AERA

// Software // Atari ST

EWeb

A web browser for the Atari Falcon, written in C for GEM, made for a Falcon with a DFB1 accelerator and fine on any Falcon.

EWebBrowser in the making

Browser in the making // AERA | Erez Yaary

  • Falcon
Download EWeb 0.26View on GitHub

Latest release v0.2621 Oct 2026EWEB-0.26.zipFree, GPL v2

EWeb fetches pages over TLS 1.2 on the 68030, with the server’s signatures and the key exchange worked out on the Falcon’s DSP.

The Story

EWeb is to be a web browser for the Falcon, tuned for a DFB1 accelerator and fine on any Falcon. There is no browser yet: so far there are the design, EWeb’s own CSS engine and its URL parser and HTTP client, and two tools that measure them on the Atari. NSBENCH.TTP parses and styles a saved page and says how long each part took; EWGET.TTP does the same for fetching a page from the web.

The Falcon connects by itself, through STinG or MiNTnet. For https:// it runs TLS 1.2 on the 68030, ChaCha20-Poly1305 first, and hands the server’s RSA or ECDSA signatures and the key exchange to the DSP: a handshake with ECDSA certificates takes about 2 seconds there, against 86 on the 68030. Every certificate is checked against Mozilla’s list of authorities, and there is no way to skip the check.

How it connects

Falcon
FalconEWGET.TTP
STinG or MiNTnet
TLS 1.2, signatures on the DSP
Web serverHTTP or HTTPS

Getting started

  1. Copy the files to a folder on your hard disk, with any page you want to test saved as a file.
  2. Double-click NSBENCH.TTP and type -E both NEWS.HTM NEWS.CSS (or SAMPLE.HTM, or your page’s name, then its stylesheet’s).
  3. The results show on the screen and go into NSBENCH.LOG.
  4. With STinG (or MiNTnet) running, double-click EWGET.TTP and type an address, such as -n 2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Falcon. The results go into EWGET.LOG.

Highlights

  • Its own CSS engine, written for the 68030: about a tenth of NetSurf’s LibCSS’s time, and closer to today’s CSS.
  • NSBENCH.TTP parses a saved page and styles it with both engines, and times each part.
  • EWGET.TTP fetches a page from the web with EWeb’s HTTP client, and times each part.
  • TLS 1.2 on the Atari, ChaCha20-Poly1305 first, twice as fast as AES on the 68030.
  • The DSP at work: RSA, ECDSA and the key exchange, about 2 s for a handshake instead of 86.
  • Every certificate checked against Mozilla’s list, with its name and dates; no way to skip it.
  • Kept connections for the next requests, and resumed TLS sessions that save most of the handshake.

Requirements

  • An Atari Falcon
  • Plain TOS, MagiC or MiNT
  • For EWGET.TTP: a network connection through STinG or MiNTnet

In the download

NSBENCH.TTP, NSBENCH.TXTthe measuring tool, for any Falcon (TT-RAM used when there is some), and how to use it
SAMPLE.HTMa small page to try it on
NEWS.HTM, NEWS.CSSa made-up news front page and its stylesheet, built to cost what the web’s median page does
EWGET.TTP, EWGET.TXTfetches a page from the web and times it, for any Falcon with STinG or MiNTnet, and how to use it
CACERT.PEM, ROOTS.DATthe authorities that vouch for secure sites (Mozilla’s list), for EWGET.TTP

Credits

  • Written by AERA | Erez Yaary
  • Free software under the GNU GPL, version 2 or later
  • NetSurf’s libparserutils, libwapcaplet, libhubbub and LibCSS (MIT licence)
  • TLS by BearSSL (MIT licence); root certificates from Mozilla (MPL 2.0)
  • Tested on hardware: Falcon030 with DFB1
  • Tested in emulation: Falcon030 (68030 at 32 MHz, DSP emulated), with EmuTOS
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