Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1999 01:20:03 -0500 (EST) From: Bill Paul <wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu> To: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Call for testers: ASIX AX88140A fast ethernet driver Message-ID: <199901070620.BAA07854@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu>
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Today I finally obtained a fast ethernet adapter with an ASIX AX88140A chip (thanks Ulf!) and have finished preliminary testing of a driver for this device. Boards based on this chip are usually very cheap and apparently can be had for $20US or less. You can obtain the driver from: http://www.freebsd.org/~wpaul/ASIX/3.0 source for FreeBSD 3.0 http://www.freebsd.org/~wpaul/ASIX/2.2 source for FreeBSD 2.2.x To add the driver to an existing system, do the following: - Download the correct version of if_ax.c and if_axreg.h for your version of FreeBSD. - Unpack the kernel source code under /usr/src. - Copy if_ax.c and if_axreg.h to /sys/pci. - Edit /sys/conf/files and add a line that says: pci/if_ax.c optional ax device-driver - Edit your kernel config file (e.g. /sys/i386/conf/GENERIC) and add a line that says: device ax0 - Configure and compile a kernel and boot it. Devices should be detected as ax0, ax1, etc... You will probably want to edit /etc/rc.conf to have the interface brought up when the system boots. The ASIX Electronics AX88140A is another DEC tulip clone (big surprise). The chip supports both serial and MII transceivers, however it does not have its own internal NWAY support so most boards based on this chip will probably include an MII-compliant NWAY-capable PHY. The main difference between the DEC tulip and the ASIX chip is that the ASIX's receive filter is not programmed by downloading a special setup frame into the transmit DMA channel. Instead, the filter is configured using two special registers. Filtering is restricted to a 64-bit multicast hash table and a single perfect filter entry for the station address. (Those who are curious can obtain a copy of the ASIX datasheet from www.asix.com.tw.) The ASIX chip has one unusual quirk, which is that the reset bit in the bus configuration register is not self-clearing: the driver has to manually clear it. Neither the real DEC tulip nor any of the clones work like this. Also, although the chip supports chaining descriptors in linked list mode, there is no 'use linked list mode' bit in the descriptor control word. Note: I cobbled the 2.2.x version of the driver together tonight and haven't actually tested it yet, having spent most of the day testing the board under 3.0. (I have verified that it compiles and tried to make sure I didn't make any serious goofs). I'm not going to be able to work on it for a while as I got tagged for jury duty, which starts tomorrow. I'm not sure how long it will last. I will of course be keeping track of e-mail during this time, but I may be a bit slow in responding. Note II: I also received a Macronix 98713 board today and finally fixed the mx driver (in -current and on the http server) to properly handle the internal NWAY registers on this chip (the mx_mii_readreg() routine wasn't quite right, and a few other things needed to be tweaked). This means that if you have a board with an original 98713 chip (as opposed to the 98713A), media autoselection and link detection should work properly now. As usual, send your reports, good or bad, to wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu. Share and enjoy! -Bill -- ============================================================================= -Bill Paul (212) 854-6020 | System Manager, Master of Unix-Fu Work: wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu | Center for Telecommunications Research Home: wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu | Columbia University, New York City ============================================================================= "It is not I who am crazy; it is I who am mad!" - Ren Hoek, "Space Madness" ============================================================================= To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message
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