RSTS on a Pro, was Re: [HECnet] DECnet User Mode Router - Encapsulation Formats

[Dave McGuire]

On 06/23/2012 04:43 PM, Paul_Koning at Dell.com wrote:
Urr?   Doesn't the CNA use an Am7990 "Lance" chip?   As I recall
that isn't too bad to program.   I must be misremembering what chip
it uses..?

Intel 82586, which has the worst programming interface in the history
of Ethernet.   It uses a single linked list, which is accessed both by
the driver and by the chip, without interlocking.   Race conditions
everywhere...

  Ohhhhhhhhh, that one!   I remember that chip.   That was an "ie"
(Intel Ethernet) in Sun parlance.   The "le" (Lance Ethernet) found on
some machines was far preferable.   I had to write a driver for an Am7990
for an embedded application a long time ago; I remember that wasn't too
bad.   I've never really looked at the 82586 at the programming level; I
just remembered not to try to put too much traffic through them when
building networks of Sun machines. :)

  There's Linux support for it, for which source code is readily
available, and I have some earlier Solaris source code which will have
some code.   Maybe pick through that for some tricks.   But man that
sounds dangerous, no access clash protection...ugh.

Umm...are you willing to share that stuff? =)   I run RSTS 10.1 on
many of my PDP-11s; I'd LOVE to run it on my Pro-350!

Sure, if I can figure out a way to do it reasonably cleanly.

  That would be great...Thank you!

                        -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA