On Thu, 2 Nov 1995 14:49:31 -0500 
 David Gilbert <dgilbert@pci.on.ca> wrote:

 > 	Firstly it looks like I have a couple slightly smart serial
 > cards.  These are 16 port VME32 cards.  They will work in both Sun3
 > and Sun4 systems that have VME backplanes.  I would be willing to give
 > someone a card if they either wrote or significantly helped me write a
 > driver for them.

I'm not sure what these are ... haven't seen one before.  Research time.

 > 	I also have a Ethernet board.  I don't know if I can expect it
 > to work or not.  I would suspect that this might be an easy one to
 > integrate.

It's likely just a VME `ie' board, which NetBSD supports.

 > 	I also have a chance at some SMD disks (now you can laugh).  I
 > have more controllers than disks... so I could possibly give away a
 > controller or two.  I don't know the status of the disks, but I don't
 > think they're worth what it would cost to ship them anyways.

Chuck Cranor wrote drivers for `xy' and `xd'.  However, he noticed some 
problems with the write-back cache and DMA on the 4/200-series.  He, 
Paul, and I had a short conversation about it roughly a month ago (maybe 
longer), but I don't know if he's worked on it anymore or not.  (I think 
it's basically a matter of making sure the cache gets flushed before DMA 
operations, but don't quote me on that.)

I'm interested in getting the DMA stuff working properly on the 4/200; I 
might embark on porting the new "ncr_si" driver from the Sun 3 port 
sometime soon after the release.

 > 	I also have an IEEE board and a board that controls a standard
 > 9-track (open reel) tape drive to make deals with.

Ooooo, cool.  :-)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jason R. Thorpe                                       thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
NASA Ames Research Center                               Home: 408.866.1912
NAS: M/S 258-6                                          Work: 415.604.0935
Moffett Field, CA 94035                                Pager: 415.428.6939