NAME
ep —
driver for 3Com EtherLink III
Ethernet interfaces
SYNOPSIS
ep0 at isa? port ? irq ?
ep* at isapnp?
ep* at eisa? slot ?
ep* at mca? slot ?
ep* at pci? dev ? function ?
ep* at pcmcia? function ?
DESCRIPTION
The
ep device driver supports the 3Com EtherLink III family of
Ethernet cards.
The 3c515 is an ISA 10/100 card with DMA capability. The chipset is similar to
that of the 3c905, with some changes to make it work with the more limited ISA
bus address space. This card is supported, although DMA is not used.
The EISA and PCI 3c59x devices use an older DMA engine which is not capable of
multi-segment DMA. DMA on these devices is not used.
The 3c529 is a MCA device, and doesn't support DMA.
The PCI 3c90x devices have multi-segment DMA capability, which is not supported
by the
ep driver. To use the DMA capabilities of these
cards, the
ex(4) driver must be
used.
The PCI 3c90xB devices are not supported by the
ep driver, as
they do not include support for programmed I/O. These devices are supported by
the
ex(4) driver.
The 3c575 is a CardBus device, and is supported by
ex(4) driver.
There are 3 main chipset classes supported by the
ep driver.
Each has their own media selection capabilities.
The first class is the “3c509” class. This includes the 3c509,
3c509B, 3c529, 3c579, 3c562, and 3c589. These devices can support 10BASE-T,
10BASE2, and 10BASE5. Available media will be displayed when the device is
found by the kernel.
The second class is the “Vortex” class. This includes the 3c592,
3c579, 3c590, and 3c595. This class also includes the 3c900-TPO and
3c900-COMBO; they use the “Boomerang” chipset, but use
Vortex-style media selection. These devices have many different media types
varying by model. Some models have an external MII connector for connecting an
external PHY. This is supported by means of the “manual” media
type. Available media will be displayed when the device is found by the
kernel.
The third class is the “Boomerang” class. This includes the 3c515,
3c905, and 3c574. These devices support media selection via MII. The 3c515 and
3c905 have an
nsphy(4), and the
3c574 has a
tqphy(4), for this
purpose. See
ifmedia(4) and
mii(4) for more information.
HARDWARE
Supported cards include:
-
-
- 3c509
- ISA 10Mbps card, in BNC and multiport variants
-
-
- 3c509B
- ISA Plug-and-Play 10Mbps card, in BNC and multiport
variants
-
-
- 3c515
- ISA Plug-and-Play 10/100 card with UTP
-
-
- 3c529
- MCA 10Mbps card, in UTP+AUI and BNC+AUI variants
-
-
- 3c556B
- PCMCIA 56K modem-10/100Mbps Ethernet combo card with
dongle
-
-
- 3c562
- PCMCIA modem-10Mbps Ethernet combo card with dongle
-
-
- 3c574
- PCMCIA 10/100Mbps card with dongle
-
-
- 3c579
- EISA 10Mbps card, in UTP, BNC, and multiport variants
-
-
- 3c589
- PCMCIA 10Mbps card with dongle
-
-
- 3c590
- PCI 10Mbps multiport card with DMA capability
-
-
- 3c592
- EISA 10Mbps card with DMA capability
-
-
- 3c595
- PCI 10/100Mbps with different media options and DMA
capability
-
-
- 3c597
- EISA 10/100Mbps card with DMA capability
-
-
- 3c900
- PCI 10Mbps card in 10BASE-T and multiport variants with DMA
capability
-
-
- 3c905
- PCI 10/100Mbps card in 10BASE-T, multiport, and fast
variants with DMA capability
NOTES
EtherLink III cards have no jumpers to set the address. 3Com supplies software
to set the address of the card in software. To find the card on the ISA bus,
the kernel performs a complex scan operation at IO address 0x100.
Beware! Avoid placing other cards at that address!
The 3Com configuration utilities can `autosense' the active media and save it as
default. The saved default medium is the medium that was active at the time
the configuration utility was run. The
ep driver does not
yet re-autosense the active media at boot time. If the EEPROM autosense bit is
set, the driver simply uses the media type sensed and saved when the
configuration utility was run.
DIAGNOSTICS
- ep0: reset (status: %x)
- The driver has encountered a FIFO underrun or overrun. The
driver will reset the card and the packet will be lost. This is not
fatal.
- ep0: eeprom failed to come
ready
- The EEPROM failed to come ready. This probably means the
card is wedged.
- ep0: 3c509 in test mode. Erase pencil
mark!
- This means that someone has scribbled with pencil in the
test area on the card. Erase the pencil mark and reboot. (This is not a
joke.)
SEE ALSO
eisa(4),
ex(4),
ifmedia(4),
intro(4),
isa(4),
isapnp(4),
mca(4),
mii(4),
nsphy(4),
pci(4),
pcmcia(4),
tqphy(4),
ifconfig(8)