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Xref: sserve comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking:1784 comp.os.386bsd.development:2024 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!foxhound.dsto.gov.au!fang.dsto.gov.au!yoyo.aarnet.edu.au!news.adelaide.edu.au!news.cs.su.oz.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!yeshua.marcam.com!news.kei.com!news.byu.edu!cwis.isu.edu!u.cc.utah.edu!cs.weber.edu!terry From: terry@cs.weber.edu (Terry Lambert) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking,comp.os.386bsd.development Subject: Re: Excelan 82586-based ethernet card Date: 27 Apr 1994 05:40:00 GMT Organization: Weber State University, Ogden, UT Lines: 47 Message-ID: <2pktrg$fvp@u.cc.utah.edu> References: <1994Apr23.132033.3744@fasterix.frmug.fr.net> <1994Apr24.013323.3850@bnr.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.weber.edu Keywords: Excelan, 82586, I/O address, FreeBSD In article <1994Apr24.013323.3850@bnr.ca> devouges@bnr.ca (Gary Devouges) writes: [ ... Excellan ethernet cards -- from the decription EXOS 205T's ... ] ] I have a few of those cards.... I have not been able to find any ]kind of driver for modern day systems. These things, along with the ]software, cost us about 1200 to 1400 dollars in 1987 dollars. We can ]get better cards for less than 100$. ] ] I tried to use one with an MS-DOS system lately, with their ]software, and it woks ok, but the card gets pretty hot.... don't want ]that kind of stuff in my home PC..... ] ] If you really-reallly-really-really want to make this animal work, ]I can probably find enough info for you to be able to write a driver ]for it.... but keep in mind the cost of modern day cards and is it ]worhthwhile to try it ! This are actually real, real neat cards. First, they can do bus-mastering DMA, which means you don't have to deal with making your main processer puch the bits. Second, and most importantly, you can download a full TCP/IP stack to them; in fact, I had a DECNet stack for one of these puppies under ISC UNIX, at one time. Third, if you are a DOS weenie, you can have TCP/IP and other nifty things without paying hardly *anything* in the way of system memory to get them. Finally, with the stack (or pieces of it) on the card, the card *does not cause bus interrupts unless the packets are actually for you*. This is a *wonderful* feature! All in all, I used to love these and the old Ungerman Bass cards Intel used to OEM for OpenNet (they also had the stack downloaded to them). If you can either get the SCO/ISC download images to work for you, or you can weasel the source out of the curret owners, then this would be a nifty card to have! Terry Lambert terry@cs.weber.edu --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.