From owner-freebsd-hackers  Mon Apr 17 19:35:27 1995
Return-Path: hackers-owner
Received: (from majordom@localhost)
          by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) id TAA10834
          for hackers-outgoing; Mon, 17 Apr 1995 19:35:27 -0700
Received: from hq.icb.chel.su (icb-rich-gw.icb.chel.su [193.125.10.34])
          by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.10/8.6.6) with ESMTP id TAA10811
          for <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>; Mon, 17 Apr 1995 19:34:58 -0700
Received: from localhost (babkin@localhost) by hq.icb.chel.su (8.6.5/8.6.5) id IAA00285; Tue, 18 Apr 1995 08:32:49 -0500
From: "Serge A. Babkin" <babkin@hq.icb.chel.su>
Message-Id: <199504181332.IAA00285@hq.icb.chel.su>
Subject: Re: support for Xircom PCMCIA Ethernet adapters?
To: terry@cs.weber.edu (Terry Lambert)
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 1995 08:32:49 -0500 (GMT-0500)
Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org
In-Reply-To: <9504171621.AA08143@cs.weber.edu> from "Terry Lambert" at Apr 17, 95 10:21:05 am
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23]
Content-Type: text
Content-Length: 796       
Sender: hackers-owner@FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

> > Do you mean that we can get hold of ODI drivers (binaries) and used them
> > under FreeBSD?
> 
> Yes, if:
> 
> 1)	They could be loaded into kernel memory.
> 
> 2)	Their external symbols are appropriately resolved.
> 
> Both of these require knowledge of the binary file format.

Server ODI (really NLM) drivers are known to be able to use polling. At
least I saw one card developed in the State Technical University of
Chelyabinsk that required very heavy polling (often with masked
interrupts), but they wrote an NLM for it. 

Probably most cards have more normal NLMs but a polling-based
ones are possible too and loading of such ones into kernel may be
dangerous.


		Serge Babkin

! (babkin@hq.icb.chel.su)
! Headquarter of Joint Stock Commercial Bank "Chelindbank"
! Chelyabinsk, Russia