Subject: Re: Recommendations wanted for 100baseTX cards
To: Bill Paul <wpaul@ee.columbia.edu>
From: Jason Thorpe <thorpej@nas.nasa.gov>
List: port-i386
Date: 01/29/2000 11:04:47
On Sat, 29 Jan 2000 13:50:23 -0500 (EST) 
 wpaul@ee.columbia.edu (Bill Paul) wrote:

 > I asked the Davicom people why the problems with the DM9102 weren't
 > documented in their datasheet in an errata section. They told me that
 > they didn't consider it an issue because typically their customers that
 > use the DM9102 chip also use the drivers that Davicom provides them,
 > which are written by Davicom engineers and have workarounds for the
 > problems. I harrassed them a bit over this; hopefully it will have some
 > effect.

Well, that's annoying!  :-)

I have some DM9102 boards on the way from Davicom, but they're apparently
stuck in customs!  Grumble.  Anyhow, I'll keep this in mind when adding
support for the chip.

 > Believe it or not, there is also a 3com clone chip. The Sundance Technologies
 > ST201 chip uses a programming interface that's a close copy of the 3c90xB.
 > It also allows arbitrary byte alignment for RX DMA buffers, like the 3c90xB,
 > which makes it the only chip other than the 3Com boomerag/cyclone/etc,
 > the Intel 82557/8/9 and the Texas Instruments ThunderLAN that does this.
 > (Well, the gigE cards do it too, but that's another class of adapter.)

Can you please point me at a datasheet for the ST201, and tell me which
card has it?  So far, Sundance hasn't responded to my requests for a
datasheet and demo board.

        -- Jason R. Thorpe <thorpej@nas.nasa.gov>