Apple Built-In Ethernet Driver and DECnet (12/94)


According to the document which comes with the new Apple Built-In Ethernet drivers:

"With the release of NSI 1.5 all Ethernet drivers will reside in the "Apple Built-In Ethernet" extensions file instead of in the "System" file."

Does this also mean that the eadr resource will be moving from the system file to the an extension? Will enet moving or eadr moving to an extension break DECnet (PATHWORKS or TSSnet)?

After installing NSI 1.5, the only 'enet' resources that should remain in the system file are the 'enet' 8 (old 3Com card), and any third-party Ethernet drivers. A new enet 8 is provided in the "Apple Ethernet NB" file, but it will only be used if the card is in fact an Apple card. The system file enet 8 is used for any other cards usurping our board ID 8. Going forward, this means we will never update a third-party enet 8 driver, but installing NSI 1.5 will not produce a non-working system.

The 'eadr' remains in the system file. Products that rely on this will have to be changed with OpenTransport and, new native drivers.

We hope that these changes do not cause any problems for PATHWORKS or DECnet. If they use the standard calls for opening slot drivers, everything should be fine.

It has been verified by field testing that the known problem with PATHWORKS involving disconnects with LAT on the PowerPC-based systems have been corrected in NSI 1.5.


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Published Date: Feb 19, 2012