> > > Good luck finding these. There are still several sources; however,
> they're
> > > all limited supply because the 21140 has been deep-sixed by Intel (who
> > > bought the chipset line from DEC). Also, you'll find several
> manufacturers
> >
> > this is silly paranoia: Intel has actually released _new_ tulip products
> > since gaining ownership of the product line. including an _8_ port
> tulip...
>
> I'm not "paranoid" as you suggest.... I've been using the 21140 chipset for
> years and I've been really happy with it. Performance. Stability. Support.
which you get just fine from any of the tulip or tulip clone vendors.
> Then, Intel buys DEC and almost immediately drops the 21140 in favour of
> later versions of the chipset and many vendors just switch chipsets on their
this is silly: why do you think your desire to use the same product for
years and years should effect Intel's product plans? Intel calls the older
tulip chips "mature products". the docs are still there, as are the docs
defining how, say, the 21143 differs. tulip follow-ons DO WORK. tulip
clones DO WORK (and since the linux driver is fixed, they work just as well.)
finally, you don't have to buy tulip cards at all: eepro100 cards work, as do
3c9xx's. all three families are descriptor-based busmasters that deliver
about the same performance.
> products without re-introducing the product in any way. (i.e. just a quiet
> switch, no announcements, no change in part number, etc.) This has resulted
> in a lot of problems for me (and others).
so whine at the card vendors!
> I'm not paranoid, just a little p***ed at Intel and all the card vendors who
> don't give a rats a** about the Linux community.
what do you expect, silver platters? are there actually any current tulip
nics that don't work? Intel definitely makes register-level documentation
available, which is all that the Linux community can/should ask of vendors.
as far as I know, the difficulties with PNIC clones a while back was solely
because Donald didn't have adequate documentation of that chip's differences
from the original dec/intel tulip chips.
> BTW, I'd like to know more about the 8port Ethernet board. Please provide
> any specifics you can. I'd really appreciate that.
this is the second request, so I'm broadcasting it to the list. I didn't say
anything about a board; I said that Intel was actually producing a multiport
tulip, which someone (netgear, etc) could produce a nic for. Intel's web
site is actually extremely good, better than I remember DEC's being. it's
profoundly trivial to find http://developer.intel.com/design/network/
final crack: every Linux user should be grateful to Intel (and even to some
extent Microsoft) for commodity-izing the PC market, which is what as made
Linux possible.
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