[KLUG Members] Linksys NICs

[Bryan J. Smith]

Bruce Smith wrote:
> No, I blame Linksys.  If they are going to make a completely new
> card, then change the model name of the card.

At the time Digital sold off its NIC division, 13 of the top 16
10/100 NICs were Tulip-based with a good, solid spec.  After the
sale, the Tulip designs splintered everywhere.

The Centaur 985 is a Tulip-compatible chipset, and I'm sure Linksys
tried to do its best to find a Tulip-compatible IC as, most likely,
their supplier stopped making the previous version.  I was even able
to make a small "hack" to the existing Tulip.c driver so it would
work with the newer version of the board.  You'd be surprised how
much "incompatibility" boils down to just a simple string
identifications.

Most of the time, the OEMs are caught in the middle -- especially if
they work on the commodity side of things, making razor thin
margins.

Even Intel, 3com and others have not changed model numbers before
when they've revamped the chipsets.  Linksys is no different, except
they don't make their own ICs.

-- TheBS

-- 
Bryan J. Smith   mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org   chat:thebs413
SmithConcepts, Inc.           http://www.SmithConcepts.com
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