Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 12:37:59 -0500 (EST) From: <scanner@jurai.net> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Intel driver doc's Take 2. Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0103221218480.62375-100000@sasami.jurai.net>
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I just got off the phone with Linda Sanchez at our favorite company Intel. She is a Sr. "Marketing Engineer" (What is a marketing engineer?) for their LAN products. She is itnerested in helping us get the information we need to write drivers for their cards. But she also knows NDA's are not going away. She wants to meet us halfway in the short term. Somewhere between a datasheet and a programming manual, that we can get with no NDA. I know alot of you are totally fed up with Intel and at this point couldnt give two hoots about Intel or their cards. But she is willing to work with us to get us what we need. I told her it sounds like an all or nothing proposition that we NEED the programming manuals. Not datasheets, not fluffy reference drivers. But for the short term that is not going to happen. Sigh. She does want to try and help us like I said. She need's specific information that we need that we cant get unless we sign NDA's for the doc's so she can try and get them merged into a reference product somewhere between the datasheet (worthless) and the programming manual (NDA). I know this is not ideal or what bill, jonathon, or others want. They would rather Intel just get a friggin clue and stop being anal. And while in the long term this may change it isn't going to be soon. She is willing to compromise and try and get us doc's on the bits we need. Is anyone willing to try and work on a middle of the road to keep support current for Intel nic's? Or has everyone decided to just not waste the effort or time on Intel idiocy anymore? Either way is fine. It's not like we only support one brand of NIC's. I'm just making an offer, the only offer from Intel, to help work with OS developers. I completely understand everyone's attitude towards Intel and I think it's totally justified. And I am usually an all or nothing person. I don't do middle of the road. But thats the offer on the table. Try and get us what we need in manual in between the datasheet and the programming doc's. But it will be available without an NDA. This is the option we currently have. Any takers? If there are she want's me to collect specific item's that are needed. Like the recent PHY debacle. What item's do we need programming doc's on? Specific parts? Etc. In the long term maybe Intel will get a clue but I am not holding my breath. But this is a chance to try and get what we need under a non-NDA arrangement. So if anyone has any care whatsoever to make one last effort to support Intel hardware and wants to work on getting the information we need. Let me know. I *think* we can get her to piecemeal the info we need into a non NDA doc for us, piece by piece that is as good or better as the programming doc's. Anyway if there are any takers that want to work with me on getting the doc's required let me know. Otherwise i'm just like everyone else I dont have a 50 megaton nuclear device to beat Intel with to get them to do the right thing. And Intel support can be dropped. ============================================================================= -Chris Watson (316) 326-3862 | FreeBSD Consultant, FreeBSD Geek Work: scanner@jurai.net | Open Systems Inc., Wellington, Kansas Home: scanner@deceptively.shady.org | http://open-systems.net ============================================================================= WINDOWS: "Where do you want to go today?" LINUX: "Where do you want to go tomorrow?" BSD: "Are you guys coming or what?" ============================================================================= irc.openprojects.net #FreeBSD -Join the revolution! ICQ: 20016186 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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