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Date:      Mon, 28 Apr 1997 15:34:24 -0400
From:      dennis <dennis@etinc.com>
To:        John Hay <jhay@zibbi.mikom.csir.co.za>
Cc:        hackers@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: pci probes with multiple "units" (MORE)
Message-ID:  <3.0.32.19970428153420.00baa100@etinc.com>

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At 08:36 PM 4/28/97 +0200, John Hay wrote:
>> >
>> >Why don't you call your cards ethc0..X and then the devices eth0...X?
>> >Something like the Arnet (ar(4)), SDL RISCom N2(pci) or Cronyx-Sigma
>> >(cx(4)) drivers?
>> We *could*, but its just a matter of symantics and there shouldnt be
different
>> methods for different cards when it could easily be done if a few folks
>> get together on it. The separation of "controller" and "device" is getting
>> a bit fogged because so many are making up their own standards.
>> Its *easy* to do without the kludge you suggest...I call it a kludge
because,
>> unlike SCSI, there is no controller (as your nomenclature suggests) just
>> multiple *devices* on a card. Since there is little or no distinction
between 
>> 2 single port cards and a dual card, I would not only consider calling it
>> a controller confusing but also explicitly wrong. To suggest that it be
>> done that way because of a simple symantic problem in the pci probe
>> code seems extreme.
>> 
>
>Well it depends on how you look at it. The Arnet and SDL cards at least
>do share the IO ports and MEM mapped area and the interrupt between the
>different serial ports on the card. Also there is two serial ports in
>the Hitachi chip and some of those io ports are common. :-)

Yes, but you're talking about particulars internal to the driver, which should
be transparent to the user. Perhaps you can make a case that all hardware
probe-able devices be considered "controllers" and all network interfaces 
logical entities, but that is not how its modelled now....

Dennis
>John
>-- 
>John Hay -- John.Hay@mikom.csir.co.za
>
>



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