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Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!bloom-beacon!spdcc!merk!alliant!linus!nixbur!nixpbe!freiss
From: freiss@nixpbe.UUCP (freiss)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans,comp.protocols.nfs
Subject: Re: Ethernet cards, PC/NFS, DS8390
Message-ID: <540@nixpbe.UUCP>
Date: 28 Sep 89 13:58:12 GMT
References: <46100@bbn.COM>
Followup-To: comp.dcom.lans
Organization: Nixdorf Computer AG, Paderborn, Germany
Lines: 55

clements@bbn.com (Bob Clements) writes:

>I've just wasted a fair amount of time chasing a problem.  I'll briefly
>summarize it, to try to save others the time and pain, and then ask
>a question.

Thanks - it did indeed save me a lot of pain.
The problem you described is very similar to the one that had me stumped
some days ago.

>    I can't find my reference, but I believe I've heard that this
>    particular failure mode is one present in early revs of the
>    DS8390 ethernet chip. (I sure hope my memory is right;  if
>    not, I'm unfairly maligning National. They did have a number
>    of glitches and I THINK this is one of them.)
[...]
>    The new card has a newer rev DS8390 (8824 versus 8742C4 date code).

Miracle!
It solves all my problems too. Looks like I was on the wrong path
alltogether - I was busy reverse engineering PC-NFS, and the problem is
purely hardware.
If it's not too much to ask, could you post where you read about that
particular failure mode in early 8390s? I face the problem of telling
 200+ people in our R & D department that they can't use PC-NFS because
we've bought "bad" ethernet cards, and something in print could save
my life :-)

Judging from the quantity of mail I got after I posted my problem,
this affects quite a lot of people.

>My questions (which I should get purchasing to check, but as long
>as I have the floor): 1) Anyone know where I can get a new
>date code DS8390 in quantity one?   2) Any idea if Western Digital
>will upgrade this WD8003E after it's out of warranty? (It's not
>their fault, of course.)

Don't know where you can get quantity one chips, but we sure are
going to argue with our friendly neighbourhood WD representative
about replacements / upgrades.

NFS not using UDP checksumming is one of my pet gripes too -
usually the lower protocol layers are safe enough on an ethernet,
but if you NFS thru bridges and routers, oh brother...
Still, so far it has worked ok.

>Bob Clements, K1BC, clements@bbn.com

-Martin
--
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