Device driver for DRV11WA

[dhb at rayssd.UUCP]

In article <3456 at curly.ucla-cs.UCLA.EDU> tso at CS.UCLA.EDU (Kam Sing Tso) writes:
>We need a device driver for DRV11WA working on
>BSD4.2/3 running on a MicroVAX II.  I will
>appreciate any pointers to one.  Thanks in
>advance.
>
>Kam S. Tso, (818) 354-4847

This question comes up every month or so and I usually send the poster a
nice little mail message but I thought I would post the message to the
net this time in the hopes of maybe helping more people in one fell swoop.

1. There is no such thing as a generic DR11W/DR11B/DRV11WA/etc driver
   under UNIX.  The major problem is that the DR11 is not really a *real*
   device but is just an interface to a user supplied device.  Each i/o
   operation is pretty much that, a generic i/o operation.  The command
   that is passed to the DR11 does not really mean anything to the DR11,
   it means something to the user supplied device.  The only way you
   could do a generic driver under UNIX is to force the user to preceed
   each read/write with an ioctl call to specify what the function bits
   should be set to.

2. Point 1 should not be taken to mean that the situation is hopeless.
   There are drivers available for the DR11 that can be customized for
   your specific situation.  What you need to do is to define exactly
   what type of device you are connecting, including some info on how the
   device functions, and also define what type of functionality you need
   from the driver.  Given this information, the people that have DR11
   drivers can see if their particular driver can be easily adapted to
   your situation.  Some examples of the types of descriptions you should
   be giving are as follows:

   a. I need a driver for a DR11 which is connected to an Ungermann-Bass
      network interface (NIU-2 or NIU-150) that will function as a standard
      ethernet network interface.

   b. I need a driver for a DR11 which is connected to an AN/UYK-44 military
      computer.  The driver must support the NTDS-FAST or NTDS-NEW protocols
      and must be capable of transferring blocks larger than 64K.

   c. I need a driver for a DR11 running in link mode connected to another DR11
      in another machine.  The driver must support Berkeley networking (TCP/IP).

3. One other thing you are going to run into is that sometimes the companies that
   develop these drivers are either not willing or not allowed (due to contractual
   agreements) to distribute them.  For example, I have working version of examples
   "a" and "b" above but am only allowed to give out copies of "a".  The reason for
   this is that "a" is a modified version of a driver that was originally sent out
   as part of 4.2BSD (even though it didn't work) but "b" was developed in-house
   using funding from a military contract.  Therefore, "a" can be sent out because
   it was originally, and still is, public domain (kinda sorta) but "b" is owned by
   the Navy and the only way you can get it is to have the Navy tell me to give it
   to you.

4. As a final course of action, you should post a message asking if anyone is willing
   to give you advice on how to write a driver for a DR11.  If you don't have any
   experience writing drivers you should probably consider getting your company to put
   up a little money and ask if anyone is willing to take on a consulting job to develop
   the driver for you.

I hope this has been of use to at least a few of you.  If any of you have further
questions about this, feel free to send me mail about it.  If anyone wants a copy of my
Ungermann-Bass driver they are welcome to it.  The current version supports TCP/IP using
the EDLS software from U/B and is therefore capable of communicating with other TCP/IP
based interfaces (i.e. Interlan, 3Com, DEC, etc).


-- 
David H. Brierley
Raytheon Submarine Signal Division; Portsmouth RI; (401)-847-8000 x4073
smart mailer or arpanet: dhb at rayssd.ray.com
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