What will this Asante card do in my Color Classic?

[mraroid]

Hi folks.....
 
I saw this card on ebay and i am not sure what it does.  Can anyone give me a heads up?  Here is a link to the card. :The card is made by Asante.
 
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Mac-Color-Classic-PDS-Ethernet-Card-Math-Co-Processor-LC-Performa/112629676565
 
If the above link is broken, you can search for item number 112629676565
 
I have a Farallon network card in my Color Classic.  I have a math co processor installed on the main board. I do not know what this card will do.
 
Thoughts?
 
Thanks
 
mraroid

 

[tanaquil]

That’s a common combination, I have a similar card in my IIsi. The most important thing it does is provide an Ethernet connection, but the FPU is handy for some applications that run better with extra number crunching ability. 

(Although, looking more closely at the pics, I see the slot for the FPU but it looks empty - maybe I’m looking at the wrong thing? The Ethernet would work regardless and an FPU could always be added later.)

 

[tanaquil]

Oh wait, now I see that you already have both functions covered. In that case, this card won’t help you. It would be more useful to someone who needed one function or both. 

 

[Hustletron]

Slightly related but I have a Mac SE with 4mb ram, an additional internal 800k floppy drive that I don’t really need and a 30mb SCSI drive. What Ethernet cards would work in my computer? I’m okay with pulling that extra floppy drive if I need the slot. I’m just nervous about dropping too much money on a card that doesn’t work. Ideally I’m hoping to use the Ethernet connection to get in on the OpenWRT bridge action that’s been talked about a lot on here in this thread... 

 

[tanaquil]

You need a SE-specific PDS card. The SE/30 card looks similar but will not work AFAIK. I don’t think the SE card works in any other machine. 

Example (not my auction)

https://m.ebay.com/itm/Macintosh-SE-Asante-Ethernet-Card-09-00300-51-Rev-C-Mac-Con-Modem-SE-/192617275194

The floppy drive is irrelevant (unless it makes the case too crowded, I guess?). You should however check to see if your chassis has the cutout for the PDS slot. Some very early SE machines don’t have the cutout. 

Keep in mind that a machine as old as the SE probably won’t be able to do anything besides FTP and simple file sharing. I do like having internet for that purpose on all my machines, but I don’t currently have Ethernet on anything lower than the IIsi and the SE/30.