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Date:      Fri, 20 Mar 1998 15:38:06 -0500
From:      Benjamin Greenwald <beng@lcs.mit.edu>
To:        Atipa <freebsd@atipa.com>
Cc:        stable@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: okay, I WILL get out and help push 
Message-ID:  <199803202038.PAA27875@shangri-la.lcs.mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 20 Mar 1998 12:37:51 MST." <Pine.BSF.3.96.980320123508.18346B-100000@altrox.atipa.com> 

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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
> 
> 
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