From: becker@super.org (Donald J. Becker) Subject: Re: Need 3c501 driver Date: 11 Jan 1993 21:00:06 GMT
In article <1993Jan9.002313.12543@brainiac.mn.org> jrc@brainiac.mn.org (Jeffrey Comstock) writes:
>In article <1993Jan7.174127.3075@super.org> becker@super.org (Donald J. Becker) writes:
>>The 3c501 is an ancient product with documentation that's no longer
>>being printed. It has a single packet buffer that is shared between
>>transmit and receive. By this I mean that when you have a packet it
>>cannot receive another packet. While you are offloading
>>that packet it cannot receive a packet. While you are loading a new
>>packet to transmit it cannot receive a packet. While you are waiting
>>to transmit it cannot receive a packet. While... well, you get the
>>idea -- you miss most packets. And I haven't even started describing
>>the bugs.
>
>I have used 3c501's for a long time, and yes they suck, but you are totally
>full of crap. They work fine for some applications. People are giving
>them away, and they beat the hell out of a SLIP line, which is what you
>would probably be running if you didn't have ether. Please just shut up.
I feel I'm qualified to make the above (factual and correct)
statement. I wrote a Linux 3c501 driver that I decided not to release
because the card was so braindamaged. I've also written Linux drivers
for the 3c503, NE2000, and other 8390-based ethercards. While the
8390 chip has its share of bugs, it's usable with Linux while the
3c501 board isn't. They 3c501 cards should have been retired with the
slow mono-tasking 8088 systems they were bought for.
As Russ Nelson .sig says "What canst *thou* say?". I can say "Seen
it, done it, been there!"
-- Donald Becker becker@super.org Supercomputing Research Center 17100 Science Drive, Bowie MD 21114 301-805-7482