From owner-freebsd-stable Fri Mar 20 12:38:38 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id MAA21255 for freebsd-stable-outgoing; Fri, 20 Mar 1998 12:38:38 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from shangri-la.lcs.mit.edu (root@shangri-la.lcs.mit.edu [18.111.0.88]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA21231 for ; Fri, 20 Mar 1998 12:38:13 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from beng@shangri-la.lcs.mit.edu) Received: from shangri-la.lcs.mit.edu (beng@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by shangri-la.lcs.mit.edu (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id PAA27875; Fri, 20 Mar 1998 15:38:07 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199803202038.PAA27875@shangri-la.lcs.mit.edu> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0.1 12/23/97 To: Atipa cc: stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: okay, I WILL get out and help push In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 20 Mar 1998 12:37:51 MST." From: Benjamin Greenwald X-Sender: beng@lcs.mit.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 15:38:06 -0500 Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk I believe "Boomerang" is the name of the 3C90? chip... the new one. The "Vortex" is the 3C59? architecture whose interface is very similar to the 3C509 (hence the lineage of the current vx code) which I would probably agree was a lemon. However, supporting the 3C59? cards with a driver focused on the 3C90? shouldn't degrade the later's performance and with little work should improve the performance of the former. You just use the programmed I/O interface as in the current vx driver for the older cards, and something fancy for the new ones. The Linux driver does exactly this, a driver I've had good luck with on both Vortex and Boomerang cards. This will have the added benefit of making the new driver a drop in replacement for the old. However, if in the course of development I find that supporting the older PIO interface is going to degrade the bus-mastering interface performance, don't think for a second I won't drop it in the bit-bucket. -Ben > > > As to the driver issue, I've just begun developing a new vx driver which wi ll > > use the advanced features of the Boomerang cards(3C90?), and stay compatibl e > > with Vortex (3C59?). > > > > -Ben > > Does anybody still use the Boomerang? It has been discontinued for over > 1.5 years, and never really caught on. It would be a shame to compromise > performance over a lemon card from 3 years ago... > > Kevin > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message