[563] in linux-announce channel archive
New Stallion multiport serial drivers for Linux
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lars Wirzenius)
Tue May 9 12:58:47 1995
Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 17:07:01 +0300
From: Lars Wirzenius <wirzeniu@cc.helsinki.fi>
To: linux-activists@niksula.hut.fi, linux-announce@vger.rutgers.edu
X-Mn-Key: announce
Subject: New Stallion multiport serial drivers for Linux
From: Greg Ungerer <gerg@stallion.oz.au>
Keywords: stallion intelligent multiport serial driver
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce
Organization: ?
Approved: linux-announce@news.ornl.gov (Lars Wirzenius)
Followup-to: comp.os.linux.development.system
References:
==============================================================================
Stallion Multiport Serial Driver for Linux
==============================================================================
This is an announcement of the availability of a new version of the Linux
driver for some of the Stallion Technologies range of multiport serial
boards. The driver package contains 2 drivers. One is for the EasyIO and
EasyConnection 8/32 family of multiport boards. The other is a new driver
developed to support the true Stallion intelligent multiport serial boards.
Currently it supports the EasyConnection 8/64, ONboard and Brumby boards
(with old original Stallion board support coming soon).
The new version is 0.1.8 Beta. The new EasyIO and EasyConnection 8/32
driver is intended to be a bug fix version of previous releases. It also
adds loadable module support, so this driver can be compiled into the
kernel, or used as a loadable module.
The EasyConnection 8/64, ONboard and Brumby driver is new, this is its
first release. So this should be considered an alpha release of it.
I would love to hear feedback from anyone who uses it (successful or
not :-) It also can be compiled into the kernel or used as a loadable
module.
Full source for the host drivers is included and is copyrighted with the
GNU GPL. The driver package has been uploaded to sunsite.unc.edu and
tsx-11.mit.edu. It contains a README with installation notes and more
detail on the drivers capabilities. Basically though you can do everything
on these serial ports that you can on the standard serial ports.
FROM the README file:
1. INTRODUCTION
This is a Linux driver for some of the Stallion Technologies range of
multiport serial boards. There is really 2 drivers in this package. One is
for the Stallion smart boards, the other for the true Stallion intelligent
multiport boards.
These drivers have not been developed by Stallion Technologies. I developed
them in my spare time in the hope that they would be useful. As such there is
no warranty or support of any form (see the GNU general public license included
for more detail).
What this means is that these drivers are not officially supported by Stallion
Technologies, so don't ring their support if you can't get it working. They
will probably not be able to help you. Instead email me if you have problems
or bug reports and I will do what I can...
All host driver source is included in this package, and is copyrighted under
the GNU GPL. The board "firmware" code in this package is copyright Stallion
Technologies (the files cdk.sys and 2681.sys).
1.1 SMART MULTIPORT BOARD DRIVER
This driver has been used for some months now, so there is a good level of
confidence in its operation! Therefore this version should be considered as
Beta quality.
This driver supports the EasyIO and EasyConnection 8/32 range of boards.
All of these boards are not classical intelligent multiport boards, but are
host based multiport boards that use high performance Cirrus Logic CL-CD1400
RISC UART's (they have built in FIFO's, automatic flow control, and some
other good stuff).
The EasyIO range of cards comes in 3 forms, the EasyIO-4, EasyIO-8 and the
EasyIO-8M. All of these are non-expandable, low cost, ISA, multiport boards
with 4, 8 and 8 RS-232C ports respectively. The EasyIO-8M is not currently
supported by this driver. Though it is pretty easy to support so I'll do
that when I get a chance. Each EasyIO board requires 8 bytes of IO address
space and 1 interrupt. On an EISA system it is possible to share 1 interrupt
between multiple boards. The EasyIO-4 has 10 pin RJ connectors, and the
EasyIO-8 comes with a dongle cable that can be either 10 pin RJ connectors or
DB-25 connectors. The EasyIO-8M has 6 pin RJ connectors.
The EasyConnection 8/32 family of boards is a relatively low cost modular
range of multiport serial boards. The EasyConnection 8/32 boards can be
configured to have from 8 to 32 serial ports by plugging in external serial
port modules that contain either 8 or 16 ports each. There is a wide range
of external modules available that offer: DB-25 connectors, RJ-45 connectors
(both with RS-232 D and E compatible drivers), and also RS-422 ports. The
EasyConnection 8/32 boards come in ISA and MCA bus versions. The board takes
the form of a host adapter card, with an external connector cable that plugs
into the external modules. The external modules just clip together to add
ports (BTW they are not hot pluggable). Each EasyConnection 8/32 board
requires 2 separate IO address ranges, one 2 bytes in size and a secondary
region of 32 bytes. Each board also requires 1 interrupt, on EISA systems
multiple boards can share 1 interrupt. The secondary IO range (the 32 byte
range) can be shared between multiple boards on any bus type.
So thats the hardware supported by the smart board driver (sounds like a
marketing spiel doesn't it!).
1.2 INTELLIGENT MULTIPORT BOARD DRIVER
This driver is new. Very new in fact, this is its first release! It is very
alpha and not field tested in any way yet. But I would most dearly like to
get feedback on its operation. So for those brave enough please try it.
This driver is for Stallion's range of true intelligent multiport boards, it
supports the EasyConnection 8/64, ONboard and Brumby familys of multiport
boards. The EasyConnection 8/64 and ONboard boards come in ISA, EISA and
Microchannel bus versions. The Brumby boards are only available in ISA
versions. The old original Stallion boards are not yet supported.
The EasyConnection 8/64 family of boards is a medium cost, high performance,
modular range of intelligent multiport serial boards. The EasyConnection 8/64
boards can be configured to have from 8 to 64 serial ports by plugging in
external serial port modules that contain either 8 or 16 ports each (these
modules are the same used by the EasyConnection 8/32 board). There is a wide
range of external modules available that offer: DB-25 connectors, RJ-45
connectors (both with RS-232 D and E compatible drivers), and also RS-422
ports. The board takes the form of a host adapter card, with an external
connector cable that plugs into the external modules. The external modules
just clip together to add ports (BTW they are not hot pluggable). Each
EasyConnection 8/64 board requires 4 bytes of IO address space and a region
of memory space. The size of the memory region required depends on the exact
board type, the EISA version requires 64 Kbytes of address space (that can
reside anywhere in the 4 Gigabyte physical address space), the ISA and MCA
boards require 4 Kbytes of address space (which must reside in the lower
1 Mbyte of physical address space - typically in the c8000 to e0000 range).
No interrupts are required. The physical memory region of multiple
EasyConnection 8/64 boards can be shared, but each board must have a separate
IO address space.
The ONboard family of boards are traditional intelligent multiport serial
boards. They are Stallion's older range of boards with a limited expansion
capability. They come in 4, 8, 12, 16 and 32 port versions. The board uses
the same base card (which has 4 ports on it) and is expanded to more ports
via a mezzanine board that attaches directly onto the board. External panels
plug into the ONboard providing RS-232C ports with DB-25 plugs. An RS-422
DB-25 dual interface panel is also available. The ISA and microchannel
ONboards requires 16 bytes of IO address space and 64K bytes of memory
space. The memory space can be anywhere in the 16 Mbyte ISA bus address
range. No interrupt is required. The EISA ONboard requires 64 Kbytes of
memory space, that can be anywhere in the 4 Gigabyte physical address space.
All ONboard boards can share their memory region with other ONboards (or
EasyConnection 8/64 boards).
The Brumby family of boards are traditional, low cost intelligent multiport
serial boards. They are non-expandable and come in 4, 8 and 16 port versions.
They are only available for the ISA bus. The serial ports are all on DB-25
"dongle" cables that attach to the rear of the board. Each Brumby board
requires 16 bytes of IO address space and 16 Kbytes of memory space. No
interrupts are required.
Thats the boards supported by the second driver. The ONboard and Brumby boards
are Stallions older range of intelligent multiports - so there is lots of them
around. The EasyConnection 8/64 is about 18 months old and is a very high
performance multiport board. It has about 4 times the output performance of an
ONboard, and about 10 times the the input performance.
1.3 HOW TO GET BOARDS
I get asked this question a _lot_. So I am including a section here on where
to get boards. Stallion Technologies has offices all over the world, as well
as many more distributors and resellers. To find out about local availability
please contact the nearest Stallion office and they can give you all the
information you need. Look in the "Offices" file in the driver distribution
for a current list of Stallion offices.
Another good source of information about the Stallion range of boards and
local availability is on the Stallion Web page. Check it out at
http://www.stallion.com .
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Begin3
Title: Stallion Multiport Serial Driver for Linux
Version: 0.1.8 beta
Entered-date: 08MAY95
Description: This package contains a linux kernel driver for some of the
Stallion Technologies range of multiport serial boards.
Keywords: stallion intelligent multiport serial driver
Author: gerg@stallion.oz.au (Greg Ungerer)
Maintained-by: gerg@stallion.oz.au
Primary-site: sunsite.unc.edu pub/Linux/kernel/patches/serial
96276 stallion-0.1.8.tar.gz
732 stallion.lsm
Alternate-site: tsx-11.mit.edu pub/linux/ALPHA/serial/stallion
Original-site: sunsite.unc.edu
Platform: Stallion multiport serial boards
Copying-policy: GPL
End
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