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Date:      Wed, 13 Nov 1996 21:33:12 -0800 (PST)
From:      "Rodney W. Grimes" <rgrimes@GndRsh.aac.dev.com>
To:        jkh@time.cdrom.com (Jordan K. Hubbard)
Cc:        jas@flyingfox.COM, freebsd-questions@freefall.freebsd.org, mango@communique.net, hardware@freefall.freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: 3C900 - 3C590 - 3C595 - SMC and PCI ethernet cards ???
Message-ID:  <199611140533.VAA21146@GndRsh.aac.dev.com>
In-Reply-To: <9056.847939880@time.cdrom.com> from "Jordan K. Hubbard" at "Nov 13, 96 06:51:20 pm"

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> > I'm disturbed by the recent reports of problems with these
> > cards.  I really need a stable, solid, PCI-based 10/100 Mbit
> > Ethernet solution for FreeBSD.  Is there anyone who can shed
> 
> Well, before you get too worried about this, just let me point out
> that *all* of our SMC and Compex DC21040 based cards at Walnut Creek
> CDROM work flawlessly, and we've got something like 15-20 machines
> using them at 100BTX and 10BT speeds.  They *do* seem somewhat more
> susceptible to bad cabling than most cards.  I was seeing abnormally
> high collision counts on my home network and was rather puzzled by it
> until I thought to replace a terminator I suspected.  No problems
> since.
> 
> I'm rather curious myself at this recent spate of reports - perhaps
> SMC has done something hairbrained with their latest revision of
> adaptors?

Known fact, most of the vendors that I am dealing with on the DC21x4x
based cards have _ALL_ done design revisions in the last few months.
Some of these cards still work fine, others the cards are totally
non-functional now under FreeBSD :-(

Most of these changes involve either going from the DC21040 to the DC21041
chip and changing some other things (most of this should now be fixed by
the recent update to the driver, I just haven't had time to dust off the
dead product sitting on my shelf and start testing them, and it is a low
priority issue for me since I have functional product in the KNE40BT cards
using the DC21041 chip.)

The bigger issue is the DC21140 based cards, they have also all been revised
to use a new PHY/MII interface chip(s), and it seems even the latest version
of the driver is not dealing with this fact :-(.

> 
> It might also help if those larger shops who are having problems would
> consider sending one of the failing cards to David Greenman - we can't
> fix what we can't see. :-)

I am not only willing to hand carry them over to David, I will pay him
some reasonable fee to work on and fix the driver to support both the new
versions of the cards from SMC (SMC9332BDT) and the D-Link DFE-500TX.

If David does not have the time, that offer extends to Matt Thomas
as well.  (Except I'll have to FedX the cards to him :-)).

The balls now in your court, I have made the offer of putting the hardware
and money in your hands to get some of this fixed....


> 						Jordan


-- 
Rod Grimes                                      rgrimes@gndrsh.aac.dev.com
Accurate Automation, Inc.                   Reliable computers for FreeBSD



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