[ECOS] Re: RedBoot "set MAC address" API?

[Grant Edwards <grante at visi dot com>]

In gmane.os.ecos.general, you wrote:

>> I've never seen an Ethernet chip with a non-volatile MAC.
>
> Many MACs have an interface for a serial EEPROM from which they fetch
> the MAC address and other initialization data automatically on
> reset. The manufacturer usually installs the MAC address. Admittedly
> this is more common for PCI MAC cards that in embedded devices, but
> I've seen it on development boards too.

That's often how it's done on things like PCI and development
boards, but I've never seen it done that way on a "real"
embedded product.  Maybe we've always been to cheap to spring
for a separate config ROM for the Ethernet MAC.

> In general the MAC address is stored in the fconfig data. All
> drivers that need to set the MAC address contain code to query
> the flash and fetch the MAC address from there, or call a
> platform-specific function than may do that. They usually also
> have a fallback to a compiled-in MAC address.

Except for the drivers I've used, apparently.  Is there any
documentation available on how fconfig data is formatted/used?

Better yet, is any of the documentation available in a
searchible format (e.g a pdf file or a single html page)?
Searching for info in documents formatted 
one-paragraph-per-web-page is hopeless.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  I OWN six pink
                                  at               HIPPOS!!
                               visi.com            

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