[comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc] Q: Novell NE1000 NIC and packet drivers

bmw@isgtec.UUCP (Bruce Walker) (12/14/89)

[Re-posted due to news troubles; if this appears as a duplicate to you, ignore!]

The Novell NE1000 8-bit PC ethernet card (and NE2000, a 16-bit version)
are starting to sell for around $150 Canadian in retail outlets.  This
makes them very attractive for adding PC's to our TCP/IP/NFS network.  But I
have been unable to find out any technical details about them from Novell
(after about a dozen phone calls to various Novell offices).  The only thing
I know for sure is that they use the DP8390 chip, the same one that the
popular WD8003 uses (and this tidbit from examining a photo in an ad!).

Does anyone know if the NE1000 can be used in some way with the Clarkson
Packet Drivers?
- is an NE1000 actually a WD8003 lookalike?
- has anyone written/adapted a packet driver for it?

I am ready and willing to do the packet driver port myself ... just need
that tech-info! Like i/o ports, shared ram addresses, register bits,
and so forth.

-- 
Bruce Walker                            ...uunet!utai!lsuc!isgtec!bmw
"Just say, ``No!'' to bugs."                        isgtec!bmw@censor
ISG Technologies Inc. 3030 Orlando Dr. Mississauga. Ont. Can. L4V 1S8

jbvb@ftp.COM (James Van Bokkelen) (12/15/89)

There are a whole lot of cards which resemble each other; all were based on
the National Semiconductor demonstrator board for the 8390 chip (the DP839EB).
The NE1000 is one of them, and our DP839EB driver works just fine on it.
Clarkson has an NE1000 Packet Driver in the latest release, but I don't know
if it has any code that ties it to the NE1000 specifically; our driver doesn't
use the features Novell added to the basic design, so it is more widely
compatible.


-- 
James B. VanBokkelen		26 Princess St., Wakefield, MA  01880
FTP Software Inc.		voice: (617) 246-0900  fax: (617) 246-0901