Network Adapter Card Configuration in Linux


Basic Info regarding Adapter Card (Ethernet) :


  • New PC cards are better than Old ISA cards, not just because they are faster, but they are easier to configure
  • PCI adapters can share interrupts without a conflict
  • ISA cards can not share configuration values, or else I/O conflicts can occur
  • ISA PC adapter cards require up to four(4) distinct hardware configuration parameters: the Interrupt Request number (IRQ), the Direct Memory Access (DMA), Request number (DRQ), the I/O port address and the adapter memory address.

Each card must have unique configuration values, and each parameter has a limited range of possible values:


IRQ 

   values are as follows; 2-7, 9-12 and 15.

   IRQ 0, 1, 8, 13 and 14 are used by functions on the system board; and some others are used by standard hardware interfaces

DRQ 

   values are 0-3 and 5-7.   DRQ 4 is used by the system board

I/O port 

   address available for peripheral bus I/O are hex values in the range from 100 to 3FF.   

   The I/O addresses from 000 to 0FF are reserved for the system board, and others are used by common hardware

Adapter Memory 

   is the address in system memory in which the ROM on the adapter card is mapped.   

   The addresses available for adapter memory are from C0000 to DFFFF