Root/Documentation/networking/fore200e.txt

1
2FORE Systems PCA-200E/SBA-200E ATM NIC driver
3---------------------------------------------
4
5This driver adds support for the FORE Systems 200E-series ATM adapters
6to the Linux operating system. It is based on the earlier PCA-200E driver
7written by Uwe Dannowski.
8
9The driver simultaneously supports PCA-200E and SBA-200E adapters on
10i386, alpha (untested), powerpc, sparc and sparc64 archs.
11
12The intent is to enable the use of different models of FORE adapters at the
13same time, by hosts that have several bus interfaces (such as PCI+SBUS,
14PCI+MCA or PCI+EISA).
15
16Only PCI and SBUS devices are currently supported by the driver, but support
17for other bus interfaces such as EISA should not be too hard to add (this may
18be more tricky for the MCA bus, though, as FORE made some MCA-specific
19modifications to the adapter's AALI interface).
20
21
22Firmware Copyright Notice
23-------------------------
24
25Please read the fore200e_firmware_copyright file present
26in the linux/drivers/atm directory for details and restrictions.
27
28
29Firmware Updates
30----------------
31
32The FORE Systems 200E-series driver is shipped with firmware data being
33uploaded to the ATM adapters at system boot time or at module loading time.
34The supplied firmware images should work with all adapters.
35
36However, if you encounter problems (the firmware doesn't start or the driver
37is unable to read the PROM data), you may consider trying another firmware
38version. Alternative binary firmware images can be found somewhere on the
39ForeThought CD-ROM supplied with your adapter by FORE Systems.
40
41You can also get the latest firmware images from FORE Systems at
42http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FORE_Systems. Register TACTics Online and go to
43the 'software updates' pages. The firmware binaries are part of
44the various ForeThought software distributions.
45
46Notice that different versions of the PCA-200E firmware exist, depending
47on the endianess of the host architecture. The driver is shipped with
48both little and big endian PCA firmware images.
49
50Name and location of the new firmware images can be set at kernel
51configuration time:
52
531. Copy the new firmware binary files (with .bin, .bin1 or .bin2 suffix)
54   to some directory, such as linux/drivers/atm.
55
562. Reconfigure your kernel to set the new firmware name and location.
57   Expected pathnames are absolute or relative to the drivers/atm directory.
58
593. Rebuild and re-install your kernel or your module.
60
61
62Feedback
63--------
64
65Feedback is welcome. Please send success stories/bug reports/
66patches/improvement/comments/flames to <lizzi@cnam.fr>.
67

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