4 ms·

Seeing the mention of the 3C501 made me dig up old Linux source to find the amusing comments in "drivers/net/3c501.c": Do not purchase this card, even as a jok

Seeing the mention of the 3C501 made me dig up old Linux source to find the amusing comments in "drivers/net/3c501.c": Do not purchase this card, even as a joke. It's performance is horrible, and it breaks in many ways. ... The driver is less efficient than it could be. It switches through receive mode even if more transmits are queued. If this worries you buy a real ethernet card. ... The driver still allows only the default address for cards when loaded as a module, but that's really less braindead than anyone using a 3c501 board. :)

IgorPartola 6y ago
Wow this is from a different era. I haven’t heard developers speak that candidly or passionately since my coworkers and I had to deal with writing CSS for IE6.
- WalterGR 6y ago
  Really? I see it every day here on HN.
- boring_twenties 6y ago
  Back in the 90's I had a Linux kernel panic with the message "fucking Sun blows me," with no further explanation. As in, this was actually printed to the console.
  - EvanAnderson 6y ago
    Looks like that was in the UFS driver: http://www.anvari.org/fortune/Kernel_Cookies/page-5.html http://www.anvari.org/fortune/Kernel_Cookies/page-5.html
- laurent92 6y ago
  It also means they had no version control, therefore no fear of being caught. Probably programmed in Windows folders ;) Nowadays each dev will find your name for 10 years. By the way, does the GDPR require blanking the names of ex-employees in the Git history???
  - d110af5ccf 6y ago
    > does the GDPR require blanking the names of ex-employees in the Git history I very much doubt the GDPR overrides the irrevocable license to redistribute (GPL in this case) that each developer is granting through the act of publishing their code. My understanding is that it regulates all the unpublished, ostensibly private information that the companies you do business with collect about you. Put another way, wouldn't it be a bit ridiculous if the author of a book demanded that their name be removed from the work years after publishing it? What are libraries supposed to do, dig out all their copies and scribble over the name?
eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 6y ago
What's the component close to the center of the 3C501? https://www.os2museum.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/P1171084.jpg https://www.os2museum.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/P117... It looks like a camera but it surely isn't, so what is it?
- nominatronic 6y ago
  It's a transformer - I'm guessing it's the magnetics for the 10base2 port. You can see the two pairs of enamel wires coming out on each side the sides. There are two windings, both wound on a core spool with its axis perpendicular to the board. What you're seeing looking like the lens of a camera is a hole in the middle of the spool, presumably used during manufacture to hold it while winding.
- logbiscuitswave 6y ago
  Some sort of transformer coil. You can see a similar component on the 3C503 board but it looks less like a camera.
- Stratoscope 6y ago
  In case anyone gets a hot linking error 1101: https://web.archive.org/web/20201026081303/https://www.os2museum.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/P1171084.jpg https://web.archive.org/web/20201026081303/https://www.os2mu...
- masswerk 6y ago
  With a look at the data sheet [1], it seems to be a transformer used for signal and power isolation: > The CTI provides all the MAU (transceiver) functions except for signal and power isolation. Signal isolation can easily be provided by a set of three pulse transformers that come in a single Dual-in-Line package. These are available from transformer vendors such as Pulse Engineering (PE64103) and Valor (LTll0l). However, for the power isolation a DC to DC converter is required. The data sheet provides several sample implementations using a PE64018, PE64103, PICO 33223, or PICO 33143 for this. [1] http://www.bitsavers.org/components/national/_dataBooks/1988_National_Data_Communications_Local_Area_Networks_UARTs_Handbook.pdf#page=134&zoom=auto,-207,651 http://www.bitsavers.org/components/national/_dataBooks/1988...
nominatronic 6y ago
Circa the late 1990s, there used to be not just this shade in the source, but a message that would be printed in the logs if a 3c501 were used. It read something like: "Detected 3Com 3c501 (THROW IT AWAY!!!)"
- rincebrain 6y ago
  A choice quote from the 1.1.0 source: "%s: 3c501 EtherLink at %#x, using %sIRQ %d, melting ethernet.\n" which is the most deprecating thing I can see the 3c501 driver code printing, in quickly skimming through old versions of the right age (it seems to have been mostly unchanged for large swathes of time). (I went skimming for this message out of morbid curiosity, and couldn't find it. But I did only specifically look in the 3c501 source, so maybe it was a closely related card doing it, or a not-in-kernel version of the driver?)
jabl 6y ago
AFAIU 3com turned it around later, with their 100base-t card (3c95x??) generally being well regarded. Back as a student when I moved into the dorms which had 100base-T, I did some googling (or maybe it was altavista'ing in those days, I can't remember) and it seemed the best regarded 100base-t cards for Linux were the Intel one and the 3com one. The 3com one was slightly cheaper at the local computer shop, so I got one of those. (Somewhat later on there was a flood of very cheap DEC Tulip clones, and I got one of those too. Was happy with that one as well.)
- EvanAnderson 6y ago
  The heady days of the late 90's, when the 3C595 (code name "vortex"), 3C905 (with "Parallel Tasking"!), and the Intel 82557/82558-based NICs (like the PRO/100B with its distinctive odd circuit board shape[1]) reigned supreme! Those were fun times. I put out a number of Red Hat 6.2-based servers w/ the Intel NICs, got hit with the dreaded eepro100 "receiver lock-up" bug, and had to end up putting in 3C905 NICs in their place to get stable network connectivity. Good times. >smile< [1] https://universaldatasystems.org/shop/product/intel-pro-100b-10-100-pci-fast-ethernet/ https://universaldatasystems.org/shop/product/intel-pro-100b...
- nikau 6y ago
  At my first job there was a box of about 50 expensive 3com network cards which seemed odd, I asked what the deal was and they were faulty and the firm had been sent a bunch of replacements. I did some testing on them and it turned out they sent an interrupt signal on every IRQ regardless of what IRQ you configured in the setup utility which caused windows to lock up. I took them home and drilled through the traces to the unwanted IRQs on the ISA slot and gifted them out at lan parties.

IgorPartola 6y ago

Wow this is from a different era. I haven’t heard developers speak that candidly or passionately since my coworkers and I had to deal with writing CSS for IE6.

WalterGR 6y ago
Really? I see it every day here on HN.
boring_twenties 6y ago
Back in the 90's I had a Linux kernel panic with the message "fucking Sun blows me," with no further explanation. As in, this was actually printed to the console.
- EvanAnderson 6y ago
  Looks like that was in the UFS driver: http://www.anvari.org/fortune/Kernel_Cookies/page-5.html http://www.anvari.org/fortune/Kernel_Cookies/page-5.html
laurent92 6y ago
It also means they had no version control, therefore no fear of being caught. Probably programmed in Windows folders ;) Nowadays each dev will find your name for 10 years. By the way, does the GDPR require blanking the names of ex-employees in the Git history???
- d110af5ccf 6y ago
  > does the GDPR require blanking the names of ex-employees in the Git history I very much doubt the GDPR overrides the irrevocable license to redistribute (GPL in this case) that each developer is granting through the act of publishing their code. My understanding is that it regulates all the unpublished, ostensibly private information that the companies you do business with collect about you. Put another way, wouldn't it be a bit ridiculous if the author of a book demanded that their name be removed from the work years after publishing it? What are libraries supposed to do, dig out all their copies and scribble over the name?

eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 6y ago

What's the component close to the center of the 3C501? https://www.os2museum.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/P1171084.jpg https://www.os2museum.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/P117... It looks like a camera but it surely isn't, so what is it?

nominatronic 6y ago
It's a transformer - I'm guessing it's the magnetics for the 10base2 port. You can see the two pairs of enamel wires coming out on each side the sides. There are two windings, both wound on a core spool with its axis perpendicular to the board. What you're seeing looking like the lens of a camera is a hole in the middle of the spool, presumably used during manufacture to hold it while winding.
logbiscuitswave 6y ago
Some sort of transformer coil. You can see a similar component on the 3C503 board but it looks less like a camera.
Stratoscope 6y ago
In case anyone gets a hot linking error 1101: https://web.archive.org/web/20201026081303/https://www.os2museum.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/P1171084.jpg https://web.archive.org/web/20201026081303/https://www.os2mu...
masswerk 6y ago
With a look at the data sheet [1], it seems to be a transformer used for signal and power isolation: > The CTI provides all the MAU (transceiver) functions except for signal and power isolation. Signal isolation can easily be provided by a set of three pulse transformers that come in a single Dual-in-Line package. These are available from transformer vendors such as Pulse Engineering (PE64103) and Valor (LTll0l). However, for the power isolation a DC to DC converter is required. The data sheet provides several sample implementations using a PE64018, PE64103, PICO 33223, or PICO 33143 for this. [1] http://www.bitsavers.org/components/national/_dataBooks/1988_National_Data_Communications_Local_Area_Networks_UARTs_Handbook.pdf#page=134&zoom=auto,-207,651 http://www.bitsavers.org/components/national/_dataBooks/1988...

nominatronic 6y ago

Circa the late 1990s, there used to be not just this shade in the source, but a message that would be printed in the logs if a 3c501 were used. It read something like: "Detected 3Com 3c501 (THROW IT AWAY!!!)"

rincebrain 6y ago
A choice quote from the 1.1.0 source: "%s: 3c501 EtherLink at %#x, using %sIRQ %d, melting ethernet.\n" which is the most deprecating thing I can see the 3c501 driver code printing, in quickly skimming through old versions of the right age (it seems to have been mostly unchanged for large swathes of time). (I went skimming for this message out of morbid curiosity, and couldn't find it. But I did only specifically look in the 3c501 source, so maybe it was a closely related card doing it, or a not-in-kernel version of the driver?)

jabl 6y ago

AFAIU 3com turned it around later, with their 100base-t card (3c95x??) generally being well regarded. Back as a student when I moved into the dorms which had 100base-T, I did some googling (or maybe it was altavista'ing in those days, I can't remember) and it seemed the best regarded 100base-t cards for Linux were the Intel one and the 3com one. The 3com one was slightly cheaper at the local computer shop, so I got one of those. (Somewhat later on there was a flood of very cheap DEC Tulip clones, and I got one of those too. Was happy with that one as well.)

EvanAnderson 6y ago
The heady days of the late 90's, when the 3C595 (code name "vortex"), 3C905 (with "Parallel Tasking"!), and the Intel 82557/82558-based NICs (like the PRO/100B with its distinctive odd circuit board shape[1]) reigned supreme! Those were fun times. I put out a number of Red Hat 6.2-based servers w/ the Intel NICs, got hit with the dreaded eepro100 "receiver lock-up" bug, and had to end up putting in 3C905 NICs in their place to get stable network connectivity. Good times. >smile< [1] https://universaldatasystems.org/shop/product/intel-pro-100b-10-100-pci-fast-ethernet/ https://universaldatasystems.org/shop/product/intel-pro-100b...
nikau 6y ago
At my first job there was a box of about 50 expensive 3com network cards which seemed odd, I asked what the deal was and they were faulty and the firm had been sent a bunch of replacements. I did some testing on them and it turned out they sent an interrupt signal on every IRQ regardless of what IRQ you configured in the setup utility which caused windows to lock up. I took them home and drilled through the traces to the unwanted IRQs on the ISA slot and gifted them out at lan parties.