xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/man4.vax/ec.4 (revision 091e15265dbe2bb314cd3f15830a81f296d03f40)
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30.\"     from: @(#)ec.4	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
31.\"
32.Dd February 5, 2019
33.Dt EC 4 vax
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm ec
37.Nd 3Com 10 Mb/s Ethernet interface
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.Cd "ec0 at uba0 csr 161000 vector ecrint eccollide ecxint flags 0"
40.Sh DESCRIPTION
41NOTE: This driver has not been ported from
42.Bx 4.4
43yet.
44.Pp
45The
46.Nm ec
47interface provides access to a 10 Mb/s Ethernet network through
48a 3Com controller.
49.Pp
50The hardware has 32 kilobytes of dual-ported memory on the
51.Tn UNIBUS .
52This memory
53is used for internal buffering by the board, and the interface code reads
54the buffer contents directly through the
55.Tn UNIBUS .
56The address of this memory is given in the
57.Ar flags
58field
59in the configuration file.
60The first interface normally has its memory at UNIBUS address 0.
61.Pp
62Each of the host's network addresses
63is specified at boot time with an
64.Dv SIOCSIFADDR
65.Xr ioctl 2 .
66The
67.Nm ec
68interface employs the address resolution protocol described in
69.Xr arp 4
70to dynamically map between Internet and Ethernet addresses on the local
71network.
72.Pp
73The interface software implements an exponential backoff algorithm
74when notified of a collision on the cable.
75This algorithm uses a 16-bit mask and the
76.Tn VAX-11 Ns 's
77interval timer in calculating a series
78of random backoff values.
79The algorithm is as follows:
80.Bl -enum -offset indent
81.It
82Initialize the mask to be all 1's.
83.It
84If the mask is zero, 16 retries have been made and we give
85up.
86.It
87Shift the mask left one bit and formulate a backoff by
88masking the interval timer with the smaller of the complement of this mask
89and a 5-bit mask, resulting in a pseudo-random number between 0 and 31.
90This produces the number of slot times to delay,
91where a slot is 51 microseconds.
92.It
93Use the value calculated in step 3 to delay before retransmitting
94the packet.
95The delay is done in a software busy loop.
96.El
97.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
98.Bl -diag
99.It ec%d: send error.
100After 16 retransmissions using the
101exponential backoff algorithm described above, the packet
102was dropped.
103.It ec%d: input error (offset=%d).
104The hardware indicated an error
105in reading a packet off the cable or an illegally sized packet.
106The buffer offset value is printed for debugging purposes.
107.It ec%d: can't handle af%d.
108The interface was handed
109a message with addresses formatted in an unsuitable address
110family; the packet was dropped.
111.El
112.Sh SEE ALSO
113.Xr arp 4 ,
114.Xr inet 4 ,
115.Xr netintro 4
116.Sh HISTORY
117The
118.Nm
119driver appeared in
120.Bx 4.2 .
121.Sh BUGS
122The hardware is not capable of talking to itself.
123The software implements local sending and broadcast by sending such
124packets to the loop interface.
125This is a kludge.
126.Pp
127Backoff delays are done in a software busy loop.
128This can degrade the
129system if the network experiences frequent collisions.
130