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From: michaelv@MindBender.HeadCandy.com (Michael L. VanLoon)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Hardware: 3Com 10BaseT EISA 579 Network Card?
Date: 30 Oct 1995 06:42:58 GMT
Organization: HeadCandy Associates... Sweets for the lobes.
Lines: 63
Message-ID: <MICHAELV.95Oct29224301@MindBender.HeadCandy.com>
References: <dhawkDH6I2D.5D3@netcom.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mindbender.seanet.com
In-reply-to: dhawk@netcom.com's message of Sat, 28 Oct 1995 21:51:49 GMT
In article <dhawkDH6I2D.5D3@netcom.com> dhawk@netcom.com (David H) writes:
OK, getting ready to work on the networking and can't find the card.
Is the 3Com 10BaseT EISA 579 Network card supported/usable?
I know NetBSD has had a driver that works what a vast majority of the
3c5x9 cards for some time, including the 579 (where a good portion of
it was developed). If the FreeBSD driver diverges significantly, you
could try patching the two together and see what comes out.
Could I replace it with a 3Com 3C509?
Yes, with a potential for less performance.
(It's true, I haven't
a clue the difference between ISA and EISA.)
ISA is an 8MHz 16-bit bus, with no hardware bus-mastering or burst
support, which runs at roughly 8MB/s. It's the bus all IBM-AT
compatible computers have had since IBM came out with the original
(well, the 8MHz original -- the first attempt was only 6MHz). It is
typically configured with dip switches, jumper blocks, and lots of
black magic.
EISA is a ~8MHz 32-bit bus with hardware support for true
bus-mastering and burst mode. It tops out around 33MB/s. It is
configurable with a software utility diskette. EISA is a technical
superset of ISA, and a properly designed EISA bus can transparently
step down to ISA mode if you have an ISA card in that slot.
(To round it out...)
VLB (VESA Local Bus) is a ~33MHz (40MHz is technically outside the
VESA spec) 32-bit bus which doesn't really do burst mode or
bus-mastering by the strict specifications, but approximates it by
sometimes problematic card cooperation. It will run up to about
66MB/s, but isn't really good for bus-mastering controllers, since it
doesn't support them well (works great for video cards which, for the
most part, don't write large blocks of memory in user space). See ISA
for configurability.
PCI is a 25 - 33MHz 32-bit (64-bit capable, but I don't know of a
single card yet which uses the 64-bit capabilities of PCI) bus with
hardware support for true bus-mastering and burst mode. It tops out
around 133MB/s (in 32-bit mode -- the way it is commonly used). It is
"self-configuring" for the most part, though this can occasionally be
more trouble than help. It also supports cool things like bus
bridges, where multiple busses can be bridged together, and cooperates
nicely with EISA busses. It is also processor-independent, and can be
found in new boxes with PowerPC, Alpha, and other non-Intel CPUs.
MCA is a mistake.
Have I diverged far enough from the topic, yet? :-)
--
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Michael L. VanLoon michaelv@HeadCandy.com
--< Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x >--
NetBSD working ports: 386+PC, Mac 68k, Amiga, HP300, Sun3, Sun4,
DEC PMAX (MIPS), DEC Alpha, PC532
NetBSD ports in progress: VAX, Atari 68k, others...
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