sardella@strfleet.gsfc.nasa.gov (Tom Sardella) (04/14/91)
I am working with a custom embedded front-end system that I developed in 1986 which provides a bridge between some special purpose NASA data communication circuits and a VAX computer. Ethernet TCP/IP is used as the interface between the front-end and the VAX. The TCP/IP implementation on the front-end consists of Excelan 201 intelligent Multibus controllers running the EXOS 8010 TCP/IP version 3.2 code. This code runs on the EXOS 201 board. We used the host development package, which provides Unix host driver source code, to develop a driver on the front-end host processor (Heurikon HK68ME 68000 board) running under the VRTX real-time kernel to simultaneously operate 2 controllers. TCP communications with the VAX have worked flawlessly with this configuration. However, we have adapted this front-end for use with a MASSCOMP 6600 and have had problems with the 8010 TCP/IP crashing when the MASSCOMP closes and then reopens the window. I was able to fix the problem by copying the version 3.3 TCP code from their PC-based product, an EXOS 205 board (it appears that exactly the same code runs on all their boards), to the Multibus EXOS 201 board. Further investigation found that buffer management problems with version 3.2 were causing an EXOS PANIC and that version 3.3 fixed those problems. With that as background, this is my real problem: I would like to avoid problems in the future caused by running old buggy versions of this TCP/IP software. I would like to get hold of the latest available version along with the source code and other documentation (Application Notes on the Bus and Message-Level Interface) that are needed for developing and maintaining the host device driver. I'd also like to have the proper license to use it. However, with Excelan having been acquired by Novell, I have had a difficult time finding anyone that supports this code in any manner. A couple of years ago we couldn't even get a straight answer from Excelan on whether we could purchase licenses to make additional copies of the software. From what I've seen of Novell's product line, this on-board TCP/IP code doesn't seem to be used at all anymore. Even if we can't find current support for this product, I'd like to get the latest released version along with the documentation I mentioned. Switching to a different product would be a very expensive proposition at this point and there aren't many vendors that support dual controllers. Does anyone have any suggestions? Please email as our news server seems to have been having problems recently. I'll post a summary if there is sufficient interest. Thanks in advance. Tom Sardella Network Control Systems Branch, Code 532 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD sardella@strfleet.gsfc.nasa.gov