dmfe(7D)

NAME

     dmfe - Davicom Fast Ethernet driver for Davicom DM9102A

SYNOPSIS

     /platform/sun4u/kernel/drv/sparcv9/dmfe

DESCRIPTION

     The dmfe  Ethernet  device  provides  100Base-TX  networking
     interfaces  using  the  Davicom  DM9102A  chip, which incor-
     porates its own internal transceiver.

     The dmfe driver  is  a  multithreaded,  loadable,  clonable,
     GLD-based     STREAMS     driver.    Multiple    controllers
     installed within the system are supported by the driver. The
     dmfe  driver  functions  include  controller initialization,
     frame transmit and receive, promiscuous and  multicast  sup-
     port, and error recovery and reporting.

     The 100Base-TX standard specifies an auto-negotiation proto-
     col to automatically select the mode and speed of operation.
     The internal transceiver is capable of performing  autonego-
     tiation  with  the remote-end of the link (link partner) and
     receives the capabilities of the remote end. It selects  the
     highest  common  denominator  mode  of  operation  based  on
     the priorities. The internal  transceiver  also  supports  a
     forced-mode  of operation under which the driver selects the
     operational mode.

APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE

     The /dev/dmfe cloning character-special device  is  used  to
     access all Davicom DM9102A devices installed in the system.

     The dmfe driver is dependent on /kernel/misc/gld, a loadable
     kernel  module  that  provides the dmfe driver with the DLPI
     and STREAMS functionality required  of  a  LAN  driver.  See
     gld(7D)  for more details on the primitives supported by the
     driver.

     You must send an explicit DL_ATTACH_REQ message to associate
     the opened stream with a particular device (ppa). The ppa ID
     is interpreted as an unsigned integer data  type  and  indi-
     cates  the  corresponding device  instance (unit) number. If
     the ppa field value does not correspond to  a  valid  device
     instance  number for this system, an error (DL_ERROR_ACK) is
     returned. The device is initialized on first attach and  de-
     initialized (stopped) at last detach.

     The values returned by the driver in the DL_INFO_ACK  primi-
     tive in response to a DL_INFO_REQ are as follows:

        o  Maximum   SDU   is   1500   (ETHERMTU  -  defined   in
           sys/ethernet.h).

        o  Minimum SDU is 0.

        o  DLSAP address length is 8.

        o  MAC type is DL_ETHER.

        o  The sap length value  is  -2,   meaning  the  physical
           address  component is followed immediately by a 2-byte
           sap component within the DLSAP address.

        o  The broadcast  address  value  is   the  Ethernet/IEEE
           broadcast address (FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF).

     Once   in   the   DL_ATTACHED   state,  you  must  send    a
     DL_BIND_REQ  to  associate a particular Service Access Point
     (SAP) with the stream.

CONFIGURATION

     By default, the dmfe  driver  performs  auto-negotiation  to
     select  the  speed and mode of the link. Link speed and mode
     can be 100 Mbps (full or half-duplex) or 10  Mbps  (full  or
     half-duplex) as described in the 100Base-TX standard.

     The auto-negotiation protocol  automatically  selects  speed
     mode (either 100 Mbps or 10 Mbps) and operation mode (either
     full-duplex or half-duplex) as the highest common  denomina-
     tor supported by both link partners. Because the dmfe device
     supports all modes, this effectively  selects  the  highest-
     throughput mode supported by the other device.

     Alternatively, you can explicitly specify the  link  parame-
     ters by adding entries to the dmfe driver configuration file
     (/platform/sun4u/kernel/drv/dmfe.conf).  You  can  set   the
     speed  parameter  to  10  or  100  to  force dmfe devices to
     operate at the specified speed. Additionally,  you  can  set
     the  full-duplex  parameter  to  0  or 1 to disable or force
     full-duplex operation, respectively.

     Note that specifying either "speed" or "full-duplex"  expli-
     citly  disables  auto-negotiation.  To  enable the driver to
     determine the appropriate setting for  each  parameter,  you
     should  always  set  both  parameters. If it is necessary to
     force either speed or duplex setting (for  example,  because
     the   dmfe  device  is connected to an ancient device or hub
     that does not  support  auto-negotiation),  both  parameters
     should  be explicitly specified to match the requirements of
     the external device.

FILES

     /dev/dmfe
           Character special device

     /platform/sun4u/kernel/drv/dmfe.conf
           dmfe configuration file

ATTRIBUTES

     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Architecture                | x86                         |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|

SEE ALSO

     attributes(5), gld(7D), dlpi(7P), streamio(7I)

     Writing Device Drivers

     STREAMS Programming Guide

     Network Interfaces Programmer's Guide