In  <199703182204.OAA00595@lestat.nas.nasa.gov> , you wrote:

> On 18 Mar 1997 21:50:52 +0100 
>  tron@lyssa.owl.de (Matthias Scheler) wrote:
> 
>  > 	Hi,
>  > 
>  > can someone enlighten me why I have to use "ifconfig de0 media aui"
>  > to enable the BNC port of my ReadyLink/PCI? If I use
>  > "ifconfig de0 media bnc" I get a message that the "External SIA port"
>  > - whatever that is - has been enabled and the interface is dead.
> 
> I have no idea (even though I commit a new version recently) ... however,
> I've CC'd Matt Thomas on this... perhaps he can tell you.

Because to the 21040, there's no difference between the AUI and BNC ports.
In fact, that's why most 21040 based based have a jumper or something to
swap between BNC and AUI (if they have both).  But not all; some use the
external SIA (serial interface attachment) port to connect the third port
and avoid using a jumper or dip shunt.  The "Multia" (a lowend Alpha that
seems to be quite popular) is an example of a machine that uses this
approach.

Note that on a 21041, AUI and BNC do the expected thing.

If someone adds a IFM_10_EXT ("external"), I let the that be EXTSIA
and I'll change BNC to be an alias of AUI.

Note that a new version of if_de.c (which I'm just about to send to Jason)
will, on Alpha, use the console setting to select the media.
-- 
Matt Thomas               Internet:   matt@3am-software.com
3am Software Foundry      WWW URL:    http://www.3am-software.com/bio/matt.html
Westford, MA              Disclaimer: I disavow all knowledge of this message