Date: Sun, 25 May 1997 13:23:18 +0930 (CST) From: Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au> To: dgy@rtd.com (Don Yuniskis) Cc: freebsd-hackers@freefall.FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: diskless hardware *design* suggestions Message-ID: <199705250353.NAA11327@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> In-Reply-To: <199705241622.JAA14984@seagull.rtd.com> from Don Yuniskis at "May 24, 97 09:22:29 am"
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Don Yuniskis stands accused of saying: > I'm hacking together an SC400 (486/66 PC on a chip) based design > and would like that design to serve double duty as the core of an > FBSD-based diskless system (e.g., a small X-terminal). Hey, neat. What VGA CRTC were you planning on using? > Unfortunately, none of the x86 MCU's are particularly > tolerant of external bus masters. And, sharing memory tends to > clutter these designs quickly. So, DMA is the only *painless* > way to interface to the core. DMA is not common with NICs. Shared memory (usually controlled by the NIC) and programmed I/O are the norm. > As such, are there any good suggestions for NIC's that would > fit well in this architecture? Preferably fast ethernet? Very > high integration is desirable to keep the size of the box down to > a minimum (i.e. PC/104 form factor). There aren't a great number of fast ethernet chipsets, and even fewer designed for tight ISA-style integration. There is, however, a plethora of 10Mbps chipsets that might suit; consider the Crystal CS89x0, SMC 91cxx, NatSemi 83c90x etc. Depending on the actual situation, you may find that the AMD PC-Net or Intel 825xx parts are suitable too. would strongly suggest chasing the SMC and NatSemi websites for details on any potential 100Mbps parts. > --don -- ]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer msmith@gsoft.com.au [[ ]] Genesis Software genesis@gsoft.com.au [[ ]] High-speed data acquisition and (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496 [[ ]] realtime instrument control. (ph) +61-8-8267-3493 [[ ]] Unix hardware collector. "Where are your PEZ?" The Tick [[
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