End of Econet
The Econet hardware implementation started to disappear from new Acorn machines around 1993 with the Risc PC machines. Previous machines had the capability to accept Econet modules as add ons via an adaptation of the connector used in BBC Master computers. The Risc PC range used a new network slot connector that would not accept the modules, though a later Econet module was in fact manufactured for this new connector.
The Econet software had mainly moved onto the AUN system by this time, though some suppliers were still offering bridging kits to join old and new together. Econet/AUN was largely superseded by the Acorn Access+ software that operated using native Ethernet and TCP/IP rather than simulating Econet traffic over a UDP system. This is turn was superseded by native support for more standard protocols such as Sun NFS and SMB/CIFS.
Econets are now mainly operated by retro-computing enthusiasts. Original hardware is becoming harder and harder to find, with auction sites such as eBay being popular for acquiring Econet hardware such as bridges and FileStores. The 68B54 chip used for communicating with the network is no longer manufactured, though kits for the Model B and Master series are available online.
Support for the Econet protocol has been dropped from the Linux kernel at version 3.5 in 2012.
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