Date: Mon, 25 May 1998 11:06:42 +0100 From: Peter Edwards <peter.edwards@isocor.ie> To: "Matthew N. Dodd" <winter@jurai.net> Cc: FreeBSD Hardware <freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Seeking hardware recommendations Message-ID: <356942B2.84CD3D8D@isocor.ie> References: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980523003329.17033l-100000@sasami.jurai.net>
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Not all 2114x cards have MII PHYs. As mentioned before, some cards' physical layers implement media detection through the "General Purpose" register bits. And yes, getting it to work for all cases is, to say the very least, "Problematic". (Now _theres_ an understatement!). A generic MII interface is a good idea though... Cheers, Peter Matthew N. Dodd wrote: > > On Fri, 22 May 1998, Tom wrote: > > The DEC chipsets are not that well supported. The media detection is > > problematic. There are many variances from model to model (at least a > > half a dozen different chipset versions). Ugh... > > The failure to auto detect is caused by lack of specific support for PHY > specific detection routines. > > NetBSD appears to be taking steps to deal with this by creating PHY > specific 'drivers' that attach to an MII 'bus'. > > This moves MII code out of the individual driver and potentially reduces > code duplication (in the case where several cards share a number of PHYs) > > I've spoken with Bill Paul about this and while we both agreed that this > would be a good thing, neither he or I have the time to do the work. > (He's got more interesting (for some value of) projects and I'm stuck in > the dark ages without any ethernet devices that support MII PHYs (mostly > due to my lack of PCI based systems at home.)) > > As a large number of available PHYs on the market (TI, National Semi, > Level One, PLX etc.) have full datasheets available doing the MII specific > code should be somewhat straight-forward. > > Check out sys/dev/mii for NetBSD's code. > > /* > Matthew N. Dodd | A memory retaining a love you had for life > winter@jurai.net | As cruel as it seems nothing ever seems to > http://www.jurai.net/~winter | go right - FLA M 3.1:53 > */ > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message
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