-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * INFORMATION: * -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- README file for the LAN8710A ethernet board driver for BeagleBone Rev. A6a created July 2013, JPEmbedded (info@jpembedded.eu) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * INSTALLATION: * -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To install LAN8710A for BeagleBone under MINIX you execute 'netconf' as usual. Select the LAN8710A driver from the list. Restart the system and the driver should work. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * TESTS: * -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Driver was tested using various tools, i. e. * fetch - downloading file from the Internet and also local server. Every file downloaded well, but speed was about 50-200 kB/s. * ftp - downloading and uploading 20 MB file completed. * ping - checking connection between BeagleBone and computer passed using stan - dard settings, when we set ping requests interval to 200 ms it also passed. But with 20 ms and 2 ms driver dropped some packets (20 ms - about 20% loss, 2 ms - 50% loss). * udpstat, hostaddr, dhcpd, ifconfig, arp gave proper results. Tests passed, so driver meets the requirements of ethernet driver. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * LIMITATION: * -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Download speed: 50-200 kB/s Low bandwidth is probably caused by memory copy functions. Standard Linux driver copies packets data directly to destination buffer using DMA. Minix driver needs to do a safe copy (sys_safecopyfrom and sys_safecopyto) from local buffer to the system buffer. This operation slows down the whole driver.