I think there is something missing from this discussion...

I have a pair of Tulips connected via a crossover cable - no switches 
to complicate things.  These are DE500-BAs, the new ones that use 
21143s.

Forcing them to full-duplex doesn't do the right thing.  netstat 
reports collisions and throughput tests get 90 megabits when I normally 
get 180 on a full duplex link.  It's not quite as simple as just 
being in half duplex mode.  I see 200 ms type response times on some 
TCP tests that don't happen when the link is in half duplex mode. 

Note that some switches allow manual configuration of speed and duplexity.  
We should be able to force a full duplex connection to one of them 
(if it's setup right).  Some switches don't do autonegotiation right.  
Forcing the driver into full-duplex may be the only way to make a 
link to them work in full duplex mode. 


I'm not trying to encourage anybody to work on this in preferance 
to working on NWAY - just trying to point out that there is a bug 
here and  NWAY support won't solve all the problems. 

I would get most of them though.  I think it would cover all the 
cases I'm interested in.