david@varian.UUCP (David Brown) (12/03/86)
We have a PDP11/70, currently running 2.9BSD (Berkeley). Our site
is finally installing ethernet -- we currently have a VAX 11/780
(4.3BSD) with an Excelan Exos 204 (running in link level mode) and a VAX 11/750
(Ultrix) with a DELUA, plus some IBM/PC's some with Excelan hardware and
software, and some with 3COM hardware and MIT or FTP software. We now want
to connect the PDP11 to this net.
I am considering running the seismo/harvard 2.9 kernel -- this comes
with drivers for Interlan NI1010A (the older board - link level)
and 3COM (which is no longer made). Are there drivers available for
2.9 for any other ethernet interface boards (e.g. DEC DELUA, Excelan)? I'd
prefer to purchase a more recent board, so that when we finally get rid
of the pdp11, the board would be useful in some other machine that we
might continue to use (e.g. VAX, which might be running VMS and DECnet,
so my first choice is DELUA).
Another option I'm looking at is using the Excelan 204 in front end
(on-board TCP/IP) mode; this is not officially supported by Excelan,
but it is known to work (2.9BSD Berkeley). However, not all applications
are supported (e.g. no tftp, smtp, lpd, and uucp via ethernet uses a pseudo-tty,
which I would assume is slower than the uucp ethernet protocol in 4.3),
and the 4.1C semantics for the socket library make it a hassle to port
applications from 4.2BSD.
--
David Brown (415) 945-2199
Varian Instruments 2700 Mitchell Dr. Walnut Creek, Ca. 94598
{ptsfa,lll-crg,zehntel,dual,amd,fortune,ista,rtech,csi}!varian!david