PCnet-FASTPLUS-KT - Advanced Micro Devices

PRELIMINARY

This document contains information on a product under development at Advanced Micro Devices. The information

is intended to help you evaluate this product. AMD reserves the right to change or discontinue work on this proposed

product without notice.

Publication # 22162 Rev: AAmendment/0

Issue Date: April 1998

PCnet-

FASTPLUS

-KT

Am79C972-Based Evaluation Kit for PCI Systems

DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS

Based on the 10/100 Mbps PCnet-

FAST+

(Am79C972) highly integrated Ethernet

Controller

Implements a fully functional 10/100 Mbps

Ethernet node using a Peripheral Component

Interconnect (PCI)-based system

Supports OnNow power management and

Magic Packet™ remote wake-up and power-on

Software compatible with all PCnet Family

members

Software drivers support all popular Network

Operating Systems

Includes Evaluation Board, software driver

diskettes, and supporting documentation

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The PCnet-

FAST+

evaluation kit is a design evaluation

vehicle for the Am79C972 PCnet-

FAST+

Ethernet con-

troller. The kit includes an evaluation board with the

Am79C972 Ethernet controller and is designed for

10BASE-T or 100BASE-TX media.

The evaluation board, when installed in a PCI-based

host system, provides a platform for demonstrating the

high performance of the PCnet-

FAST+

device, the low

manufacturing cost of a PCnet-

FAST+

-based solution,

and the overall ease of design. The platform further al-

lows the user to evaluate the network hardware and to

develop software for an Ethernet node based on the

PCnet-

FAST+

device.

In addition to the evaluation board, the kit comes with

the AMD Networking CD-ROM, a hardware user’s

manual, the

PCnet Family Network Driver Installation

Guide

, the Am79C972 data sheet, board schematics

and Bill of Materials, and instructions for testing the

Magic Packet remote wake-up technology.

The software includes driver object codes for Novell

NetWare ODI DOS and OS/2, NetWare Server, Mi-

crosoft Windows NT, Windows 95, Window for Work-

groups, LAN Manager, Banyan VINES Client, IBM LAN

Server, SCO UNIX, Artisoft LANtastic/AI, DEC Path-

works, and Packet Driver. Also included are utility pro-

grams for conﬁguration of the network adapter card

and software drivers installation, EEPROM conﬁgura-

tion, diagnostics, and Magic Packet wake-up.

No hardware jumpers are required for conﬁguration.

The PCI system BIOS automatically conﬁgures on

power up, the I/O Base Address, interrupt channel, and

DMA channel for the PCnet-

FAST+

-based Ethernet

adapter card. In addition, AMD provides a low-level

evaluation program to establish connections, and send

and receive messages. The evaluation program allows

the user to view and change the contents of the PCnet-

FAST+

registers, the memory resident Initialization

Block, and the data buffer Descriptor Rings. The pro-

gram also allows the designer to establish loops for

hardware probing.

The PCnet Family Conﬁguration and Installation utility

program,

AMINSTAL

, provides an easy user interface

to view the conﬁguration of the PCnet-

FAST+

evalua-

tion board. The utility program will automatically scan

the system bus(es), which may include IDA, VL, and

PCI to SA+, PCnet-ISA II, PCnet-32, PCnet-PCI,

PCnet-PCI II, PCnet-

FAST

, and PCnet-

FAST+

devices.

With the conﬁguration portion of the progr am, the utility

will ﬁnd and report to the user, the I/O address, IRQ

channel and DMA channel, assigned to the PCnet-

FAST+

device by the system BIOS. After conﬁguration,

the user may use the installation portion of the utility to

install a selected driver and create or modify the CON-

FIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, and PROTOCOL.INI OR

NET.CFG ﬁles on the user’s system.

The PCnet-

FAST+

evaluation board stores the unique

IEEE physical address in the serial EEPROM. Once

powered up, the Am79C972 device reads the node’s

IEEE physical address from the EEPROM through the

Microwire interface protocol. For more details about the

PCnet-

FAST+

Ethernet Controller also refer to the

Am79C972 PCnet-FAST+

data sheet (PID #21485B)

and the

PCnet Family Technical Manual

(PID #18216).