Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 09:58:51 +0930 (CST) From: Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au> To: Brett_Glass@ccgate.infoworld.com (Brett Glass) Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Artisoft AE-3 Ethernet card: How to use large buffer? Message-ID: <199604100028.JAA17673@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> In-Reply-To: <9603098290.AA829070379@ccgate.infoworld.com> from "Brett Glass" at Apr 9, 96 09:11:24 am
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Brett Glass stands accused of saying: > > I'm running FreeBSD on a machine with an Artisoft AE-3 card -- an NE2000 > clone with 64K (rather than the usual 16K) of buffer space. How can I get > FreeBSD to recognize, and use, this additional space for transmit (and, > especially, receive) buffering? The kernel source, which is almost > uncommented, suggests that the OS will assume an NE2000-compatible > card has 16K of buffering. There's also some conditionaly compiled code > having to do with a Gateway Ethernet card. It's not normally compiled in, > but it looks as if it *may* test the buffer size. Why do you think you need the extra space? Have you encountered receive overruns using 16K? Remember that the card was designed to deal with the shortcomings of DOS networking. The 'ed' driver is a fairly kickass piece of code, and unless you are _really_ abusing your machine it's not going to need the extra buffering. > Will the Gateway code enable the use of the full 64K of buffer space? If > so, is the code tested and reliable? Finally, if both of the above are > true, what is the best way to cause it to be compiled in? Will an "options > GWETHER" in the kernel configuration file work? No. The GWETHER code checks the ethernet hardware address to verify that the card is indeed a Gateway card. If you have AE-3 specific documentation (or you can pry some out of Terry), then you should add code to detect it specifically, and work out how to use the extra buffering. Note that the second comment in the GWETHER memory probe loop is wrong, it should be /* Search for the end of RAM */ (not start). It's possible that this section of the probe will work on the AE-3, but without having one to hand I can't tell for sure. > --Brett -- ]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au [[ ]] Genesis Software genesis@atrad.adelaide.edu.au [[ ]] High-speed data acquisition and (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496 [[ ]] realtime instrument control (ph/fax) +61-8-267-3039 [[ ]] Collector of old Unix hardware. "Where are your PEZ?" The Tick [[
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