Subject: Re: DECchip 21143 and the tlp driver.
To: Hal Murray <firstname.lastname@example.org>
From: Thor Lancelot Simon <email@example.com>
Date: 10/30/1999 02:27:24
On Fri, Oct 29, 1999 at 11:56:26AM -0700, Hal Murray wrote:
> [Tulip kicking up the when-to-start-sending knob.]
> > This happens minutes after the machine is up with only the most minor bit
> > of traffic on the wire. After it has step to "store-and-forward" there is
> > no further such changes.
> When/if that happens depends upon the speed of the PCI/memory interface
> on your system.
> The machines I normally work with don't go through that dance until
> I put a lot of network traffic through the Tulip, and even then it
> probably needs some other PCI work to provoke it.
Or a broken PCI chipset or BIOS.
I had a motherboard once that did this *all the time*. I just looked
and it appears to mis-set the PCI latency timer for all non-builtin
PCI devices to 0. Somehow I am not surprised that the Tulip might have
trouble pushing data across the bus fast enough, if it has to relinquish
it after every cycle...
Thor Lancelot Simon firstname.lastname@example.org
"And where do all these highways go, now that we are free?"