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| COPYRIGHT | ||
| README | ||
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$Id: README,v 1.2 2003/07/02 01:55:27 sam Exp $ WARNING: THIS IS A BETA DISTRIBUTION. THIS SOFTWARE HAS KNOWN PROBLEMS AND WARNING: LIMITATIONS THAT WILL BE CORRECTED BEFORE A PRODUCTION RELEASE. WARNING: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! Atheros Hardware Access Layer (HAL) =================================== * Copyright (c) 2002, 2003 Sam Leffler. * Copyright (c) 2002, 2003 Atheros Communications, Inc. * All rights reserved. Read the file COPYRIGHT for the complete copyright. This code manages much of the chip-specific operation of the Atheros driver. The HAL is provided in a binary-only form in order to comply with FCC regulations. In particular, a radio transmitter can only be operated at power levels and on frequency channels for which it is approved. The FCC requires that a software-defined radio cannot be configured by a user to operate outside the approved power levels and frequency channels. This makes it difficult to open-source code that enforces limits on the power levels, frequency channels and other parameters of the radio transmitter. See http://ftp.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/Orders/2001/fcc01264.pdf for the specific FCC regulation. Because the module is provided in a binary-only form it is marked "Proprietary"; this means when you load it you will see messages that your system is now "tainted". If you wish to use this driver on a platform for which an ath_hal module is not already provided please contact the author. Note that this is only necessary for new _architectures_; the HAL is not tied to any specific version of your operating system. Atheros Hardware ================ There are currently 3 generations of Atheros 802.11 wireless devices: 5210 supports 11a only 5211 supports both 11a and 11b 5212 supports 11a, 11b, and 11g These parts have been incorporated in a variety of retail products including cardbus cards from DLink, Linksys, Netgear, and Proxim; and mini-pci cards from some of these same vendors. In addition many laptop vendors use Atheros mini-pci cards for their builtin wireless support. An (incomplete) list of products that use Atheros parts is: Netgear WAG511 D-Link DWL-AG520 Linksys WPC55AG Netgear WAB501 D-Link DWL-AG650 Linksys WMP55AG D-Link DWL-AB650 Linksys WPC51AB In general, if a device is identified as ``11a only'' it is almost certain to contain an Atheros 5210 part in it. All retail a+b products use the 5211. The latest generation of universal a+b+g combo products use the 5212. When in doubt check the PCI vendor id with a tool like lspci, the Atheros vendor id is 0x168c; e.g. 00:13.0 Ethernet controller: Unknown device 168c:0012 (rev 01)