xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/ec.4 (revision 01869ca4d24a86379a68731bf9706a9f0820fe4e)
1.\"	$NetBSD: ec.4,v 1.14 2017/07/03 21:30:58 wiz Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1997 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
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6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
7.\" by Jason R. Thorpe of the Numerical Aerospace Simulation Facility,
8.\" NASA Ames Research Center.
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31.Dd October 20, 1997
32.Dt EC 4
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm ec
36.Nd driver for 3Com EtherLink II (3c503)
37.Tn ISA
38bus
39.Tn Ethernet
40cards
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Cd "ec0 at isa? port 0x250 iomem 0xd8000 irq 9"
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Nm
46device driver supports 3Com EtherLink II (3c503)
47.Tn Ethernet
48cards for
49.Tn ISA
50bus which are based on the National Semiconductor DP8390/WD83C690
51.Tn Ethernet
52interface chips.
53.Sh MEDIA SELECTION
54The EtherLink II supports two media types on a single card.
55All support the
56.Tn AUI
57media type.
58The other media is either
59.Tn BNC
60or
61.Tn UTP
62behind a transceiver.
63Software cannot differentiate between
64.Tn BNC
65and
66.Tn UTP
67cards.
68.Pp
69To enable the AUI media, select the
70.Em 10base5
71or
72.Em aui
73media type with
74.Xr ifconfig 8 Ns 's
75.Cm media
76directive.
77To select the other media
78.Po
79.Tn BNC
80or
81.Tn UTP
82.Pc ,
83select the
84.Em 10base2
85or
86.Em bnc
87media type.
88.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
89.Bl -diag
90.It "ec0: wildcarded IRQ is not allowed"
91.Pp
92The
93.Tn IRQ
94was wildcarded in the kernel configuration file.
95This is not supported.
96.It "ec0: invalid IRQ <n>, must be 3, 4, 5, or 9"
97.Pp
98An
99.Tn IRQ
100other than the above
101.Tn IRQ
102values was specified in the kernel configuration file.
103The EtherLink II hardware only supports the above listed
104.Tn IRQ
105values.
106.It "ec0: failed to clear shared memory at offset <off>"
107.Pp
108The memory test was unable to clear shared the interface's shared memory
109region.
110This often indicates that the card is configured at a conflicting
111.Em iomem
112address.
113.It "ec0: warning - receiver ring buffer overrun"
114.Pp
115The DP8390
116.Tn Ethernet
117chip used by this board implements a shared-memory
118ring-buffer to store incoming packets.
119The 3c503 usually has only 8K bytes of shared memory.
120This is only enough room for about 4 full-size (1500 byte) packets.
121This can sometimes be a problem, especially on the original 3c503, because
122these boards' shared-memory access speed is quite slow; typically only
123about 1MB/second.
124The overhead of this slow memory access, and the fact that there
125is only room for 4 full-sized packets means that the ring-buffer
126will occasionally overrun.
127.Pp
128When an overrun occurs, the board must be reset to avoid a lockup
129problem in early revision DP8390
130.Tn Ethernet
131chips.
132Resetting the board causes all of the data in the ring-buffer to be
133lost, requiring the data to be retransmitted/received, congesting the board
134further.
135Because of this, maximum throughput on these boards is only about
136400-600K bytes per second.
137.Pp
138This problem is exacerbated by
139.Tn NFS
140because the 8-bit boards lack sufficient packet buffer memory to
141support the default 8K byte packets that
142.Tn NFS
143and other protocols use as their default.
144If these cards must be used
145with
146.Tn NFS ,
147use the
148.Xr mount_nfs 8
149.Fl \&r
150and
151.Fl \&w
152options in
153.Pa /etc/fstab
154to limit NFS's packet size.
1554K (4096) byte packets generally work.
156.El
157.Sh SEE ALSO
158.Xr ifmedia 4 ,
159.Xr intro 4 ,
160.Xr isa 4 ,
161.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
162.Xr mount_nfs 8
163