Technical data

pe(7D) Devices SunOS 5.5
NAME pe − Xircom Pocket Ethernet device driver
SYNOPSIS #include <sys/stropts.h>
#include <sys/ethernet.h>
#include <sys/dlpi.h>
AVAILABILITY x86
DESCRIPTION The Xircom Pocket Ethernet driver (pe) is a multi-threaded, loadable, clonable,
STREAMS hardware driver supporting the connectionless Data LinkProvider Interface,
dlpi(7P), with a Xircom Pocket Ethernet Adapter III (PE3). Multiple PE3 controllers
installed within the system are supported by the driver.
PE and DLPI The pe driver provides basic support for the PE3 hardware. Functions include chip ini-
tialization, frame transmission and reception, multicast and "promiscuous" support, and
error recovery and reporting.
The pe driver supports both bi-directional and unidirectionalparallel ports. The Port
and Adapter type is automatically detected and set when the driver initializes.
It is important not to attempt to use any other driver that may also use the same port
when the pe driver is operational. This may interfere with network traffic that is
currently being sent or received by the PE3 adapter.
The cloning, character-special device /dev/pe is used to access all PE3 controllers installed
within the system.
The pe driver is a “style 2” Data Link Service provider. All M_PROTO and
M_PCPROTO type messages are interpreted as DLPI primitives. An explicit
DL_ATTACH_REQ message is required by the user to associate the opened stream with
a particular device (ppa). The ppa ID is interpreted as an unsignedlong and indicates the
corresponding device instance (unit) number. The unit numbers are assigned sequen-
tially to each adapter found. The search order is determined by the order defined in the
pe.conf file. An error (DL_ERROR_ACK) is returned by the driver if the ppa field value
does not correspond to a valid device instance number for this system. The device is ini-
tialized on the first attach and de-initialized (stopped) on the last detach.
The values returned by the driver in the DL_INFO_ACK primitive in response to the
DL_INFO_REQ from the user are as follows:
The max SDU is 1500 (ETHERMTU).
The min SDU is 0.
The dlsap address length is 8.
The MAC type is DL_ETHER or DL_CSMACD.
The sap length value is −2, meaning the physical address component is fol-
lowed immediately by a 2-byte sap component within the DLSAP address.
The service mode is DL_CLDLS.
7D-252 modified 20 Dec 1993