66 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
66 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
$NetBSD$
|
|
$Id: README,v 1.2 2003/07/02 01:55:27 sam Exp $
|
|
|
|
|
|
WARNING: THIS IS A BETA DISTRIBUTION. THIS SOFTWARE HAS KNOWN PROBLEMS AND
|
|
WARNING: LIMITATIONS THAT WILL BE CORRECTED BEFORE A PRODUCTION RELEASE.
|
|
WARNING: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Atheros Hardware Access Layer (HAL)
|
|
===================================
|
|
|
|
* Copyright (c) 2002, 2003 Sam Leffler.
|
|
* Copyright (c) 2002, 2003 Atheros Communications, Inc.
|
|
* All rights reserved.
|
|
|
|
Read the file COPYRIGHT for the complete copyright.
|
|
|
|
This code manages much of the chip-specific operation of the Atheros driver.
|
|
The HAL is provided in a binary-only form in order to comply with FCC
|
|
regulations. In particular, a radio transmitter can only be operated at
|
|
power levels and on frequency channels for which it is approved. The FCC
|
|
requires that a software-defined radio cannot be configured by a user
|
|
to operate outside the approved power levels and frequency channels.
|
|
This makes it difficult to open-source code that enforces limits on
|
|
the power levels, frequency channels and other parameters of the radio
|
|
transmitter. See
|
|
|
|
http://ftp.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/Orders/2001/fcc01264.pdf
|
|
|
|
for the specific FCC regulation. Because the module is provided in a
|
|
binary-only form it is marked "Proprietary"; this means when you load
|
|
it you will see messages that your system is now "tainted".
|
|
|
|
If you wish to use this driver on a platform for which an ath_hal
|
|
module is not already provided please contact the author. Note that
|
|
this is only necessary for new _architectures_; the HAL is not tied to
|
|
any specific version of your operating system.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Atheros Hardware
|
|
================
|
|
There are currently 3 generations of Atheros 802.11 wireless devices:
|
|
|
|
5210 supports 11a only
|
|
5211 supports both 11a and 11b
|
|
5212 supports 11a, 11b, and 11g
|
|
|
|
These parts have been incorporated in a variety of retail products
|
|
including cardbus cards from DLink, Linksys, Netgear, and Proxim; and
|
|
mini-pci cards from some of these same vendors. In addition many
|
|
laptop vendors use Atheros mini-pci cards for their builtin wireless
|
|
support. An (incomplete) list of products that use Atheros parts is:
|
|
|
|
Netgear WAG511 D-Link DWL-AG520 Linksys WPC55AG
|
|
Netgear WAB501 D-Link DWL-AG650 Linksys WMP55AG
|
|
D-Link DWL-AB650 Linksys WPC51AB
|
|
|
|
In general, if a device is identified as ``11a only'' it is almost
|
|
certain to contain an Atheros 5210 part in it. All retail a+b
|
|
products use the 5211. The latest generation of universal a+b+g
|
|
combo products use the 5212. When in doubt check the PCI vendor
|
|
id with a tool like lspci, the Atheros vendor id is 0x168c; e.g.
|
|
|
|
00:13.0 Ethernet controller: Unknown device 168c:0012 (rev 01)
|