LINUX Driver and Library for Tormenta / Zapata
The Linux Driver and Library now contain support for the following:
User-scalable buffer pool management.
Standard tones, such as ringing, busy, DTMF, etc., generated within the kernel.
Echo canceller (on a per-channel basis).
Clear-channel (data) features, including multiple-channel interfaces
(multiples of 64K), HDLC transmission and reception (also usable for an ISDN D-channel), and integration into Linux networking (it creates Linux network devices, such as hdlc0, if desired).Non-blocking I/O.
Improved driver configuration script/interface.
Central Office quality (or better) DTMF decoder (per-channel).
Ability to use IDE UDMA hard drive, instead of expensive SCSI.
System requirements:
LINUX with the 2.4 kernel with Alan Cox patches (2.2 is okay if data modes/Tormenta networking not necessary), Pentium III (or equiv.) at 700 MHz, Motherboard with Intel Chipset, such as 440BX, and PIIX4 IDE controller, 64MB Ram, UDMA 66 IDE hard drive, non 3com PCI Ethernet card.
Also, at system startup, hdparm must be run with the -c1 -d1 -u1 flags. This enables 32 bit I/O, DMA, and the unmaskinterrupt flag. This allows the IDE driver not to interfere with the tormenta driver.
As it has been pointed out more then once, it can be very helpful, if not crucial to pet your penguin during installation of Linux, and any of its drivers, programs, etc. If you do not have a penguin, we highly recommend obtaining one from the Linux Mall.
What to stay away from:
Most VIA chipsets. There has been some VERY limited success with VIA chipsets (on an AMD processor), but for the most part, not.
3com Ethernet cards. There is some sort of problem with (we are assuming) the driver for the 3com Ethernet cards, which causes data corruption.
Driver status:
It is still in "alpha" status, because we are waiting for the author of the new DTMF routines to fix some problems. Other then that, the driver is quite well-tested and works very well.
Known "happy" hardware configuration:
For whatever its worth, we have had GREAT success with the following hardware configuration:
ASUS CUBX-E Motherboard
Intel Pentium 3 800EB (800/133) Flip-Chip Processor
64 MB Ram or larger (Definitely should use ECC)
IBM 30GB (or larger) 7200RPM UATA-100 hard drive
Intel Pro-100+ LAN card
Random Poo-poo cheap AGP video card