BNX(4)

📦
version 11.0 · 2 versions
, in nixpkgs unstable

💖 BNX(4) — the Broadcom NetXtreme II glow-up 💖

okay so real talk, this is the bnx page from the Kernel Interfaces Manual and it's literally all about the Broadcom NetXtreme II 10/100/1000 Ethernet device. bestie, if you have one of these NICs and you're wondering what it can do, buckle up 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

bnx — Broadcom NetXtreme II 10/100/1000 Ethernet device. that's it, that's the vibe. 🌸

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

bnx* at pci?
brgphy* at mii?

the way that this just... attaches at pci? and the PHY hangs out at mii?. iconic. no cap. 💅

👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

okay so the bnx driver is the main character for Broadcom's NetXtreme II product family — think the BCM5706 PCI-X and BCM5708-BCM5709-BCM5716 PCIe Ethernet controllers. and the roster? it's giving extensive. the following are on the list:

  • Dell PowerEdge 1950 integrated BCM5708 NIC (10/100/1000baseT)
  • Dell PowerEdge 2950 integrated BCM5708 NIC (10/100/1000baseT)
  • Dell PowerEdge M710 integrated BCM5709S NIC (1000baseSX)
  • Dell PowerEdge R710 integrated BCM5709 NIC
  • HP NC370F PCI-X Multifunction Gigabit server adapter (1000baseSX)
  • HP NC370T PCI-X Multifunction Gigabit server adapter (10/100/1000baseT)
  • HP NC370i Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter
  • HP NC371i Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter
  • HP NC373F PCIe Multifunction Gigabit server adapter (1000baseSX)
  • HP NC373T PCIe Multifunction Gigabit server adapter (10/100/1000baseT)
  • HP NC373i PCIe Multifunction Gigabit embedded server adapter (10/100/1000baseT)
  • HP NC373m Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter
  • HP NC374m PCIe Multifunction Gigabit embedded server adapter (10/100/1000baseT)
  • HP NC380T PCIe Dual Port Multifunction Gigabit server adapter (10/100/1000baseT)
  • HP NC382T PCIe Dual Port server adapter (10/100/1000baseT)
  • HP NC382i DP Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter
  • HP NC382m DP 1GbE Multifunction BL-c Adapter
  • IBM xSeries 3550 integrated BCM5708 NIC (10/100/1000baseT)
  • IBM xSeries 3650 integrated BCM5708 NIC (10/100/1000baseT)

like, the whole lineup ate. 🔥

🫶 the whole CNIC situation 🫶

so the NetXtreme II family is composed of various Converged NIC (or CNIC) Ethernet controllers, and these bad boys support a TCP Offload Engine (TOE), Remote DMA (RDMA), and iSCSI acceleration — in addition to standard L2 Ethernet traffic, all on the same controller. multitasking queen behavior, honestly.

the following features are supported in the bnx driver under NetBSD:

  • IPv4 receive IP/TCP/UDP checksum offload
  • Jumbo frames (up to 9022 bytes)
  • VLAN tag insertion
  • Interrupt coalescing
  • 10/100/1000Mbps operation in full-duplex mode
  • 10/100Mbps operation in half-duplex mode

lowkey a stacked feature list ngl 😭✨

💜 media types (the vibe check) 💜

the bnx driver supports the following media types:

  • autoselect — enable autoselection of the media type and options. the user can manually override the autoselected mode via ifconfig(8). she's flexible like that 💅
  • 10baseT/UTP — set 10Mbps operation. the ifconfig(8) mediaopt option can also be used to select either full-duplex or half-duplex modes.
  • 100baseTX — set 100Mbps (Fast Ethernet) operation. the ifconfig(8) mediaopt option can also be used to select either full-duplex or half-duplex modes.
  • 1000baseTX — set 1000baseTX operation over twisted pair. Only full-duplex mode is supported. periodt.
  • 1000baseSX — set 1000Mbps (Gigabit Ethernet) operation. Both full-duplex and half-duplex modes are supported.
  • 2500baseSX — set 2500Mbps operation. Only full-duplex mode is supported. again, no half-duplex shenanigans here.

🎀 media options 🎀

the bnx driver supports the following media options:

  • full-duplex — force full duplex operation.
  • half-duplex — force half duplex operation.

for more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8). she's the whole control panel fr fr.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

arp(4), brgphy(4), ifmedia(4), intro(4), mii(4), netintro(4), pci(4), ifconfig(8)

go read them, they're all besties 🫶

⭐ HISTORY ⭐

okay the lore is actually so cute. the bnx driver was written by David Christensen <davidch@broadcom.com> in FreeBSD, where it is called bce. and it's ported to OpenBSD by Brad Smith <brad@openbsd.org>. it's ported to NetBSD by Quentin Garnier. and the bnx device driver first appeared in NetBSD 4.0. glow-up complete 💖

ngl this whole page is giving "reliable workhorse with main character energy" and i'm obsessed 🧚

and that's the tea, bestie — this page came from the Debian crew, dated March 27, 2019, and it's filed under BNX(4). slay 💅✨🍓

📦 where this page comes from