phil@amdcad.AMD.COM (Phil Ngai) (08/11/88)
I recently saw a new Ethernet interface from Interlan called the
NI5210. (well, it's new to me) Size and architecture-wise it looks
very similar to the WD8003E. It's a very small card, with dual ported
memory and no DMA (I think). One key difference is that Sun PC-NFS
V3.0 does not support it directly. PC-NFS does have NI5010 support but
I do not think that is the same.
Does anyone have any comments on this board? I'm interested in
availability, price, performance, reliability, and software support.
(and anything else you want to say about it)
I haven't seen app notes on architecture and performance, which WD has
for their product. (I think Interlan reads the net. I hope they get
the message.)
--
I speak for myself, not the company.
Phil Ngai, {ucbvax,decwrl,allegra}!amdcad!phil or phil@amd.combackman@interlan.UUCP (Larry Backman) (08/11/88)
In article <22590@amdcad.AMD.COM> phil@amdcad.AMD.COM (Phil Ngai) writes: >I recently saw a new Ethernet interface from Interlan called the >NI5210. (well, it's new to me) Size and architecture-wise it looks >very similar to the WD8003E. It's a very small card, with dual ported >memory and no DMA (I think). One key difference is that Sun PC-NFS >V3.0 does not support it directly. PC-NFS does have NI5010 support but >I do not think that is the same. > >I haven't seen app notes on architecture and performance, which WD has >for their product. (I think Interlan reads the net. I hope they get >the message.) [] Phil, Interlan technical staff reads the neeet; Interlan marketinng staff who are supposed to produce such things as performance results, don't even know what the net is. The NI5210 is over 2 years old; depending on who you believe there are 50,000 to 100,000 of them out there! It has 8 or 16K of dual ported RAM, no DMA, and is in fact supported by PC-NFS. You can get a driver for PC-NFS from either Sun-East or from us. Performance figures, well..., the driver group say's that its as fast as the Western Digital card; I believe them. Empirically, we have never spent the time to gather these figures in a systematic fashion. App notes; well..., we'll sell you the board, throw in a manual which tells you how to configure the boards jumpers, and for a small extra fee, we'' sell you a 2096 product. The 2096 product is the source to a 5210 driver. At that point, its good-bye and good-luck. Wouldn't it be interesting if marketing types actually found out what people wanted rather than simply knowing what they wanted?? Larry Backman Micom-Interlan