On Mon, 14 Aug 1995 15:43:23 +0200 (MET DST) 
 Heiko "W." Rupp <hwr@xlink.net> wrote:

 > I would like to know if there are any plans for some exotic (?!) hardware
 > for NetBSD/i386 e.g. ATM or FDDI boards? 

Well, drivers for this kind of hardware are certainly easier to write if 
one can get documents for the hardware ... So far, the ATM vendors that 
I've talked to (that have EISA cards ... I haven't approached PCI ATM 
cards yet) are only willing to provide documentation under NDA.

I've investigated the possibility using a PCI serial HiPPI card under 
NetBSD/i386 and NetBSD/alpha ... But, again, there's a NDA issue, and 
wether or not any driver developed for this particular card can be shared 
with others depends on our being able to work something out with the 
vendor.

IMHO, `exotic' hardware vendors need to get it though their heads that 
it's just plain stupid to withold information regarding how to talk to 
the hardware.  (It's not like that kind of info is really enough for 
someone else to exactly duplicate the design...)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jason R. Thorpe                                       thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
NASA Ames Research Center                               Home: 408.866.1912
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