> > MAC is the media access controller. Its sort of a > logical networking > layer. For example, all ethernet devices use the > same MAC protocols, so > its common to use a single MAC device. On a NIC, > this is usually the > main brains of the device. > > The PHY is the physical layer part -- the part that > does the actual > electrical or optical signaling, such as the > transceiver. > > It is not uncommon to have a single MAC controller > that can have > alternate PHYs, e.g. variants for optical or copper > signaling might use > the same MAC, but different PHYs.
allright, so basically these two pieces of silicon correspond more or less to the 2 bottom layers of the ISO networking model. And the PHY sholud be outside of Software Control ? or does it need to be initialised/booted up with some sort of parameter string ? ( Im just trying to understand the challanges of getting a specific set of hardware to play ) //Lars This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ networking-discuss mailing list [email protected]
