From owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 4 14:39:32 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3CF02106564A; Tue, 4 Oct 2011 14:39:32 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from adrian.chadd@gmail.com) Received: from mail-gy0-f182.google.com (mail-gy0-f182.google.com [209.85.160.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DAC088FC19; Tue, 4 Oct 2011 14:39:31 +0000 (UTC) Received: by gyf2 with SMTP id 2so693209gyf.13 for ; Tue, 04 Oct 2011 07:39:31 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:date :x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type; bh=vI0XAo5Ui8GjQV+Azk20L12MRKaKu1tyoZ+XCFY5V0M=; b=jMXi0G+0LIYZDU4GaQN1VUPBqnpag9L0embXPy13zOwo+ffVQt2K2CiM2umjnDpddU g0r5ZOM17TXkeDWABTSma+E9aXRPnsA3qqRNwreywfKLWGK17w1q53vzw1bbe6HCzFqV ynK0TQ9s6i2X5pTgXQIxhoBIiAKqDYwfrJe14= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.236.193.72 with SMTP id j48mr7274168yhn.21.1317739171248; Tue, 04 Oct 2011 07:39:31 -0700 (PDT) Sender: adrian.chadd@gmail.com Received: by 10.236.111.42 with HTTP; Tue, 4 Oct 2011 07:39:31 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <20111004140114.GA38162@in-addr.com> References: <1317656199.15510.5.camel@hitfishpass-lx.corp.yahoo.com> <20111004054444.GA10311@tinyCurrent> <20111004083710.GA1054@tiny> <20111004140114.GA38162@in-addr.com> Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2011 22:39:31 +0800 X-Google-Sender-Auth: ckfRnoNwUgMo0B_ZFttNI52ZSkU Message-ID: From: Adrian Chadd To: Gary Palmer Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Cc: "freebsd-net@freebsd.org" , Matthias Apitz Subject: Re: Broadcom Docs X-BeenThere: freebsd-net@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Networking and TCP/IP with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:39:32 -0000 The non-embedded atheros NICs (ie, not the ath6k series stuff) is all run by the host CPU. There's no firmware that runs on the NIC. This was why the HAL was binary for so long. Note it is no longer binary and hasn't been for a few years. So I think we can ignore the whole "binary firmware" problem. There's working code for these NICs for one or more of NetBSD, OpenBSD and Linux. All we need are people with some time and motivation to get it all working on FreeBSD. I'll commit whatever stuff people come up with. (And in the meantime, I'll continue chipping away at 11n support in ath(4)/ath_hal(4).) Adrian