So, I found a serial to Ethernet converter (Enet EP132)...

[Velktron]

It was a pretty cheap find, which I got together with a bunch of other old hardware (an ADSL UBS modem, a Microsoft USB optical mouse, a wireless ADSL router) for a grand total of 15 Euros.


The tech sheet is here: Enet EP132 (PDF). It's an industrial-grade product, with a nice metal casing and tolerant power supply input.


Seeing how much one of those things can cost ($173 on this page!) it was a bargain 


Since one of the purpose of those devices is to allegedly "bring Ethernet connectivity to legacy devices", I suppose that it should be also usable for retrocomputing? Does anyone have any experience with similar devices o the CPC or other 8-bit/16-bit micros?


Ironically, the microcontroller it contains is more powerful than the Amstrad CPC's CPU.    There's also an improved 100 Mbps version which actually has an ARM7 CPU, 128 KB of RAM  and 2 MB of ROM, powerful enough to run an Amstrad CPC under emulation WITHIN the converter, if reprogrammed 

[MaV]

Since one of the purpose of those devices is to allegedly "bring Ethernet connectivity to legacy devices", I suppose that it should be also usable for retrocomputing? Does anyone have any experience with similar devices o the CPC or other 8-bit/16-bit micros?

There's a bit of work on it for SymbOS. Admittedly, it's for MSX computers only at the moment. Since the CPC doesn't have a serial connection out of the box, it gets a bit tricky on the hardware side.
SymbOS network support development

Ironically, the microcontroller it contains is more powerful than the Amstrad CPC's CPU.    There's also an improved 100 Mbps version which actually has an ARM7 CPU, 128 KB of RAM  and 2 MB of ROM, powerful enough to run an Amstrad CPC under emulation WITHIN the converter, if reprogrammed 

Well, anything produced these days will beat the specs of our 4MHz Z80. The HxC and gotek also do have processors which are much faster.


Hell, every single SD card contains a microprocessor more powerful.

Here's a sample one that is used for SD card with speed up to type 6 (so, not the most powerful):
http://www.appotech.com/dp/sites/default/files/factsheet/ax215a-fl-002-en_0.pdf
On Hacking MicroSD Cards « bunnie's blog

It's an 8-bit, 8051 compatible RISC processor with speeds from 10-90 MHz. Instructions are 1 cycle except for branches (i.e. 90 MIPS possible).

[Velktron]

Well, after all, even the C64's 1541 drive contained its own 6502, and was more complicated than the C64 itself 

[Velktron]

Turns out that in the end, my model is the more capable ARM7-based one 


The documentation and web resources that are around really aren't very clear, showing the older 8-bit model having the same-exact case and marking as mine, while the model numbers are apparently the same between the older and newer models. Go figure. So, an ARM7 in a box, waiting somehow to be tapped...though the challenge so far is getting it to be recognized and communicate over the network at all    (again, the cryptic documentation and flakey software don't help, plus I don't know what the previous owner did with/to it...).