Date: Fri, 17 Mar 1995 09:59:33 -0500 (EST) From: Peter Dufault <dufault@hda.com> To: mbarkah@teton.Mines.Colorado.EDU (Ade Barkah) Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Multiport serial cards Message-ID: <199503171459.JAA08376@hda.com> In-Reply-To: <9503171052.AA19966@teton.Mines.Colorado.EDU> from "Ade Barkah" at Mar 17, 95 03:52:03 am
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Ade Barkah writes: > > > Terry Lambert wrote: (All sorts of wonderful things about what a great company DigiBoard is and what good products they have and summarizes with...) > > > The ONLY thing that is standing in the way of a driver there, IMO, > > is the lack of someone with hardware and a determination to write a > > driver. > > They have one for BSDI. Any chance converting that for FreeBSD ? Digi (new name) requires a non disclosure agreement for the "Device Driver Writer's Guide" required to interface to the "FEP/OS" (Front End Processor OS). The only thing available without NDA is the jumper settings and how to interface to the BIOS that then downloads the FEP/OS. I have a call in for an explanation of the non-disclosure agreement. They advertise the Linux driver in their WWW page and it is available from their FTP site. I don't mind signing NDA and paying $100.00 as long as the driver can be made available under a Berkeley style copyright. It will be advantage for FreeBSD to support the DigiBoard product. Alternatively someone can pick up the Linux driver and write an interface guide for the FEP/OS and then send that along to someone else to write a FreeBSD driver. Digi's policy is unfortunate. I can't quite puzzle out what competitive advantage Digi gets by declining to publish the interface to the board firmware. I'll send this under separate cover to support@digibd.com. Hopefully someone there can tell us how the Linux driver was written, whether it adheres to the terms of the NDA, and whether or not there is some way we can produce a driver that falls under the non-restrictive Berkeley style copyright Peter -- Peter Dufault Real Time Machine Control and Simulation HD Associates, Inc. Voice: 508 433 6936 dufault@hda.com Fax: 508 433 5267
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