PRELIMINARY PCnet-ISA II-KT/2 Am79C961A Based Evaluation Kit for ISA Systems DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS n ISA-based Ethernet adapter card with on-board 10BASE-T and 10BASE2 connections n Based on the PCnet-ISA II (Am79C961A) singlechip Ethernet controller for ISA-based systems n Implements a fully functional Ethernet node using an IBM PC/AT or compatible as host n Ethernet adapter card utilizing a high performance, low-cost, bus master architecture (NE2100) n Supports full-duplex Ethernet operation n Supports Microsoft's Plug and Play system configuration for jumperless ISA designs n Software compatible with all PCnet family members n Software drivers support all popular Network Operating Systems (NOS) n Includes evaluation board, software driver diskettes, and supporting documentation GENERAL DESCRIPTION The PCnet-ISA II evaluation kit is a design evaluation vehicle for the Am79C961A PCnet-ISA II single-chip Ethernet controller with an integrated ISA bus interface. The kit includes an evaluation board with the Am79C961A single chip Ethernet controller and connections for 10BASE-T (twisted pair) or 10BASE2 (coaxial cable) media. The evaluation board, when installed in an ISA-based host system, provides a platform for demonstrating the high performance of the PCnet-ISA II device, the low manufacturing cost of a PCnet-ISA II based solution, and the overall ease of design. The platform further allows the user to evaluate network hardware and to develop software for an Ethernet node based on the PCnet-ISA II device. In addition to the evaluation board, the kit comes with software diskettes, a hardware user's manual, the PCnet Family Network Driver Installation Guide, and the Networking Products CD-ROM (PID# 21244). The software includes driver object codes for Novell NetWare ODI DOS and OS/2, Microsoft Windows NT, Window for Workgroups, LAN Manager, Banyan VINES Client, IBM LAN Server, SCO UNIX, Artisoft LANtastic/ AI, DEC Pathworks, and Packet Driver. Also included are two utility programs, one for configuration of the network adapter card and software driver installation, and one for EEPROM configuration. No hardware jumpers are required for configuration. The PC system BIOS automatically configures on power up, the I/O Base Address, interrupt channel, and DMA channel for the PCnet-ISA II Ethernet adapter card. In addition, AMD provides a low-level evaluation program to establish connections, and send and receive messages. The evaluation program allows the user to view and change the contents of the PCnet-ISA II registers, the memory resident Initialization Block, and the data buffer Descriptor Rings. The program also allows the designer to establish loops for hardware probing. The PCnet Family Configuration and Installation utility program, Aminstall, provides an easy user interface to view the configuration of the PCnet-ISA II evaluation board. The utility program will automatically scan the system bus(es), which may include ISA, VL, and PCI to find the installed PCnet-ISA, PCnet-ISA+, PCnet-ISA II, PCnet-32, PCnet-PCI, PCnet-PCI II, and PCnet-ISA II devices. With the configuration portion of the program, the utility will find and report to the user, the I/O address, IRQ channel and DMA channel, assigned to the PCnet-ISA II device by the system BIOS. After configuration, the user may use the installation portion of the utility to install a selected driver by copying the appropriate driver from the AMD diskette, and create or modify the CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, and PROTOCOL.INI OR NET.CFG files on the user's system. The PCnet-ISA II evaluation board stores the unique IEEE physical address in the serial EEPROM. Once powered up, the Am79C961A device reads the node's IEEE physical address from the EEPROM through the Microwire interface protocol. For more details about the This document contains information on a product under development at Advanced Micro Devices. The information is intended to help you evaluate this product. AMD reserves the right to change or discontinue work on this proposed product without notice. Publication# 22105 Rev: A Amendment/0 Issue Date: January 1998