Packet Engines GNIC-II "Hamachi" Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
This page contains information on using the Packet Engines "Hamachi" GNIC-II Gigabit Ethernet adapter with Linux. The master copy resides on the Scyld Computing Corporation server.
Driver Availability
The driver for the Packet Engines "Hamachi" GNIC-II adapter is available from this web page. It is designed for kernel versions 2.0.* through 2.3.21 on all Linux architectures.
To install this driver follow the directions on the loadable modules instructions page.
This driver is maintained in support of the Beowulf cluster project by Scyld.
Tuning Driver Parameters
In general, little tuning should be needed for typical use. However gigabit adapter are usually used for their high performance, so even mundane usage might justify some performance tuning.
It may be useful to disable the interrupt mitigation hardware to accurate and repeatable network latency measurements. The following are the field definitions for the TxIntrCtrl and RxIntrCtrl registers which control this feature.
| Bitmask | Bitfield | Field Name | Description |
| 0x01000000 | 24 | Res | When set the packet count (see next) is scaled by 8. |
| 0x00FF0000 | 23:16 | MinPkt | Don't interrupt until this many packets have been sent/received. |
| 0x0000FF00 | 15:08 | MaxIPG | Don't interrupt until this many 8.192usec ticks have passed since the last packet. |
| 0x000000FF | 07:00 | MaxLat | Don't interrupt until this many 8.192usec ticks have passed since the last interrupt. |
A setting of zero disables the field.
Known Errata
- The UDP/TCP/IP partial-checksum hardware is not utilized.
- The link beat detection code is horribly verbose if the cable is disconnected.
Support
Mailing lists
Support for the Hamachi driver is handled through the Yellowfin (the name for the original GNIC) mailing lists until the Hamachi-specific traffic warrents a list of its own.See http://www.scyld.com/mailman/listinfo for the driver support mailing lists information.
Thanks...
Thanks to the former team at Packet Engines, especially Kim Stearns, for providing development Yellowfin and Hamachi cards.
Contact:Donald Becker, becker@scyld.com.
Linux Network Drivers Page
SCYLD information.
Author: Donald Becker
See the drivers for the contact email address. Do not bother sending email to zinc.anode@scyld.com, as email to that address adds your domain or IP address to the known-spammer list.