deborah@CITI.UMICH.EDU (Deborah Swanberg) (12/07/88)
From discussion here, I've gotten the impression that ethernet cards operate across machines, but I just want to verify it. Do PC ethernet cards operate across machines, eg. does the WD8003E, or 3C503 operate on the PCs, PC/XT, PC/AT and the PS/2 30 and PS/2 30 286? The question also applies to the cards for the MCA across the PS/2 50 and 80. Deborah Swanberg Center for Information Technology Integration (CITI) University of Michigan 313-763-7479 deborah@citi.umich.edu
Andrew_Palms@UM.CC.UMICH.EDU (12/08/88)
Definitely yes. andy
Andrew_Palms@UM.CC.UMICH.EDU (12/08/88)
... added to the previous response. The boards work in machines with a similar bus, but you do need to make sure that the ENet board can handle the clock speed of the system units bus which isn't always the same as the clock speed of the CPU. andy
jbvb@VAX.FTP.COM (James Van Bokkelen) (12/08/88)
In general, a PC-bus (8-bit slot) card will run in all machines. A 16-bit slot card usually requires an AT (but 3Com's 3C505 will go 16-bit on an AT, but runs in an 8-bit slot on PCs). There are two classes of potential problems: Some cards aren't fast enough to deal with fast (>6Mhz) busses. Early U-B NIC cards were this way, but they've fixed it. Another problem is drivers that contain timing loops on very fast processors (regardless of bus speed). There are a few cards out there (usually with on-board processors) which require waits in the driver that can't be done with clock interrupts (they take too long and the card times out). This problem may be software-vendor-dependent, too. The 3C503 and the WD8003 should work in all the machines you mention. One of the advantages of the MCA bus is that it is supposed to be sufficiently well specified that the clock rate problems I mention above can't happen, but you can still get the timing loop problem.... James VanBokkelen FTP Software Inc.
lim@cwlim.CWRU.EDU (Hock Koon Lim) (12/08/88)
In article <8812062152.af22648@Obelix.TWG.COM> deborah@CITI.UMICH.EDU (Deborah Swanberg) writes: > >From discussion here, I've gotten the impression that ethernet >cards operate across machines, but I just want to verify it. > >Do PC ethernet cards operate across machines, eg. does the >WD8003E, or 3C503 operate on the PCs, PC/XT, PC/AT and the >PS/2 30 and PS/2 30 286? The question also applies to the >cards for the MCA across the PS/2 50 and 80. > Yes, PC ethernet cards operate across machines for the same bus architecture. eg. 3c503 can be used in IBM PCs, HP Vectra, PS2/30 etc. and 3C523 can be used in IBM PS2/50 -> 80. Hock Koon Lim, A. R. Jennings Computing Center Case Western Reserve University; Cleveland, Ohio, USA 44106 (216) 368-2982 lim@cwlim.cwru.edu
ron@ron.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) (12/13/88)
Also note that certain Zenith systems have nonstandard PC bus slots that will blow certain MICOM Ethernet cards. Zenith has been very good about resolving this problem. -Ron