This commit adds driver support for PCI fast ethernet cards based on the

ADMtek AL981 "Comet" chipset. The AL981 is yet another DEC tulip clone,
except with simpler receive filter options. The AL981 has a built-in
transceiver, power management support, wake on LAN and flow control.
This chip performs extremely well; it's on par with the ASIX chipset
in terms of speed, which is pretty good (it can do 11.5MB/sec with TCP
easily).

I would have committed this driver sooner, except I ran into one problem
with the AL981 that required a workaround. When the chip is transmitting
at full speed, it will sometimes wedge if you queue a series of packets
that wrap from the end of the transmit descriptor list back to the
beginning. I can't explain why this happens, and none of the other tulip
clones behave this way. The workaround this is to just watch for the end
of the transmit ring and make sure that al_start() breaks out of its
packet queuing loop and waiting until the current batch of transmissions
completes before wrapping back to the start of the ring. Fortunately, this
does not significantly impact transmit performance.

This is one of those things that takes weeks of analysis just to come
up with two or three lines of code changes.

2 files changed, 10 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/release/texts/HARDWARE.TXT b/release/texts/HARDWARE.TXT
index b2a629e..08542a9 100644
--- a/release/texts/HARDWARE.TXT
+++ b/release/texts/HARDWARE.TXT
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ sio1    2f8     3       n/a     n/a     Serial Port 1 (COM2)
 lpt0    dyn     7       n/a     n/a     Printer Port 0
 lpt1    dyn     dyn     n/a     n/a     Printer Port 1
 
+al0     dyn     dyn     n/a     dyn     ADMtek AL981 PCI based cards
 ax0     dyn     dyn     n/a     dyn     ASIX AX88140A PCI based cards
 de0     n/a     n/a     n/a     n/a     DEC DC21x40 PCI based cards
                                         (including 21140 100bT cards)
@@ -454,6 +455,7 @@ Lite-On 82c168/82c169 PNIC fast ethernet NICs including the following:
   LinkSys EtherFast LNE100TX
   NetGear FA310-TX Rev. D1
   Matrox FastNIC 10/100
+  Kingston KNE110TX
 
 Macronix 98713, 98713A, 98715, 98715A and 98725 fast ethernet NICs
   NDC Communications SFA100A (98713A)
@@ -477,6 +479,8 @@ Texas Instruments ThunderLAN PCI NICs, including the following:
   Racore 8165 10/100baseTX
   Racore 8148 10baseT/100baseTX/100baseFX multi-personality
 
+ADMtek AL981-based PCI fast ethernet NICs
+
 ASIX Electronics AX88140A PCI NICs, including the following:
   Alfa Inc. GFC2204
   CNet Pro110B
diff --git a/release/texts/RELNOTES.TXT b/release/texts/RELNOTES.TXT
index c32498f..334e8c3 100644
--- a/release/texts/RELNOTES.TXT
+++ b/release/texts/RELNOTES.TXT
@@ -68,6 +68,9 @@ Driver support has been added for IEEE 802.11 PCMCIA wireless network
 adapters based on the Lucent Hermes chipset, including the Lucent
 WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11 and the Cabletron RoamAbout.
 
+Driver support has been added for PCI fast ethernet cards based
+on the ADMtek Inc. AL981 Comet chipset.
+
 1.2. SECURITY FIXES
 -------------------
 A new jail(2) system call and admin command (jail(8)) have been added for
@@ -244,6 +247,7 @@ Lite-On 82c168/82c169 PNIC fast ethernet NICs including the following:
   LinkSys EtherFast LNE100TX
   NetGear FA310-TX Rev. D1
   Matrox FastNIC 10/100
+  Kingston KNE110TX
 
 Macronix 98713, 98713A, 98715, 98715A and 98725 fast ethernet NICs
   NDC Communications SFA100A (98713A)
@@ -267,6 +271,8 @@ Texas Instruments ThunderLAN PCI NICs, including the following:
   Racore 8165 10/100baseTX
   Racore 8148 10baseT/100baseTX/100baseFX multi-personality
 
+ADMtek Inc. AL981-based PCI fast ethernet NICs
+
 ASIX Electronics AX88140A PCI NICs, including the following:
   Alfa Inc. GFC2204
   CNet Pro110B