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Date:      Sun, 11 Jan 98 13:39:51 +0100
From:      Martin Bokaemper <mnbokaem@pizza.franken.de>
To:        alex@comsys.com
Cc:        freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: multi-port Ethernet cards ?? Anyone have them or want to develop them?
Message-ID:  <m0xrMgF-0004pYC@olive.franken.de>
In-Reply-To: <34B86D45.643D@comsys.com>
References:  <34B86D45.643D@comsys.com>

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Hi.

> We're again looking at the requirements for a ISP box that
> has 8 Ethernet ports. We'd like to run FreeBSD in the box, prefer
> Intel or Digital 10/100 Mbit Ethernet controllers - 4 per board
> would be good. Priced around $300 each.
>
> If there's someone interested in developing such a card we'd can
> participate. Please contact me directly.
>
> If there's something out there already that fits the bill,
> we'd buy rather than build.

There are 4-port Ethernet Controllers available. We have one in use
from Cogent (now: Adaptec). They have a family of 4 port PCI-cards
that all use the DECchip controllers.
We use the 4x BNC (10Mbps) model but you can get up to
4x 100Mbps fullduplex. The card currently runs in a linux box
but I had it on FreeBSD too and it works fine. I don't know
current prices. Look at
<http://www.adaptec.com/products/overview/cogentquart.html>;

Potential Problems:
- The board uses a PCI Bridge. Older BIOS versions often do not initialize
  these chips properly.
- Two cards _should_ be no problem, but you can only be sure about that
  after a test (another field for BIOS or PCI-Driver bugs).
- The controllers are longer than typical PCI-Boards - many Mainboards have
  the CPU or SIMMs in the back of the PCI-Slots so you can't plug
  in two long cards.

ciao,
Martin.
--



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