Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2001 23:07:24 -0700 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "Greg Lehey" <grog@lemis.com> Cc: "Munish Chopra" <messiah_man@hotmail.com>, <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: Realtek 8139 NIC and IRQ problem. Message-ID: <015801c0d072$a8c1dba0$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <20010429080657.S69945@wantadilla.lemis.com>
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>-----Original Message----- >From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG >[mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Greg Lehey >Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2001 3:37 PM >To: Ted Mittelstaedt >Cc: Munish Chopra; freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG >Subject: Re: Realtek 8139 NIC and IRQ problem. > > >On Saturday, 28 April 2001 at 6:13:53 -0700, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG >>> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Greg Lehey >> >>> messages, such as ARP requests. Bill added a fix for it, and we have >>> seen no problems since. It's quite possible that the RealTek driver >>> has similar issues. >> >> I wonder, though. It would seem to me that the RealTek cards are >> _so_ cheap that the manufacturers using those chipsets are all >> simply using the "suggested design schematic" and the sample device >> driver that comes from RealTek. > >Sure. Same thing with the Macronix. I think I paid $20 for the >cards. But the difference isn't in the schematic, it's in the >(cheaper) chip. Most of these cards have only one chip on them. > Ah, then there's multiple variants of that chip out there then? Are the others clones or are they all from the same chip OEM? >> For a deviation of the card to exist would imply that the card >> manufacturers are actually spending money on hardware and software >> design. > >No, that's an assumption. > >> That's assuming a lot for a card that usually sells for less than $9 >> USD > >Hmm. That *is* cheap. Is this a 10 Mb/s or a 100 Mb/s card? > Every 8139 I've seen is _supposed_ to be autoswitching at 10/100 (this depends greatly on the hub - the 8139 always wants to assume 100BaseT Full Duplex on power up and I don't believe that they properly implement the Nway spec since they often do this on hubs that are 10BaseT only) and all of them are single chip models (with the exception of a few caps and such for voltage purification) and while the cards seem to come in different shapes and sizes with the chip positioned at different locations on the card they all appear to be the same part number of chip, and are all made by RealTek. Of course this is no guarentee that RealTek won't make some design change in the future that will require software rengineering, but I'd wonder why, since they don't seem to be marketing to the high-performance crowd. Their other seller they are known for is the 10BaseT PCI card and it's main claim to fame is that it's NE2000 compliant, so for that one they didn't even have to go to the effort to write a sample driver. (not that the NE2000 chipset is a technically good chipset to want to emulate) This is a company that is wanting to sell cheap silicon so they just leverage everyone else's effort. Obviously, they have a good thing going since they are now everybody's cheap Enet card, most parts dealers that sell them just seem to put customer returns right back on the shelf without blinking. And, yes they really do sell for $9 around here, although not using the RealTek name of course. (you have to open the box to determine it's an 8139 based card) Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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