Re: 3c905c support needed for etherboot

[Greg Beeley <Greg.Beeley@LightSys.org>]

Ken Yap wrote:
> >What is needed to make the 3c905c etherbootable? Given that there is linux
> >driver source, I would think it wouldn't be too hard...
> 
> Some hacking and lots of testing. I think Greg Beeley is looking into it.

3com said they were shipping the 3c905c documentation to me.  As soon as I
get that documentation I'll be able to have a fairly good idea regarding
the scope of the project.  If someone else who actually has a 3c905c
would like to write the updated driver, that would be great also as I 
don't know at what point we'll actually need to purchase more network
computers (and thus probably start using 3c905c instead of 3c905b).  But
nevertheless I'm hoping to be able to give anyone who is interested a 
good idea of what needs to be done to make it work, or do it myself when
the time comes (which may not be as soon as some of you all might need).

The 3c905b and 3c905 were very similar, excepting some added capabilities
and register variations for the 'b'.  If the 'c' is as similar to the 'b'
as the 'b' was to the 3c905, it shouldn't be a hard project -- maybe a
day's worth of reading docs, a day's worth of coding, and then plenty of
testing.  That's if there are no strange issues to work around like that
"MII ROM mapping bug" in the 3c905b :)

Steve, do you know if 3com permanently write-protected the bootblock of
the at49bv512 on the 3c905c-tx-m?

It would also be very interesting to find out how easily the ROM image
on the 3c905c-tx-m would interoperate with an Etherboot type of environment,
or whether the protocols used are more proprietary in nature.

Greg.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greg.Beeley@LightSys.org        LightSys - Redeeming Technology...
http://www.LightSys.org                    For God's Kingdom.
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