The PCI 100Base-T Link Product

Introduction

The N-Class and A-Class HP e3000 systems have a PCI-bus based hardware architecture, so new drivers (link products) have been developed to support new PCI-based peripheral devices. This includes a new 100Base-T LAN adapter card. PCI 100Base-T encompasses the new software driver and new add-on adapter card that are required to provide LAN connectivity for the N-Class and A-Class servers.

Product Overview

The PCI 100Base-T Link provides the following

Using PCI 100Base-T

There is no major difference in how the networking subsystems will operate compared to HP-PB (NIO) HP e3000 systems. Current network software products (such as NS TCP/IP, DTC Terminal I/O, and Streams/iX products and applications) will run their applications the same as they do on HP-PB systems, only they will now run over the PCI 100Base-T link product. This approach is fundamental to the HP e3000 PCI design philosophy: the underlying hardware/architecture changes should not impact upper layer software products or customer applications, and will be essentially transparent.

Unlike the HP-PB 100Base-T Fast Ethernet link product, the software component for the new PCI 100Base-T link product will be bundled into FOS (MPE/iX 7.0 and later). This means that no additional software must be ordered or installed in order to run PCI 100Base-T on MPE/iX 7.0 and later. The PCI 100Base-T adapter add-on card (A5230A) must be ordered and installed separately.

	NOTE: The PCI 100Base-T adapter card is a single-port, add-on card. This card does not require firmware downloads and has no on-board memory. The card is capable of supporting both 10-Mbps and 100-Mbps speeds, and is configured in NMCONFIG.

Configuring PCI 100Base-T links

As with HP-PB (NIO) 100Base-T Fast Ethernet, the 100Base-T links are configured in NMCONFIG using NMMGR. The NMMGR link configuration screen is for a generic 100Base-T link and can be used to configure 100Base-T on either HP-PB or PCI platforms. When the 100Base-T link is started via another network subsystem (e.g., :NETCONTROL START; NET=SYSLAN1), the network will automatically detect whether the underlying LAN link hardware is HP-PB or PCI, and will invoke the appropriate software driver.

	NOTE: There have been some minor changes regarding network configuration and NMMGR screens on MPE/iX 7.0. These changes are reflected in the HP e3000/iX Network Planning and Configuration Guide and NS 3000/iX NMMGR Screens Reference Manual, updated for MPE/iX 7.0

Add-on PCI 100Base-T link autonegotiation fix

With Release 7.0 Express-1, the 10/100Base-TX LAN port on the PCI 100Base-T adapter add-on cards (A5230A) will now correctly advertise its full range of link capabilities during autonegotiation. This corrects a problem found in the initial release, where during autonegotiation with the data switch, the adapter only advertised that it supported 100Mbps full duplex. Fortunately it is unlikely this issue would cause a problem, since most data switches supporting autonegotiation will negotiate to 100/full anyway by default, and since it was and is still possible to force link settings via NMMGR.Regardless of whether autonegotiation is enabled or not, customers are still encouraged to ensure their NMMGR link settings exactly match the configured hardware settings for the data switch or hub port to which their LAN adapter port is attached (either set both sides to use "auto", or both to use identical speed and duplex).

Maximum number of PCI 100Base-T links supported

Due to typographical errors in some HP e3000 configuration guides, it is necessary to clarify the number of 10/100Base-TX LAN ports supported per N-Class and A-Class system:

One of these LAN ports may be used for DTS/iX traffic (DTS requires one LAN link), alone or in conjunction with other traffic. If desired, additional LAN ports may be installed and configured, but for best performance the total number of active LAN ports must not exceed the numbers above.When choosing the number of LAN cards, the customer should be aware that use of the e3000 as a high-speed gateway between LAN networks is not supported.

Crossover cable usage with DTC and PCI 100Base-T link

The 10/100Base-TX link (add-on or Core I/O) in the N-Class and A-Class HP e3000 systems may be used to drive a single DTC in 10Base-T mode, via a crossover LAN cable. When there is a need to interconnect a single DTC and server, this provides connectivity similar to older coax ThinLAN.The DTC must attach an external 10Base-T transciever (28685B or equivalent, orderable separately) to its AUI port; the DTC recognizes the transciever after cycling power. In NMMGR, the host link must be configured for speed=10Mbps, full duplex=No, and autonegotiation=No. Standard 10Base-T cable length limitations also apply (in this case 100m or less).10/100Base-TX technology utilizes only two of the four twisted wire pairs available at an RJ-45 cable connector. A crossover cable differs from a straight-through LAN patch cable, because the two active pairs (pins 1-2 and 3-6) at one end connect to the opposite pair (3-6 and 1-2) at the other end. Such "crossed" wiring can sometimes be verified by visually inspecting the different wire colors through the clear plastic plug: when placed side-by-side with identical orientation, if both ends of the cable have the same left-to-right wire color sequence, this is a straight-through patch cable. 10Base-T crossover LAN cables are available in various lengths from most computer supply stores, or from HP (C7539A is 2m long and C7538A is 7m). Coax ThinLAN cables are no longer included with N-Class and A-Class HP e3000 systems (one straight-through patch cable is included instead).