Jonathan Stone <jonathan@DSG.Stanford.EDU> writes:
> Ah, but if you put a board which (like the PCI tulip and DEFPA FDDI)
> *does* need bus-mastering, into a PCI slot which doesn't support
> bus-mastering, you've already lost.  And this mostly (solely?)
> affects early 486 PCI implementations, anyway.

certainly not 'solely'.  I saw it in the context of slots behind
PPBs.  For whatever reason, the designers thought non-bus-mastering
slots were 'OK.'


> Isnt the tradeoff really: Are we better off to work around buggy
> BIOS/setup which dont enable the busmastering bit, or to leave it bit
> alone, and risk not catching the `board incorrectly inserted in
> non-busmaster slot' case?

Yes, that is the tradeoff.  However, that wasn't the original claim,
which was that change couldn't have adverse effects.  it certainly
can.



cgd
-- 
Chris Demetriou - cgd@netbsd.org - http://www.netbsd.org/People/Pages/cgd.html
Disclaimer: Not speaking for NetBSD, just expressing my own opinion.