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44
ECG513/0399
Network Interface Controller
Two different Network Interface Controller (NIC) cards were examined in Compaq’s testing for
this guide. This testing identified the chipsets for the four servers shown in Table 6.
Table 8. Network Interface Controller Specifications
Server
Built-in Network Interface Controller
ProLiant 1850R
Texas Instruments ThunderLAN (TLAN)
ProLiant 1600R
Texas Instruments ThunderLAN (TLAN)
ProLiant 1600
Texas Instruments ThunderLAN (TLAN)
Prosignia 720
Intel 82558 (Intel Etherexpress Pro 100)
Other PCI cards and chipsets were also tested. The specifics of the testing are as follows:
At this time, the embedded NIC card on the Compaq ProLiant 1600, 1600R, and 1850R is based
on the Texas Instruments ThunderLAN chipset. Similar dual-speed and single-speed PCI cards
are available in the marketplace, under several different brand names. Both the embedded and
PCI cards are controlled by the TI ThunderLAN (TLAN) device driver written by James Banks of
Caldera Systems, Inc. (
www.calderasystems.com
mailto:[email protected])
.
Both the SuSE and Caldera installation programs allow for manual selection of this device driver
and the setup of networking support at the time of installation. Red Hat includes the tlan.c, tlan.h,
and tlan.o files that allow for the configuration of the network in a rebuilt kernel or in a module.
However, since you cannot choose a TLAN card at installation time, it is necessary to first install
the operating system and then update the networking support manually.
The complete TLAN driver distribution is available from many Linux download sites. The
primary distribution point is located at
ftp://ftp.caldera.com/pub/stuff/tlan.tgz
. At this time, the
latest version is Version 1.0 and it currently supports PCI devices only that include the embedded
NIC cards on the ProLiant servers examined in this guide. The README file included with the
TLAN device driver distribution offers a mailing list. You can obtain information on joining by
sending ‘subscribe TLAN’ in the body of an e-mail to [email protected].”
The second NIC card used in this testing is the new Netelligent 10/100 TX PCI UTP Intel
Controller card. The Prosignia 720 includes this card, which is based on the Intel Etherexpress
Pro chipset, and consequently the existing Intel Etherexpress Pro 100 device driver for Linux can
control it. Specific chipsets examined include:
x
Intel 82557
x
Intel 82558
x
Intel 82559
These three different chipsets were tested since Compaq currently sells embedded and PCI card
NICs based on the three different chipsets. All chipsets worked without any problems.
All three distributions covered in this guide, Caldera, Red Hat, and SuSE, either detect this card
automatically or allow for its manual selection. At the time of installation, you can use this card
to configure the network for all covered distributions, making it possible to install Linux from an
FTP server, and NFS mount, or an SMB share.
