RE: [ECOS] Re: eCos Wifi/WPA support

["Chris Zimman" <czimman at bloomberg dot com>]

> Sorry to be dense, but I don't understand what you mean by
> "provide the MAC level interface in software".  Does that mean
> that the Wifi chipset basically replaces the PHY and you have
> to do the equivalent of what a MAC does in software? Do you
> mean that you have to handle the incoming/outgoing data in
> real-time a nibble at a time rather than a frame at a time?

I mean the 802.11 framework.  Take a look at drivers/net/wireless and
net/mac80211 
in the Linux kernel to get an idea of what you'd be looking at.
 
> I think we can assume that the interface spec for the Wifi chip
> would be available from the manufacturer.  I can't imagine a
> vendor expecting to get a design win without providing specs
> for the part in question.

For a lot of them they're not.  The big design wins are for Windows, not for
eCos.  
A lot of the manufacturers typically will not entertain customer volumes of
less 
than several hundred thousand parts for WiFi parts.

If you want access in smaller volumes, you typically have to go via a WiFi
module 
vendor, and they typically will not provide driver source either.

Two of the more open source friendly WiFi vendors are Atheros (recently I
hear anyway) and Realtek.

Broadcom and Marvell (probably two of the most popular chipsets out there)
don't provide open 
source drivers, and generally don't want to talk to you without serious
volume.

--Chris

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