Dishwasher: Ethernet driver

Friday 4 January 2013

Ethernet driver

Donald Becker is a developer, well known for writing many of the Ethernet drivers for the Linux operating system.[1] Thousands of computers around the world routinely use his drivers to connect to the Internet.

Becker, in collaboration with Thomas Sterling, created Beowulf clustering while at NASA, using software to connect many inexpensive PCs to solve complex math problems typically reserved for classic supercomputers. For this work, Becker received the Gordon Bell Prize in 1997.

Becker is now the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Scyld Computer Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Penguin Computing, a major developer and supplier of Beowulf Clusters.A later refabricated chip called the C-LANCE Am79C90 is made with 0.8 micrometre CMOS technology. The original NMOS version Am7990 and the CMOS Am79C90 version are differ in some details which may have an impact on device driver compatibility.[citation needed]

The datasheet for the CMOS version writes that the CMOS and NMOS versions are the same. But the "Table B-1. Comparison Summary of the C-LANCE and LANCE Devices" in the datasheet shows they differ. These differences are not likely to require modifications of any device driver.

The PCnet family of Ethernet controllers (PCnet-ISA II, PCnet-32, PCnet-PCI II and PCnet-FAST) is LANCE software compatible. This means you should be able use the original 16-bit software on these members of the PCnet family of single-chip Ethernet controllers.