*BSD News Article 98743


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From: nsayer@quack.kfu.com (Nick Sayer)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: 3com ethernet and FreeBSD 2.1.7 & 2.2.2
Date: 30 Jun 1997 06:29:36 GMT
Organization: The Duck Pond public unix - http://www.kfu.com/
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rhyde@uclink4.berkeley.edu (Trey) writes:

>Ok, I've been searching long and hard for a PCI ethernet card
>supported by FreeBSD.

[...]

>[...] Recomendations?

If you can, I would recommend cards based on the DEC 21x4x chips.
The tulip is an excellent chip and can be found in many brands --
often cheaper than the 3c9xx chips.

There are various reasons that I admit I don't fully understand
that make the 3com chips inferior. They have to do with how you
do DMA. A friend of mine was tasked at one point with writing a
device driver for a proprietary system for the 3c9xx. He detested
that chip by the time he was done.

I know even less about the Intel chipsets, except that I have heard
that they are on a par with the Tulips. While I dislike Intel CPUs
(mainly because the fact that Intel relies on FUD advertising to sell
them), I do put a lot of trust in Intel's support chipsets (their
CPU-PCI bridge chipsets, etc).

Anyway, 21x4x chips can be found in SMC products. Beyond that, I would
look at the board if you can and look for the Digital logo and 21x4x
part number. I usually just get SMCs (I like the Elite Ultra 16 for
ISA).

-- 
Nick Sayer  http://www.kfu.com/~nsayer/ | "Don't make me come in there..."
nsayer [at] quack [dot] kfu [dot] com   | 
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