Thanks Jeremy:

>Some suggestions:
>1. Get hold of the Intersil Prism driver programmer's manual...
I got it a couple weeks ago.

>2. Get a Prism PCMCIA WLAN card. ...
Intersil pointed me towards Linksys. I bought one, opened it up and it
has a Prism 2.0 chipset

>3. Create a PCMCIA interface....
I have a PCMCIA proto-board with a 5VDC cardslot and all pins to
headers. If/when I get it to work proper, I'll make up a board for it.

From what I've read so far, I'm wondering if talking to a single
"card" can be sucessfully accomplished without using a Socket
Controller chip.


>4. Mug up on PCMCIA theory; I used "PC card/PCMCIA Software Developer's Handbook"...
I'm reading The PCMCIA Developer's Guide (3rd Ed) now.

>5. Once you can talk to the PCMCIA card,...
Next on my list :) 

This PCMCIA Dev Guide I'm reading now keeps putting me to sleep. 
It seems none of the books I can find discuss connecting to a single
PCMCIA device. They spend a lot of time discussing card detection,
card removal, talking to two cards etc. In my application the "card"
will always be there and can't be removed 
(it's going to be a chipset attached to the device) 

>I don't mean to be discouraging, but what you're proposing is a sizeable...
As everyone that know me will say, I never do things the easy way.
I look at this as a hobby and something new to learn. 
If I fail to get this to work, I'll fall back to a PC104 and DOS.

Thanks for the reply,
Steve

Message 4 in thread
From: Jeremy Bentham (jb@iosoft.nospam.uk)
Subject: Re: 8-Bit Micro to PCMCIA... looking for suggestions
 
View this article only
Newsgroups: comp.arch.embedded
Date: 2002-04-30 10:09:23 PST

Corona <1@2.com> wrote

> From what I've read so far, I'm wondering if talking to a single
> "card" can be sucessfully accomplished without using a Socket
> Controller chip.

Certainly; hence my comments about the address and data bus. See a picture
of my prototype on www.iosoft.co.uk/wlan.htm The two chips are 74LVX level
translators because I'm running the card at 3.3V (unnecessarily, I now
realise).

> This PCMCIA Dev Guide I'm reading now keeps putting me to sleep.
> It seems none of the books I can find discuss connecting to a single
> PCMCIA device. They spend a lot of time discussing card detection,
> card removal, talking to two cards etc. In my application the "card"
> will always be there and can't be removed
> (it's going to be a chipset attached to the device)

I agree. The book I've got seems to go out of its way to make things sound
complicated. It took me several days before I could get any response from
the card, but now I've done it, it does seem remarkably simple.

A few more hints; you *do* need to access both memory and I/O spaces, and
you *do* need 10 address bits, otherwise you can't enable the card. Also,
keep an eye on the INPACK pin, which tells you if your I/O read cycle is
actually accessing the card. And don't forget the WAIT pin, as the PRISM
deliberately slows down some cycles.

> I look at this as a hobby and something new to learn.
> If I fail to get this to work, I'll fall back to a PC104 and DOS.

I think 802.11 has a great future, so it could be a profitable hobby...

Jeremy Bentham
Iosoft Ltd.



"Steve Myers"  wrote

> I am beginning the task of connecting an 8-Bit micro (Rabbit Semi) to
> a PCMCIA card for Ethernet communications. I currently have the micro
> working the way I wanted to a Realtek RTL8019AS wired chipset, but I
> want to switch to a wireless design. The only wireless chipsets I can
> find are interfaced with either PCMCIA or PCI, and I have been told
> that PCMCIA is the easiest route. Speed is not important, but
> portability is.
>
> Any suggested reading or existing projects to buy or look at would be
> appreciated, as I have never worked with a PCMCIA device before.
>
> Project:
> Micrcomputer = Rabbit Semiconductor 2000
> 802.11b Chipset = Intersil Prism 2.0 or 2.5
> Scope = Connect to only one PCMCIA device on a permanent connection.

Some suggestions:

1. Get hold of the Intersil Prism driver programmer's manual; it's available
for free under NDA from Intersil.
2. Get a Prism PCMCIA WLAN card. Most cards don't advertise the chipset they
use, so some detective work is needed. If they don't advertise Linux
drivers, then it probably isn't a Prism card. If you have the FCC ID of the
card, you *may* be able to get information (and even a circuit diagram) from
the FCC site, but don't bank on it.
3. Create a PCMCIA interface. Not particularly easy if you want to run your
card at 3.3 volts - better to get a 5 volt card. You'll need 8 data lines,
10 address lines, I/O and memory read & write strobes.
4. Mug up on PCMCIA theory; I used "PC card/PCMCIA Software Developer's
Handbook", but I'd hardly recommend it.
5. Once you can talk to the PCMCIA card, write your driver using the
Intersil manual (all 252 pages of it).

I don't mean to be discouraging, but what you're proposing is a sizeable
job, and you'll find it a lot easier to use a cheap single-board PC with
on-board PCMCIA (or compact flash), and the standard Windows or Linux
drivers.

Jeremy Bentham
Iosoft Ltd.