From owner-freebsd-hackers Fri Mar 13 12:17:20 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id MAA03557 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Fri, 13 Mar 1998 12:17:20 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from Kitten.mcs.com (Kitten.mcs.com [192.160.127.90]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA03540 for ; Fri, 13 Mar 1998 12:17:11 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from karl@Mars.mcs.net) Received: from Mars.mcs.net (karl@Mars.mcs.net [192.160.127.85]) by Kitten.mcs.com (8.8.7/8.8.2) with ESMTP id OAA22414; Fri, 13 Mar 1998 14:17:11 -0600 (CST) Received: (from karl@localhost) by Mars.mcs.net (8.8.7/8.8.2) id OAA27118; Fri, 13 Mar 1998 14:17:11 -0600 (CST) Message-ID: <19980313141711.30263@mcs.net> Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 14:17:11 -0600 From: Karl Denninger To: mika ruohotie Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: "Best" Fast Ethernet Card References: <199802260213.SAA16197@implode.root.com> <199803132006.WAA10724@shadows.aeon.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.84 In-Reply-To: <199803132006.WAA10724@shadows.aeon.net>; from mika ruohotie on Fri, Mar 13, 1998 at 10:06:50PM +0200 Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Fri, Mar 13, 1998 at 10:06:50PM +0200, mika ruohotie wrote: > yaiks, i dont like being over 1200 messages behind on my mailing lists... > > > >The SMC cards *ARE* DEC chipsets. > > The key word in the above is "new". The SMC9432TX uses the SMC83c170 > > chip, NOT the DEC chip. We have preliminary support for it in the 'tx' Well, I got a bunch of INTEL PRO/100+s in..... Preliminary results are, well, impressive. Autonegotiation (including FDX) actually works. Its fast. 100BaseTX/FDX into an Intel 510T switch is even more impressive :-) They also don't appear to be as "picky" about cables. The SMC 10/100 cards we have used for a long time would piss and moan about a cable once in a while (usually manifesting itself as complaints about mangled packets and bad CRCs). Interestingly enough the Pro100+ doesn't seem to mind the same cables (!) at all. I don't know what that's about, other than perhaps better noise margins on the physical layer components. > uh, i hate to answer my own questions... it appears to introduce > itself as: > > fxp0: rev 0x02 int a irq 10 on pci0.10.0 Note that the Pro/100+ *AS WELL AS* the newer SMC cards have serious trouble with TYN EISA/PCI motherboards when run in 100BaseT mode. It appears that the motherboard is unable to keep up *on receive* with the data stream; the result is a lot of input errors and horrible performance. Downshifting those to 10Mbps fixes that (but obviously negates the point of a fast ethernet card). The same problem does *NOT* show up on the Natoma motherboards. No data on the LX motherboards yet - I'm testing some of those next week. -- -- Karl Denninger (karl@MCS.Net)| MCSNet - Serving Chicagoland and Wisconsin http://www.mcs.net/ | T1's from $600 monthly / All Lines K56Flex/DOV | NEW! Corporate ISDN Prices dropped by up to 50%! Voice: [+1 312 803-MCS1 x219]| EXCLUSIVE NEW FEATURE ON ALL PERSONAL ACCOUNTS Fax: [+1 312 803-4929] | *SPAMBLOCK* Technology now included at no cost To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message