On Fri, 19 Jul 2002, Clemmitt Sigler wrote:

> On Fri, 19 Jul 2002, Jochen Kunz wrote:
> > Wasn't / is there a problem with the PMAD-A TC Ethernet card? It works
> > on PMAX but not in a TC Alpha?
>
> As of the latest testing I've done, this is still correct.  PMAD-AA
> TurboChannel Ethernet cards won't work in Alpha 3000 TC bus machines.
> It is reported to work fine on PMAX.

  Thanks to a kind person, I now have a PMAD-AA card in a 300/700 and have
verified the problem still exists in 1.6_BETA4.  I am planning on trying
to track down this problem.

> I'm not much of a kernel hacker but am still willing to work with
> someone who's interested in looking at this problem.  I have the
> necessary hardware, and even have some spare equipment I'm willing
> to give someone who can help fix this.
>
> My only guess is that the code for the built-in PMAD-BA interface
> (IOCTL ASIC, file syssrc/sys/dev/tc/if_le_ioasic.c) and the
> TC PMAD-AA (TC bus, file syssrc/sys/dev/tc/if_le_tc.c) is quite
> different, and the TC initialization isn't quite right.  This is
> just a guess.

  The problem seems to occurring in le_dec_writereg(), which has the
following comment:

/*
 * Write a lance register port, reading it back to ensure success. This seems
 * to be necessary during initialization, since the chip appears to be a bit
 * pokey sometimes.
 */

  It's failing to read back the data it's trying to write.  I need to try
to remember where I've got my documentation for the DEC 3000 and the
Ethernet card.

--
Michael L. Hitch			mhitch@montana.edu
Computer Consultant
Information Technology Center
Montana State University	Bozeman, MT	USA