LinuxLibre:ATM FORE200E

thumb|right| ATM FORE 200E

Reference at LinuxLibre log

ATM_FORE200E - FORE Systems 200E-series
drivers/atm/fore200e.c: disabled non-Free firmware-loading machinery
drivers/atm/fore200e.c: removed blobs
Documentation/networking/fore200e.txt: removed blobs
drivers/atm/.gitignore: removed blobs
Documentation/dontdiff: removed blobs

What is the purpose of the device?

ATM Network card (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_Transfer_Mode)

 ForeRunner PCA-200E is a 32-bit, 155 Mbps PCI-based adapter familiy
 includings boards supporting multimode (both ST and SC connector) 
 and single mode fiber as well ass UTP 5 cabling with RJ 45 connector.

 Features include:

 * support of UNI 3.0, UNI 3.1, LANE 1.0, RFC 1577 and ILMI.
 * On board 25 MHz i960 cell processor
 * Enhanced SAR Processor (ESP) ASIC
 * Special-purpose hardware for AAL5 and AAL3/4, HEC, and CRC calculations
 * Supports Available Bit Rate (ABR) with ForeThought software
 * ATM cell processing per ANSI T1S1.5/92-002R3, ITU I.361, ATM Forum UNI v3.0 specification 

source: http://www.chipweb.de/atm/index.php?menu=2&id2=34

Who needs it?

(which computer models use this device or which niche users usually buy such peripherals?)

How critical it is to get free support for it?

(Is it a very popular device that requires us to prioritize efforts?)

What is(are) the processor architecture(s) of this device?

• on-board 25MHz i960 Intel RISC processor

 The PCA 200E cards have a good level of signalling performance because
 they have an on-board 25MHz i960 Intel RISC processor performing cell 
 processing using buffer rings in the same manner as an Ethernet controller. 

source: http://www.sfr-fresh.com/linux/misc/openss7-0.9.2.G.tar.gz:a/openss7-0.9.2.G/strss7-0.9a.8/doc/projects/cnam.html

Who is working on a free firmware implementation?

Nobody.

Links to online documentation

(i.e. datasheets, developer's guides, official or non-official specifications, etc)

Where are the non-free firmware images made available?

This section includes links to non-free firmware with the purpose of fostering the development of a fully free firmware for this device. Please, do not use these non-free firmwares if you are not developing a free replacement for it.

"The Free Software Foundation follows the rule that we cannot install any proprietary program on our computers except temporarily for the specific purpose of writing a free replacement for that very program. Aside from that, we feel there is no possible excuse for installing a proprietary program." [1]

• http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/pca200e/pca200e.bin (old firmware version)
• http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/pca200e/pca200e-0.3.tar.gz

What makes them non-free?

Source code is not available.

What else do we know about this device?

(any further info that might help the creation of free firmware for it)

• Free driver webpage
• For sale at [2] (US$ 34.79)

Following are the features of the PCA 200E cards:

    * 155 MHz ATM, ST/SC SM/MM and RJ-45 UTP 5
    * AAL1, AAL2, AAL3 and AAL5 modes.
    * Integrated 25 MHz i960 RISC cell processor.
    * Enhance SAR Processor (ESP) ASIC
    * Special-purpose hardware for AAL5 and AAL3/4, HEC, and CRC calculations.
    * Dual-ported RAM and Buffer Ring technique similar to Ethernet Controller.
    * Serial communications emulation.
    * Supports ABR
    * ATM cell processing per ANSI T1S1.5/92-002R3, ITU I.361, ATM Form UNI v3.0, 3.1, 4.0 

Advantages

Following are the advantages of the PCA 200E cards:

    * Inexpensive (about $200 a card).
    * Supports MTP3b.
    * Can support 3GPP UMTS Iu User and Control Plane over PVCs. 

Disadvantages

Following are the disadvantages of the PCA 200E cards:

    * Does not support traditional SS7 links.
    * Requires external ATM switch or point-to-point ATM connection. 

source: http://www.sfr-fresh.com/linux/misc/openss7-0.9.2.G.tar.gz:a/openss7-0.9.2.G/strss7-0.9a.8/doc/projects/cnam.html

• Info about ATM SAR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segmentation_and_Reassembly
• http://sourceforge.net/projects/sarlib/ ATM SAR Library under GPL