PERFORMANCE OF DEC DE500 ETHERNET CARDS

WITH STANDARD LINUX DRIVERS

(author R. Balasubramanian)
 
TULIP DRIVER     version .89F
(with #define  TULIP_DEFAULT_MEDIA 5 meaning 100BaseT full duplex)
 
de4x5.c  DRIVER     version .52
CARD: 
DE500XA
  1. Driver set to Autonegotiate(Default) 
  2. 3Com SuperStack 3300 Switch is set initially to autonegotiate
      3. Switch negotiates to  100 Mbps  half Duplex 
      One way transfer speeds  about  9.5 MB/sec 
      Two way simultaneous speeds about  4.0MB/sec 
      What happens if switch forced to full-duplex? 
       
  3.  Driver set to  Full Duplex  (added #define TULIP_FULL_DUPLEX 1  to above)
  4. Switch is set initially to autonegotiate
      Switch negotiates to  100 Mbps  half Duplex 
      One way transfer speeds  about  9.8 MB/sec 
      Two way simultaneous speeds about  4.6MB/sec 
       
  1.  Driver set to  Full Duplex  (added #define TULIP_FULL_DUPLEX 1  to above)
  2. Switch is set to 100Mbps Full Duplex
      3. One way transfer speeds  about  9.8 MB/sec 
      Two way simultaneous speeds about  7MB/sec 
  Switch is set initially to autonegotiate 
 Hangs during boot while attempting to mount remote file systems. 
 err messg:   Unable to send 
 The same problem occurs with the switch set to full or half duplex. 

Note that the earlier version of de4x5 (version XXX) worked properly 
in half-duplex mode and in full duplex mode (with #define ... added). 
 
CARD: 
DE500AA		  
 
 
  1. Driver set to Autonegotiate(Default) 
  2. Switch is set initially to autonegotiate
      3. Switch negotiates to  100 Mbps  Full Duplex 
      One way transfer speeds  about  9.5  MB/sec 
      Two way simultaneous speeds about  6.5 MB/sec 
       
       
    (Note that setting the  macro TULIP_DEBUG = 4   in the driver causes the networking to slow down  by half  and gives the  repeated error message: 
    eth0: exiting interrupt csr5=0xfc660000)
 
 
  1. Driver set to Autonegotiate(Default) 
  2. Switch is set initially to autonegotiate
        3. Switch negotiates to  100 Mbps  half Duplex 
        One way transfer speeds  about  9.5  MB/sec 
        Two way simultaneous speeds about  4.4 MB/sec 
         
  3. Driver set to  Full Duplex  (added  #define DE4X5_FULL_DUPLEX 1 to the above)
  4. Switch is set initially to autonegotiate
        5. Switch negotiates to  100 Mbps  Full Duplex 
        One way transfer speeds  about  9.5  MB/sec 
        Two way simultaneous speeds about  7.5 MB/sec
CARD: 
DE500BA		  
  1. Driver set to Autonegotiate(Default) 
  2. Switch is set initially to autonegotiate
      3. Switch negotiates to  100 Mbps  full Duplex 
      One way transfer speeds  about  500 kB/sec 
      Two way simultaneous speeds about  300 kB/sec 
       
       
       
  1. Driver set to  Full Duplex  (#define TULIP_FULL_DUPLEX 1 )
  2. Switch is set initially to autonegotiate
      3. Switch negotiates to  100 Mbps  Full Duplex 
      One way transfer speeds  about  500 kB/sec 

      (Network is unreliable in both the above cases) 
       

 Hangs during boot while attempting to mount remote file systems.  Error messg: 
    Unable to send