| 1 | This software may be used and distributed according to the terms of |
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| 2 | the GNU Public License, incorporated herein by reference. |
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| 3 | |
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| 4 | This is a tulip and clone driver for Etherboot. See the revision |
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| 5 | history in the tulip.c file for information on changes. This version |
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| 6 | of the driver incorporates changes from Bob Edwards and Paul Mackerras |
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| 7 | who cantributed changes to support the TRENDnet TE100-PCIA NIC which |
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| 8 | uses a genuine Intel 21143-PD chipset. There are also various code |
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| 9 | cleanups to make time-based activities more reliable. |
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| 10 | |
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| 11 | Of course you have to have all the usual Etherboot environment |
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| 12 | (bootp/dhcp/NFS) set up, and you need a Linux kernel with v0.91g |
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| 13 | (7.16.99) or later of the tulip.c driver compiled in to support some |
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| 14 | MX98715 based cards. That file is available at: |
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| 15 | |
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| 16 | http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/test/tulip.c |
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| 17 | |
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| 18 | NOTES |
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| 19 | |
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| 20 | I've tested this driver with a SOHOware Fast 10/100 Model SDA110A, |
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| 21 | a Linksys LNE100TX v2.0, and a Netgear FA310TX card, and it worked at |
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| 22 | both 10 and 100 mbits. Other cards based on the tulip family may work as |
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| 23 | well. |
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| 24 | |
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| 25 | These cards are about 20$US, are supported by Linux and now Etherboot, |
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| 26 | and being PCI, they auto-configure IRQ and IOADDR and auto-negotiate |
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| 27 | 10/100 half/full duplex. It seems like a pretty good value compared to |
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| 28 | some of the pricier cards, and can lower the cost of building/adapting |
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| 29 | thin client workstations substantially while giving a considerable |
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| 30 | performance increase. |
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| 31 | |
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| 32 | On some PCI tulip clone chipsets (MX987x5, LC82C115, LC82C168) this driver |
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| 33 | lets the card choose the fastest speed it can negotiate with the peer |
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| 34 | device. On other cards, it chooses 10mbit half-duplex. |
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| 35 | |
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| 36 | I burned an AM27C256 (32KByte) EPROM with mx987x5.lzrom and it worked. |
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| 37 | According to the data sheet the MX98715A supports up to 64K (27C512) |
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| 38 | EPROMs, |
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| 39 | |
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| 40 | I've liberally commented the code and header files in the hope that it |
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| 41 | will help the next person who hacks the code or needs to support some |
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| 42 | tulip clone card, or wishes to add functionality. |
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| 43 | |
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| 44 | Anyway, please test this if you can on your tulip based card, and let |
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| 45 | me (mdc@etherboot.org) and the Etherboot-Discuss list |
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| 46 | (etherboot-discuss@lists.sourceforge.net) know how things go. I also |
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| 47 | would appreciate code review by people who program. I'm a strong |
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| 48 | believer in "another set of eyes". |
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| 49 | |
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| 50 | Regards, |
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| 51 | |
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| 52 | Marty Connor |
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| 53 | mdc@etherboot.org |
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| 54 | http://www.etherboot.org/ |
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