Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 21:44:08 -0400 (EDT) From: Bill Paul <wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu> To: dwmalone@maths.tcd.ie (David Malone) Cc: crandall@matchlogic.com, dmiller@search.sparks.net, hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Gigabit ethernet support? Message-ID: <199908190144.VAA25841@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu> In-Reply-To: <19990819022003.A92446@walton.maths.tcd.ie> from "David Malone" at Aug 19, 99 02:20:03 am
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Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, David Malone had to walk into mine and say: > On Wed, Aug 18, 1999 at 06:43:24PM -0400, Bill Paul wrote: > > Just out of curiosity, I thought I saw that you could get Intel > Etherexpress 1Gb/s cards. Do these exist and if so would they work > with the fxp driver as it is? > > David. The Intel gigabit ethernet cards are nothing like the EtherExpress fast ethernet adapters. Getting information out of Intel is like trying to squeeze blood from a stone. Either they want you to sign a non disclosure agreement that prevents you from releasing driver source (or makes it hard) or they won't give you any information at all. Sometimes they also play a different game where they release some information and pretend they're being 'open' but in reality the stuff they release is just fluff and you still have to sign an NDA to get your hands on the good stuff. As an aside, there are bound to be extra problems with the Intel gigabit NICs because, if I'm not mistaken, then use an on-board i960 processor to drive them. This means that in order to make the NIC work, you have to load firmware into it, and with firmware comes sticky licensing issues. The Alteon Tigon chipset also requires firmware (it has embedded MIPS R4000 CPUs) but Alteon actually released the firmware source code along with all the other Tigon development information. They even have a mailing list where you can send in questions regarding the firmware and get answers from a real live developer. Until such time as Intel gets its head out of its ass in this regard, I refuse to have anything to do with their networking products, especially when I have two other sources of perfectly good gigabit ethernet NICs available to me with full, unencumbered documentation. Initially this was not true of SysKonnect: they had a Linux driver for their cards but no programming info available. Much to my surprise, after a lengthy e-mail discussion, they actually agreed to release the manual for their GEnesis ASIC not just to me but to anybody without NDA on their web site. You would think that Intel would be prepared to make the same commitment to their customers, but so far as I know, they're still stuck in their proprietary ways. -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-hackers" in the body of the message
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