[tulip] Tulip or Realtek driver for Accton EN1207D-TX ??

[a@superbruger.dk]

Seemingly, Accton has changed the chip on their adapter to a Realtek 8139
clone, while the product name remains unchanged. I have bought and returned
a few Accton EN1207D-TX cards when I discovered that they contained a chip
called MPX EN5038A and not DEC 21x4x . Expecting that this might be a DEC
compatible chip, I downloaded a driver from www.accton.com.tw. Thedriver
 is called en1207.c and is contained in a zip file ( 1207dlinux.zip ). 

The source code file reveals the following:  

/* rtl8139.c: A RealTek RTL8129/8139 Fast Ethernet driver for Linux. */
/*
	Written 1997-1998 by Donald Becker.

	This software may be used and distributed according to the terms
	of the GNU Public License, incorporated herein by reference.
    All other rights reserved.

	This driver is for boards based on the RTL8129 and RTL8139 PCI ethernet

	chips.

	The author may be reached as becker@CESDIS.gsfc.nasa.gov, or C/O
	Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences
	   Code 930.5, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt MD 20771

	Support and updates available at
	http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/rtl8139.html

	Twister-tuning code contributed by Kinston <shangh@realtek.com.tw>.
*/

static const char *version =
"rtl8139.c:v0.99B 4/7/98 Donald Becker http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/rtl8139.html\n";


.... 


Well, I sure don't know much about drivers, but this is NOT a tulip driver.
I think it is a customized Realtek driver, and hence I conclude that the
Accton EN1207 network adapter contains a rtl 8139 compatible chip. 

I assume that a rtl8139 driver can not be used with a DEC 21x4x based network
adapter, with or without customization. 

So I arrest my case, concluding that Accton has abandoned the DEC 21x4x and
is now using a Realtek 8139 clone on this adapter. 

This is problematic, since all Linux documentation states that this net.
adapter should use a tulip driver. 
If my conclusions are correct, the documentation should be corrected as soon
as possible. 

All my net. adapters are based on Realtek chips and I have stuck to that
until I experienced problems that may be due to the fact that the rtl8139
driver is not yet stable. Therefore I need a net. adapter with a stable driver
such as tulip or x4x5 (are they really stable ? ) . 

   :->        
Why buy Realtek whel you can buy a clone for twice the price !   
   :-> 

Using this information, the staff at the local computerstore has decided
that there is no reason to sell an 
Accton adapter that is basically a 8139 clone, when they also can sell a
8139 based no_name adapter at half the price. 

Then my question to you folks at the Tulip mailing list: 
Is there an affordable 10/100 Mbit (no Intel no 3Com) network adapter, which
has a STABLE driver for Linux. 


Sincerely, Anna Amandsen,  Denmark.