Communicator e3000 MPE/iX Release 7.0 (C.70.00) (30216-90312)

Chapter 3 43

New Networking

The PCI 100Base-T Link Product

by Learning Products Team

Commercial Systems Division

Introduction

The N-Class and A-Class HP e3000 systems have a PCI-bus based hardware architecture,

so new drivers (link products) have been developed to support new PCI-based peripheral

devices. This includes a new 100Base-T LAN adapter card. PCI 100Base-T encompasses

the new software driver and new add-on adapter card that are required to provide LAN

connectivity for the N-Class and A-Class servers.

Product Overview

The PCI 100Base-T Link provides the following

• The LAN connectivity solution for PCI-bus based HP e3000 systems

• The same interface to all LAN network stacks (e.g., NS TCP/IP, DTC) as exists on

HP-PB (NIO) HP e3000 systems

• The PCI equivalent to HP-PB 100Base-T Fast Ethernet link product (B5427BA), which

is a distinct and separate 100Base-T link product that runs only on HP-PB (NIO) HP

e3000 systems.

Using PCI 100Base-T

There is no major difference in how the networking subsystems will operate compared to

HP-PB (NIO) HP e3000 systems. Current network software products (such as NS TCP/IP,

DTC Terminal I/O, and Streams/iX products and applications) will run their applications

the same as they do on HP-PB systems, only they will now run over the PCI 100Base-T

link product. This approach is fundamental to the HP e3000 PCI design philosophy: the

underlying hardware/architecture changes should not impact upper layer software

products or customer applications, and will be essentially transparent.

Unlike the HP-PB 100Base-T Fast Ethernet link product, the software component for the

new PCI 100Base-T link product will be bundled into FOS (MPE/iX 7.0 and later). This

means that no additional software must be ordered or installed in order to run PCI

100Base-T on MPE/iX 7.0 and later. The PCI 100Base-T adapter add-on card (A5230A)

must be ordered and installed separately.

NOTE The PCI 100Base-T adapter card is a single-port, add-on card. This card does

not require ﬁrmware downloads and has no on-board memory. The card is

capable of supporting both 10-Mbps and 100-Mbps speeds, and is conﬁgured

in NMCONFIG.