?) work with MacOS... but i'm not sure if the driver is included with installs normally. |
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