From owner-freebsd-hardware Wed Mar 27 09:26:42 1996 Return-Path: owner-hardware Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id JAA11308 for hardware-outgoing; Wed, 27 Mar 1996 09:26:42 -0800 (PST) Received: from GndRsh.aac.dev.com (GndRsh.aac.dev.com [198.145.92.241]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id JAA11303 for ; Wed, 27 Mar 1996 09:26:37 -0800 (PST) Received: (from rgrimes@localhost) by GndRsh.aac.dev.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) id JAA08629; Wed, 27 Mar 1996 09:25:15 -0800 From: "Rodney W. Grimes" Message-Id: <199603271725.JAA08629@GndRsh.aac.dev.com> Subject: Re: motherboard and Ethernet card recommendations To: dave@persprog.com (David Alderman) Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 09:25:15 -0800 (PST) Cc: hardware@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <22AD11A2E@novell.persprog.com> from David Alderman at "Mar 27, 96 11:38:16 am" X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL11 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-hardware@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > Rodney Grimes recommended: > > > XX. ASI ASUS-PCI/I-P55TP4N Motherboard w/256K 8nS PBurst SRAM cache $ 210.00 > > XX. TMG EFA18215 EFA PCI Ethernet Card, 10BaseT & BNC, DC21040 $ 85.00 > Note: lots o' useful information omitted. > > This is a Triton board, isn't it? Yes, but not all Triton boards are equal, some folks design better artwork than others, some write better bios's than others, etc... > We have had a horrible time with > an ASUS PCI/I-P55TP4XE and an SMC PCI network card that I think uses > the DC21040 chipset. Unfortunately, for this apllication we are > running (please, don't hit me!) SCO Open Server. Your problem is most likely SCO open server, I just did a machine for someone and what a nightmare to get it working! God, they call that a ``commercial'' unix :-( :-(. > A typical netstat -i shows: > > netstat -i > Name Mtu Network Address Ipkts Ierrs Opkts Oerrs Coll > net1 1500 192.2.2 meddml 11852554 120 12836553 275265 138074 > lo0 8232 loopback localhost 149531 0 149531 0 0 > > A machine on the same subnet with the ASUS Neptune board and an EISA > network card has no such problem with Ierrs Oerrs or Collisions. Bad NIC, bad cable? Did you get the latest AHS update and the latest NIC driver from smc's ftp site? > I know this doesn't have much bearing on FreeBSD but I would > appreciate any advice you could give. Would the TP4N work better? There is very very little difference between a tp4xe and a tp4n, basically they took the async cache chips off the MB, added 2 PB cache chips and the tag ram. You upgrade to 512K cache buy installing a 256K _upgrade_ module in the COAST socket. [_upgrade_ is highlighted there, as this is not the same as a standard 256k module, as this special one has no tag ram, and if you try to use the ones that do you end up with 0K cache] > Would the TMG card be a better choice than SMC? Should be the same, and it is an EFA card card, TMG is my distributor code. Under SCO I actually run the EFA card usings SMC's driver, SCO isn't smart enough of a company to do things like the if_de driver, even when DEC gives them the source code to it :-(. > If I could use FreeBSD on this machine I would (and I bet it would > solve our problems ;) ). :-) -- Rod Grimes rgrimes@gndrsh.aac.dev.com Accurate Automation Company Reliable computers for FreeBSD