[comp.dcom.lans] Alpha 4.0 release of PC packet drivers

nelson@SUN.SOE.CLARKSON.EDU (Russ Nelson) (08/01/89)

Release 4.x of the Clarkson packet driver collection is now available.
This should be considered an alpha release.  Do not use this software
unless you can deal with any bugs that might appear.  The READ.ME file
appears below.

Major changes (all changes are listed below):

BICC Data Networks' ISOLAN 4110 driver added.
WD8003ET/A support added to the WD8003E driver.
NI5210 initialization bug fixed.
Packet driver tracer added.

Availability

The Clarkson collection of packet drivers is available by FTP, by
archive-server, and by modem.

FTP:

sun.soe.clarkson.edu:/pub/ka9q/alpha.arc
grape.ecs.clarkson.edu:/e/tcpip/alpha.arc

Archive-server:

Send mail to archive-server@sun.soe.clarkson.edu and put the following
command as the body of your message:
	send ka9q alpha01

Repeat for alpha02, alpha03, alpha04, and alpha05.  Combine the five parts
and unarchive it.

Modem:

Call the Clarkson Heath User's Group's BBS: (315)268-6667, 8N1,
1200/2400 Baud, 24 hours.  Change to file area 24 and download alpha.arc.

Opus:

260/360 in the Nodelist.  Alpha.arc is file requestable.

Read.me:

		Release 4.0 of the Clarkson packet drivers

If you are a user, all you need do is locate the correct packet driver for your
interface, and read DRIVERS.DOC.

Versions:

If you already have an older packet driver, you may wish to upgrade.  You
should base this decision on the contents of the "Changes..." section
below.  The major version (currently 4) goes up with every release.  The
minor version (.x, different for every driver) goes up with every released
change.  If the minor version hasn't changed, then chances are very good
that no significant bugs have been introduced.  The device-dependent part
of every one of the drivers below has been changed, if only to add
do-nothing stubs for receive mode setting and multicasting.

3C501.ASM       version equ     0
3C503.ASM       version equ     2
3C523.ASM       version equ     1
GENERIC.ASM     version equ     0
ISOLAN.ASM      version equ     1
NI5010.ASM      version equ     0
NI5210.ASM      version equ     2
SLIP8250.ASM    version equ     2
WD8003E.ASM     version equ     3


Contents:

3C501.ASM     Device dependent 3COM 3C501 code.
3C501.COM     Executable for a packet driver for the 3COM 3C501.
3C503.ASM     Device dependent 3COM 3C503 code.
3C503.COM     Executable for a packet driver for the 3COM 3C503.
3C523.ASM     Device dependent 3COM 3C523 code.
3C523.COM     Executable for a packet driver for the 3COM 3C523.
CHKPKT.ASM    Source of the packet driver installation checker.
CHKPKT.COM    Executable of the packet driver installation checker.
COPYING       The Free Software Foundation's General Public License.
DEFS.ASM      Definitions and macros.
DRIVERS.DOC   User documentation.
DUMP.C        Source of the trace dumper.
DUMP.EXE      Executable of the trace dumper.
GENERIC.ASM   Device dependent generic code (a skeleton only).
HEAD.ASM      Resident device independent generic code.
ISOLAN.ASM    Device dependent BICC Isolan 41xx code.
ISOLAN.COM    Executable for a packet driver for the BICC Isolan 41xx.
MAKEFILE      Makefile.  Uses tasm and tlink, but MS may work.
NI5010.ASM    Device dependent Interlan NI5010 code.
NI5010.COM    Executable for a packet driver for the Interlan NI5010.
NI5210.ASM    Device dependent MICOM-Interlan NI5210 code.
NI5210.COM    Executable for a packet driver for the MICOM-Interlan NI5210.
PACKETQA.TXT  Questions from R. Nelson and Answers from jbvb@vax.ftp.com
PACKET_D.108  Packet driver spec version 1.08
READ.ME       This file.
README.503    Bob Clements' README file for the 3c503.
README.WD8    Jan Engvald's README file for the WD8003ET/A.
SLIP8250.ASM  Device dependent SLIP driver using IBM-PC 8250.
SLIP8250.COM  Executable for a SLIP packet driver for the IBM-PC 8250.
STAT.C        Source of the statistics printer.
STAT.EXE      Executable of the statistics printer.
SUPPORT.TXT   Who supports the packet driver spec.
TAIL.ASM      Non-resident device independent generic code.
TERMIN.ASM    Source of the packet driver terminator.
TERMIN.COM    Executable of the packet driver terminator.
TRACE.ASM     Source of the packet driver tracer.
TRACE.COM     Executable of the packet driver tracer.
WD8003E.ASM   Device dependent Western Digital WD-8003e code.
WD8003E.COM   Executable for a packet driver for the Western Digital WD-8003e.

Editor's note:

I created the infrastructure for the packet drivers.  All of the device
dependent portions were written by other people.  The best term to
describe what I do is "Editor and publisher", because I perform a function
similar to that served in the literary world.

Please direct bug reports to me.  Chances are that the bug is in my code
anyway.  If not, I'll forward the bug report on to the device driver author.
As with all free software, no guarantee of support is given.

Russell Nelson, Editor of the Clarkson packet drivers.
nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu, nelson@clutx.bitnet, 70441.205@compuserve.com

Changes from version 3.0 to 4.0 of the drivers:

Russell Nelson added code to enable interrupts in the body of the packet
	driver.
Denis DeLaRoca added hardware handshake to the SLIP8250 driver.
John Grover optimized the SLIP8250 driver to work at 38.4 Kbps.
Russell Nelson added some sanity checking to slip8250 to warn the user about
	possible incorrect parameters.
Bob Clements added a switch to select thick or thin Ethernet in the 3c503.
Russell Nelson found a minor bug in NI5210 that caused it to fail to
	initialize sometimes.  Thanks to everyone who reported it.
Dan Lanciani found a race condition in the 80586 code common to the
	NI5210 and 3c523 drivers.
Russell Nelson split out the 82586 code from the NI5210 and 3c523 drivers
	into a single file.
Russell Nelson added memory address checking to NI5210.
Glen M. Marianko devised a method for determining the memory size of the
	NI5210 automagically.
Jan Engvald enhanced the packet driver code for Western Digital Ethernet
	cards to handle the micro channel version WD8003ET/A.
Jan Engvald enhanced TAIL.ASM to return error codes to DOS.
Jan Engvald enhanced HEAD.ASM to be aware of running on a MicroChannel bus.
Rainer Toebbicke wrote the BICC Data Networks' ISOLAN 4110 ethernet driver.
Russell Nelson wrote the packet driver tracer and dumper (trace.com and
	dump.exe).
Russell Nelson added support for set_rcv_mode, get_rcv_mode,
	set_multicast_list, and get_multicast_list to the infrastructure.  It
	is up to the individuals who wrote the individual drivers to add the
	device-dependent support.


Changes from version 2.0 to 3.0 of the drivers:

GNU General Public License adopted.  The restriction on commercial usage
     prevented some companies from distributing the packet drivers.  This
     is entirely my idea, so send any comments to nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu.
3c523 driver added, thanks to Dan Lanciani (ddl@harvard.edu).
Gregg Stefanik (wstef@eng.clemson.edu) is working on a 3c505 driver.  Don't
     bug him about it unless you're willing to be a alpha tester.
User documentation added (DRIVERS.DOC).
Brad Clements (no relation to Bob Clements) fixed the NI5210 driver so that
     it will work with a MTU of 1500.
The NI5210 now checks for shorts and opens before it starts up, thanks to
     Brad.
All memory-mapped packet drivers now check the packet length in send_pkt to
     ensure that too-long packets get trapped.  All packet drivers will
     work with MTUs of 1500 (plus 14 bytes of Ethernet header).
Deborah Swanberg noticed that attach_type was returning NO_CLASS
     when it meant to return NO_TYPE.
She also noted that packet drivers weren't returning unique handles.  This
     is only a problem with Phil Karn's code, as his code directs *every*
     packet driver to the same receiver routine.  With non-unique handles,
     it was impossible to tell which packet driver was upcalling the
     receiver.  Unique handles are now generated, based on the starting
     segment of the driver.  The latest version of Karn's code uses different
     receiver routines, so the code to implement this will eventually go away.
Tail.asm now prints the Ethernet address of the interface (if it is an Ethernet
     class device)
Micom has sold Interlan, and Racal has bought it, so perhaps the NI5210 is
     now the Racal-Interlan NI5210?
If anyone is interested in using the Zenith Z-100 with a SLIP packet driver, please
     send me (Russell Nelson) mail.  I have it partially written, but will
     probably never use it myself.
WD8003E and 3c503 sped up slightly -- stole movemem from NI5210.


Changes from version 3 to 2.0 of the drivers:

Version numbering now changed.  If the skeleton changes, the major version is
     incremented and all the minor versions are reset to zero.

Support for version 1.08 of the packet driver spec included.
Bob Clements' 3c503 driver added.  See README.503.
Some comments improved.
BAD_COMMAND checking code fixed.
cld instructions added to ensure that DF=0.
NI5210 sped up slightly -- look at movemem in ni5210.asm for an especially
     fast routine to move memory around.


Changes from version 2 to 3 of the drivers:

SLIP8250 can now be one of three classes: SLIP, AX.25, and KISS.
Tail.asm now checks for a packet driver already at the given interrupt.
Tail.asm now echoes its arguments in hex and decimal.
Tail.asm will close stdout so that a file handle won't be used up in
     case the user redirects stdout to NUL.
Head.asm now supports driver termination.
Termin.com added to terminate a driver.
Head.asm now does a stack swap to avoid pushing too many things when
     interrupting MS-LOSS.


Changes from version 1 to 2 of the drivers:

!!  Arguments are now in decimal by default  !!  Use a 0x prefix for hex.

DEFS.ASM created.
The loadport macro improved.
SLIP8250 driver added, thanks for a C version from Phil Karn.
     I've tried to put some 16550 support in, but I don't have one to
     test it with.  The documentation insists the TBRE goes low when
     the transmit buffer is not empty, while it makes sense for it to stay
     high while the buffer is not full.  I suspect the documentation is
     wrong.
NI5010 driver added, thanks for a C version from Bill Doster.
WD8003 driver added, by Bob Clements.
Loadport macro added to WD8003 driver by Russell Nelson.
Numeric arguments may now be specified in octal, decimal or hex, using the
     C notation.
Numeric arguments can now use up to 32 bits.
Source files reformatted.




-- 
--russ (nelson@clutx [.bitnet | .clarkson.edu])|(70441.205@compuserve.com)|
       (Russell.Nelson@f360.n260.z1.fidonet.org)|(BH01@GEnie.com :-)