[MLB-WIRELESS] [HARDWARE] ISA- and PCI-PCMCIA bridge support. part 1

Thu Mar 21 12:29:16 EST 2002

This is in regard to the $50 PCMCIA (PC card) wireless network cards.  
I gather that to get these to work you need a card adaptor, PCI or SIA 
to PCMCIA, plus the driver to run it (bridge) then you need the drivers 
for the actual card.  And these all have to work with eachother.

My personal choice of system is FreeBSD 4.5 (about to upgrade anyway) 
which seems to support this stuff.  

from the 4.4 release notes

      2.1.6 PCCARD Support

On many modern hosts, PCCARD devices can be configured to route their 
interrupts via either the ISA or PCI interrupt paths. The pcic(4) 
<http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pcic&sektion=4> driver has 
been updated to support both interrupt paths (formerly, only routing via 
ISA was supported). In most cases, configuration of PCMCIA devices in 
laptops is simpler and more flexible. In addition, various Cardbus 
bridge PCI cards (such as those used by Orinoco PCI NICs) are now 
supported. Some hosts may experience problems, such as hangs or panics, 
with PCI interrupt routing; they can frequently be made to work by 
forcing the older-style ISA interrupt routing.

here is a snippit from the man pages

PCIC(4) 	       FreeBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual 	       PCIC(4)

NAME <http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pcic&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.5-RELEASE#end>
     pcic - pccard bridge driver

SYNOPSIS <http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pcic&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.5-RELEASE#end>
     device pcic
     device card

DESCRIPTION <http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pcic&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.5-RELEASE#end>
     The pcic driver controls the pccard subsystem.  The pcic driver supports
     most ExCA devices attached to either ISA or PCI bus.  The pcic driver
     does not support the so-called TCIC controllers made by Databook.	Nor
     does it support the MECIA chipset found in some early PC98 NOTE PC
     machines.	The mecia driver now supports that bridge.

     The following ISA devices, or true clones, are supported in the current
     code.

     Intel i82365SL Step A
     Intel i82365SL Step B
     Intel i82365SL Step C  Intel's original 16-bit pccard controller.
     Intel i82365SL-DF	    Intel's last version of this device.  3.3V support
			    was added.
     VLSI 82C146	    An older VLSI part with some issues on some
			    machines.
     Cirrus Logic PD-6710
     Cirrus Logic PD-6720
     Cirrus Logic PD-6722   Cirrus Logic's pcic controller.  Compatible with
			    the i82365SL Step C with the addition of a differ
			    ent 3.3V control.
     Ricoh RF5C296
     Ricoh RF5C396	    Ricoh's pccard bridge chips.  These are compatible
			    with the i82365SL Step C, but with yet another
			    different 3.3V control.
     Vadem 365
     Vadem 465		    Compatible with i82365SL Step C.
     Vadem 468
     Vadem 469		    Like the earlier Vadem models, but with Vadem's
			    own, incompatible, 3.3V control system.
     IBM PCIC		    IBM clone of the original i82365SL part, with its
			    own ID register value.  Has no 3.3V ability.
     IBM KING		    A strange clone of i82365SL.  This part has many
			    restrictions not found in the i82365SL, plus some
			    strange power control.  It has not been tested in
			    ages, but is believed to work.  Its use is
			    believed to be confined to model of ISA card,
			    available only in Japan.

     Many other vendors made parts in this arena, but most of them were com
     patible with one of the above chipsets.

     The following PCI cardbus and pcmcia bridges are supported:

     Cirrus Logic PD6729
     Cirrus Logic PD6730    These two might be broken at the moment.
     Cirrus Logic PD6832
     Cirrus Logic PD6833

     O2micro OZ6729
     O2micro OZ6730
     O2micro OZ6812
     O2micro OZ6832
     O2micro OZ6833
     O2micro OZ6836
     O2micro OZ6860
     O2micro OZ6872	    O2 Micro chips may be poorly supported because the
			    author does not have good access to machines with
			    one of these bridges in it.

     Ricoh RL4C475
     Ricoh RL4C476
     Ricoh RL4C477
     Ricoh RL4C478

     TI PCI-1031
     TI PCI-1130
     TI PCI-1131
     TI PCI-1211
     TI PCI-1220
     TI PCI-1221
     TI PCI-1225
     TI PCI-1250
     TI PCI-1251
     TI PCI-1251B
     TI PCI-1410
     TI PCI-1420
     TI PCI-1450
     TI PCI-1451
     TI PCI-4451

     Toshiba ToPIC95
     Toshiba ToPIC97
     Toshiba ToPIC100

FreeBSD also seems to support the $50 PCMCIA cards we have been offered.
At least I am assuming that Roamabout is orinoco silvers.  either way, 
both are supported in FreeBSD 4.3 and later at least
see also
http://lists.bawug.org/pipermail/bsd-wireless/2001-June/000087.html

from http://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/4-STABLE/hardware/i386/x26.html#AEN1244

    3.5 Wireless Network Interfaces

NCR / AT&T / Lucent Technologies WaveLan T1-speed ISA/radio LAN cards ( 
wl(4) 
<http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=wl&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.5-stable> 
driver)

Lucent Technologies WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11 PCMCIA and ISA standard speed 
(2Mbps) and turbo speed (6Mbps) wireless network adapters and workalikes 
( wi(4) 
<http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=wi&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.5-stable> 
driver)

    Note: The ISA versions of these adapters are actually PCMCIA cards
    combined with an ISA to PCMCIA bridge card, so both kinds of devices
    work with the same driver.

    *

      NCR WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11

    *

      3COM 3crwe737A AirConnect Wireless LAN PC Card

    *

      Addtron AWA100

    *

      Cabletron RoamAbout 802.11 DS

    *

      Compaq WL100

    *

      Corega KK Wireless LAN PCC-11

    *

      ELECOM Air at Hawk/LD-WL11/PCC

    *

      Farallon Skyline 11Mbps Wireless

    *

      ICOM SL-1100

    *

      Laneed Wireless card

    *

      Melco Airconnect WLI-PCM-L11

    *

      NEC Wireless Card CMZ-RT-WP

    *

      PLANEX GeoWave/GW-NS110

    *

      TDK LAK-CD011WL

Aironet 802.11 wireless adapters ( an(4) 
<http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=an&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.5-stable> 
driver)

    *

      Aironet 4500/4800 series (PCMCIA, PCI, and ISA adapters are all
      supported)

    *

      Cisco Systems Aironet 340 and 350 series (PCMCIA, PCI, and ISA
      adapters are all supported)

Raytheon Raylink 2.4GHz wireless adapters ( ray(4) 
<http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ray&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.5-stable> 
driver)

    *

      Webgear Aviator

    *

      Webgear Aviator Pro

    *

      Raylink PC Card

AMD Am79C930 and Harris (Intersil) based 802.11 cards (awi driver)

    *

      BayStack 650 and 660

    *

      Farallon SkyLINE Wireless

    *

      Icom SL-200

    *

      Melco WLI-PCM

    *

      NEL SSMagic

    *

      Netwave AirSurfer Plus and AirSurfer Pro

    *

      ZoomAir 4000

-- 
Dr Paul van den Bergen
SERC
goofey:bulwynkl
paul at serc.rmit.edu.au
+613 9925 1624 (RMIT)
+613 9905 4654 (Monash-less often)

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wireless.org.au/pipermail/melbwireless/attachments/20020321/d196e41d/attachment.html>