Document: PCI ethernet cards for OS/2 Maintainer: Patrick Duffy, duffy@theory.chem.ubc.ca Last Revision Date: August 19, 1995 Archived at: ftp.netcom.com, in directory /pub/ab/abe/ CompuServe (GO BENCHMARK) Web pages: http://warp.eecs.berkeley.edu/os2/workbench/work.htm This document may be distributed freely, provided it is distributed in its entirety and is unmodified. This is the PCI ethernet cards for OS/2 list. I try at all times to keep it accurate, so if you spot any flaws/omissions, please do not hesitate to let me know and I'll fix them for the next release. I've placed a '*' beside cards which I would recommend, and a '**' beside cards which I would pick for myself when assembling a PCI system. I've added the vendor's name and PCI ID in brackets after the card descriptions. The numbers are in HEX/decimal. Useful Numbers: --------------- 3Com: ftp.3com.com (FTP site) Adaptec: (800) 959-7274 (tech. support) ftp.adaptec.com (ftp site) www.adaptec.com (WWW site) ftp.adaptec.com (ftp site) IBM: www.raleigh.ibm.com (WWW site) Racal: www.racal.com (WWW site) SMC: ftp.smc.com (FTP site) Manufacturer Model Comments ------------------------------------------------------ 3Com EtherLink This is 3Com's PCI card. It will III** busmaster (so be sure to put it into a busmastering slot on your PCI board), and uses what 3Com calls "parallel processing technology" to ensure fast performance. Drivers (ODI and NDIS, available from the 3Com FTP site in /pub/adapters/drivers/3c59xn.exe) exist for the card, which is reported to work very nicely under OS/2. (3Com Corporation: 10B7/4279) Adaptec Adaptec will (soon) be releasing two PCI ATM networking cards which sound like they'd be ideal for the truly speed-hungry. Both cards busmaster. One card does 25 Mbit/s, and the other does 155 Mbit/s. NT drivers are nearing completion, and OS/2 drivers are next in line. Now all I need is an ATM line... (Adaptec: 9004/36868) Cogent EM 100 This card will only connect to coax lines. It supports (only with other Cogent cards) a feature called "Predictive Pipelining". There are no OS/2 drivers. (Vendor ID unknown) D-Link DE-530CT This card uses the DEC 21040 chip, busmasters, and comes with BNC and twisted pair connectors on the same card. It comes with NDIS drivers for all the major operating systems. The card is reported to work well in OS/2 but not in Windows for Workgroups. This, though, could be caused by the Neptune rev. 10 chipset in that system, as the same card has worked well in Triton chipset-based systems. The OS/2 NIF file does not include a section for selecting the BNC or twisted pair connector. As a result, on power up it defaults to the twisted pair, which causes delays if you're using BNC. (Vendor ID unknown) Setup tips: Adding SIA_MODE = "BNC" to the [DC2IBM_nif] section of protocol.ini will tell the driver that the connection is via the BNC cable. Alternately, adding [SIA_MODE] tag = SIAMODE display = "Connector" type = string strlength = 3 default = "BNC" set = BNC, TP editable = yes to the DC2IBM.NIF file will give you the connector option in the network adapter setup program. D-Link DFE-500TX This card has connectors for twisted pair and coax cables, and uses the DEC chipset. It will not (yet) autodectect the speed of the connection. There are apparently no drivers for OS/2. (Vendor ID unknown) HP J2585A This card can use PIO or memory-mapped PIO modes. It does not support busmastering. The mode used is selectable using the supplied HPVGSET utility. There are drivers for all the major operating systems, and the card has separate RJ45 connectors for 10 and 100 MB/s operation. (Hewlett Packard: 103C/4156) Set-up tips: If you're using this card with a Netserver LC or LF, adjust the chipset register values as follows (accessible via the EISA setup utility): 1) Run the ECU with the advanced features enabled, i.i., type "cf /a" at the DOS prompt -OR- Run the ECU in the Advanced mode (press ctrl-A instead of Enter with the "Run configuration utility" highlighted) 2) Select "View or edit details" 3) Page down to "Advanced chipset registers" 4) Change the following settings (warning - avoid the and keys. Instead, use the key to move between fields). For 486-based servers: EISA Latency Timer = 1 For Pentium-based servers: CPU to PCI Write Buffers = 1 Gauranteed Access Time = 0 Bus Park = 1 EISA Latency Timer = 1. (This was tried on an HP 486 LC with a racalMilgo pci ethernet card. It still gives fifo UNDERRUNS during TX which cause delays in ethernet throughput.) To get the driver for the card to load successfully without a LAN connection, use HPVGSET to set the card's media support to either 10 MB/s or 100 MB/s. If you use the default, autosense, and the hub is not connected the driver will not be able to determine which connector to use and will abort with an error message. IBM 13H9237 This is IBM's PCI card. It supports 10 base-T and 10 base-5/fibre connections. It comes with drivers for all major operating systmes. The card busmasters. I've had no reports of success with it yet, however. (IBM: 1014/4116) Intel Etherexpress This is Intel's PCI card. I've no Pro/100 details on card configuration, but drivers for it are in beta (and correspondingly buggy). The card is reported to be quite quick, though. (Intel: 8086/32902) Racal PCI T2* This is Racal's PCI card. It apparently has both ODI and NDIS drivers in the box, and uses the AMD AM7990 chip for its networking operations. The card will autosense whether the BNC or the twisted pair connector is being used on startup. The driver diskette is apparently missing a configuration file which must be obtained from their BBS in order to properly install under Lanserver. Other than that, the drivers are reported to work well (NDIS drivers with NetBios protocols). (Racal Interlan: 10A5/4261) SMC PCI This is SMC's ethernet card. It PowerEther uses a Digital chip, and drivers for ODI and NDIS are available. Apparently the card does not perform well, however; one person has reported seeing his network performance drop from 1040 kB/sec to 400 kB/sec when switching from an SMC Elite16T ISA to this card. Still another reports that loading the drivers locks his system solid. One other person, however, has reported success, saying that the card works well on his Asus P54TP4, and all he had to do was replace the (outdated) drivers which came with Warp Connect with the newer drivers from the SMC FTP site. In addition, make sure that the card is terminated when you boot initially, or your machine will crash with a TRAP 0008 every time. (Standard Microsystems Corporation: 10B8/4280) Zynx ZX312 PCI* This card is similar to the Racal card above, except that it does not automatically detect the connector (BNC or twisted pair) in use; this must be set with a jumper. The diskette/drivers provided have been reported to work well with TCP/IP, NetBios, and Lanserver. (Vendor ID unknown) Zynx ZX342 This card is similar to the 312 above. Drivers are said to exist for all major operating systems. (Vendor ID unknown) That's what I know. E-Mail/post with additions/corrections and I'll post again. -- Patrick Duffy, duffy@theory.chem.ubc.ca -- I am Homer of Borg. Resistance is fu-- mmmmm... donuts...