A: Amiga Explorer directly supports TCP/IP connections
and serial port connections (without TCP/IP software), but not
parallel port connections.
Parallel port data transfer does indeed have the potential to be faster than
serial port communications. However, unlike serial port and TCP/IP connections, which are
well-supported by the different operating system versions,
implementing a parallel port interface for bidirectional data
transfer, if at all possible, always was a more complex task than using the
parallel port just for printing. Also, the Amiga parallel port has an
unbuffered direct connection to the 8520 CIA I/O chips, which can easily lead
to damages (e.g. by a static discharge).
In 2020 we again did a comprehensive
review of available USB to parallel adapters
available for the PC side, also checking
with manufacturers, and concluded that these
adapters, which were mainly designed for
printing under Windows, are not suitable for
bidirectional data transfer. If such a cable
was available, it would be desirable that it
featured a buffering or other isolation
mechanism, to protect the fragile parallel
port circuitry of Amiga computers.
Conversely, USB to serial (not parallel)
adapters work great with the Windows side of
Amiga Explorer.
Indirectly,
Amiga Explorer supports all devices and connections for which
TCP/IP drivers exist for both the Amiga side
and the Windows side. This means that it is
in theory possible to use Amiga Explorer
over all connection types which are
supported by TCP/IP, including Ethernet
networks and serial and parallel cables. In
practice, TCP/IP is normally used only for
Ethernet connections, because serial
connections can also be handled directly by
Amiga Explorer (without the need to install
and configure TCP/IP and the serial line IP
driver, or SLIP), while parallel line IP
drivers (PLIP), which would allow the Amiga
and Windows to establish a TCP/IP connection
over a parallel cable, have probably been
taking so much longer than SLIP to develop
and become available on various platforms, for
the same reasons that led to Amiga Explorer
not directly supporting the parallel port.
Historically, some Amiga applications
(e.g. the excellent PC2Amiga by Michal Kara,
who graciously assisted in this research)
offered bidirectional data transfer support
over the parallel port. But this required
"banging the hardware" on the PC side, and
only worked with the original (non-USB)
parallel port hardware. What was possible on
DOS and Windows 95/98, stopped working on
Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and later
versions. This was the main reason why Amiga Explorer did not
originally
support a parallel port connection.
Amiga Explorer already
offers good, system-compliant support on all operating system
versions and for both low and high speed connections over the
serial interface (19.2 kbit/sec to 115 kbit/sec) and TCP/IP (up to
several Gbit/sec, using WiFi or Ethernet), including USB and wireless links
when a USB or a Bluetooth serial adapter is used. Where speed is required,
Ethernet currently offers not only the best performance, but also
the best price/performance ratio. Additionally, PLIP drivers which
could immediately be used by Amiga Explorer for a parallel port
connection using TCP/IP may be coming soon.
When TCP/IP is installed, serial and Ethernet connections can
be used by multiple protocols at the same time, for example for
Amiga Explorer and to share a modem for
internet access.
Related Links
