The Apricot XEN-PC and add-in LAN Adapter Cards

The new XEN-PC has no motherboard based on-board Ethernet adapter, and so to connect it to a network, an add-in LAN adapter will be needed. The Technical Support Group at Apricot have tested the following LAN Adapter cards in a XEN-PC, and would recommend their use where an add-in LAN Adapter is required. If a LAN card is to be used in a XEN-PC that is not on this list, its functionality should be verified (using the general notes below) before final installation. If assistance is required, the card should be sent to the Technical Support Group at Apricot for testing and verification.

General Notes:

The XEN-PC used was configured as a default machine; no options had been disabled in SETUP. This means that the CD-ROM interface was holding IRQ 5 and base I/O address 320h, COM2 was sharing IRQ 3, and so on. Most of the devices holding resources (such as the COM ports) can have their interrupt used so long as the device itself is not active (so IRQ 3 will be safe unless you actually want to use COM2), but the resources held by the CD-ROM interface cannot be used unless the interface is disabled in SETUP.

Both the SMC and Western Digital cards tested could not be used when configured to Base I/O 280h. Other cards that had that setting as a valid choice could however use Base I/O 280h.

Regardless of what is disabled in SETUP and what LAN adapter is used, you cannot use IRQ 6 (floppy disk), or any shared RAM address between C000h and C7FFh (Setup).

The cards tested by the Technical Support Group at the time of writing are as follows.....

3Com 3C503 (EtherLink II)
3Com 3C509 (EtherLink III)
IBM Token Ring 16/4Mb/s
Intel EtherExpress 16
Novell-Anthem NE1000
Novell-Anthem NE2000
SMC EtherCard Plus Elite 16 Combo
SMC TokenCard Elite
Western Digital WD8003E
Western Digital WD8003EB (EtherCard Plus)
Western Digital WD8013W (UTP)

What follows are specific configuration notes for the cards tested.

3Com 3C503 EtherLink II LAN Adapter

With a default XEN-PC configuration (CD-ROM enabled), all configurations tested worked, except those that used IRQ 5. The 3C503 cards come shipped with the Base I/O address jumper set to 300.

Note that the diagnostics supplied with the card will fail, as they will be unable to access a free DMA channel, unless the floppy disk interface is disabled in SETUP (freeing up DMA channel 2). DMA channels 1 and 3 cannot be correctly disabled.

3Com 3C509 EtherLink III LAN Adapter

This is a software configured card. The configuration utility supplied with the card will place the card on Base I/O 300h and IRQ 10 if told to auto-configure the card. This setting will work quite happily in the XEN-PC. If you wish to change this, remember that as with all the other cards, settings that use Base I/O 320h and IRQ 5 or IRQ 6 (assuming a XEN-PC with a default SETUP configuration with CD-ROM enabled) should be avoided.

IBM Token Ring 16/4Mb/s Adapter

The IBM Token Ring 16/4 Adapter can be configured to use any of the available settings except those that use IRQ 6 (floppy disk controller) and/or Base Memory between C000h and C7FFh (video BIOS). None of the available settings clash with the CD-ROM interface, so there is no need to consider disabling it if using an IBM Token Ring 16/4 Adapter.

Intel EtherExpress 16 LAN Adapter

The Intel EtherExpress 16 card is a software configured card that defaults to using Base I/O address 300h and IRQ 10. Once the card is installed in the XEN-PC, any configuration can be used (by running the Intel SOFTSET utility) so long as Base I/O 320h and IRQ 5 (assuming the CD-ROM interface is enabled) and IRQ 6 are avoided.

Novell-Anthem NE1000 8 bit LAN Adapter

With the CD-ROM interface enabled, this card can only be used in 7 configurations; all other available options are invalid because of IRQ or Base I/O clashes. Disabling the CD-ROM Interface in SETUP will free up the remaining configuration options. Below are the configuration options available with the CD-ROM interface enabled.

IRQ	Base I/O
2	300
2	340
3	300	(disable COM2 to avoid potential clashes)
3	360	(disable COM2 to avoid potential clashes)
4	300	(disable COM1 to avoid potential clashes)
4	340	(disable COM1 to avoid potential clashes)
4	360	(disable COM1 to avoid potential clashes)

Novell-Anthem NE2000 16 bit LAN Adapter

As with the Novell-Anthem NE1000, this card can only be used in 7 configurations with the CD-ROM interface enabled; all other available options are invalid because of IRQ or Base I/O clashes. Disabling the CD-ROM Interface in SETUP will free up the remaining configuration options. Below are the configuration options available with the CD-ROM interface enabled.

IRQ	Base I/O
2	300
2	340
3	300	(disable COM2 to avoid potential clashes)
3	360	(disable COM2 to avoid potential clashes)
4	300	(disable COM1 to avoid potential clashes)
4	340	(disable COM1 to avoid potential clashes)
4	360	(disable COM1 to avoid potential clashes)

SMC EtherCard Plus Elite 16 Combo LAN Adapter

This card worked in all available configurations, except those that used IRQ 5 (because of the CD-ROM interface), Base I/O 320h (because of the CD-ROM interface), or Base I/O 280h. If the card is on Base I/O 280h, the system will hang as soon as the card is addressed (either by a network driver, or the card setup utility (EZSETUP)). Of the three jumper configurations, do NOT use the 280,3,D0000 setting, as this will cause the system to hang as soon as the card is addressed (as this setting uses Base I/O address 280h).

If you wish to use the soft configured option, the card should first be set using jumper W1 set to the 300,10,CC000 position, and then EZSETUP should be used to select the appropriate software configuration (avoiding Base I/O 280h or 320h, and IRQ 5 or 6). Jumper W1 should then be returned to the soft option.

Note: Do not use a shared RAM address below C800h with this card.

SMC TokenCard Elite LAN Adapter

This card worked in all available configurations, except those that used IRQ 5 (because of the CD-ROM interface), Base I/O 320h (because of the CD-ROM interface), or Base I/O 280h. If the card is on Base I/O 280h, the system will hang as soon as the card is addressed (either by a network driver, or the card setup utility (TRSETUP)). Of the three jumper configurations, do NOT use the 280,3,D0000 setting, as this will cause the system to hang as soon as the card is addressed (as this setting uses Base I/O address 280h).

If you wish to use the soft configured option, the card should first be set using jumper W1 set to the 300,10,CC000 position, and then TRSETUP should be used to select the appropriate software configuration (avoiding Base I/O 280h or 320h, and IRQ 5 or 6). Jumper W1 should then be returned to the soft option.

Note: Do not use a shared RAM address below C800h with this card.

Western Digital WD8003E, WD8003EB and WD8013W LAN Adapters

All these cards worked in all available configurations, except those that used IRQ 5 (because of the CD-ROM interface), Base I/O 320h (because of the CD-ROM interface), IRQ 6 (the floppy disk interface) or Base I/O 280h. If the card is on Base I/O 280h, the system will hang as soon as the card is addressed (either by a network driver, or the card setup utility used (EZSETUP) on the software configured cards).

When using a software configured card, if the soft configured option is needed, you will need to use SETUP on the XEN-PC to disable the CD-ROM interface, set the card to 300,5,CA000 using jumper block W1, use the Western Digital EZSETUP program to select the appropriate soft configuration (avoiding Base I/O 320 and 280, and/or IRQ 5 and 6). You should then set jumper W1 to the soft option, and re-enable the CD-ROM interface in SETUP on the XEN-PC.

Note: Do not use a shared RAM address below C800h with these cards.

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