dmfe(7D) Devices dmfe(7D)NAMEdmfe - 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 incorporates 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 con‐
troller initialization, frame transmit and receive, promiscuous and
multicast support, and error recovery and reporting.
The 100Base-TX standard specifies an auto-negotiation protocol to auto‐
matically select the mode and speed of operation. The internal trans‐
ceiver is capable of performing autonegotiation 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 func‐
tionality 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 indicates 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-initial‐
ized (stopped) at last detach.
The values returned by the driver in the DL_INFO_ACK primitive in
response to a DL_INFO_REQ are as follows:
· Maximum SDU is 1500 (ETHERMTU - defined in sys/ethernet.h).
· Minimum SDU is 0.
· DLSAP address length is 8.
· MAC type is DL_ETHER.
· The sap length value is -2, meaning the physical address compo‐
nent is followed immediately by a 2-byte sap component within the
DLSAP address.
· 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 as‐
sociate 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 denominator supported by both link part‐
ners. 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 parameters by adding
entries to the dmfe driver configuration file (/platform/sun4u/ker‐
nel/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" explicitly dis‐
ables auto-negotiation. To enable the driver to determine the appropri‐
ate setting for each parameter, you should always set both parameters.
If it is necessary to force either speed or duplex setting (for exam‐
ple, 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 attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Architecture │x86 │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOattributes(5), gld(7D), dlpi(7P), streamio(7I)
Writing Device Drivers
STREAMS Programming Guide
Network Interfaces Programmer's Guide
SunOS 5.10 23 July 2003 dmfe(7D)
