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AWI(4)			     Kernel Interfaces Manual			  AWI(4)

NAME
     awi -- AMD PCnetMobile IEEE 802.11 PCMCIA wireless network driver

SYNOPSIS
     To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in your
     kernel configuration file:

	   device awi
	   device wlan

     Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place the
     following line in loader.conf(5):

	   if_awi_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION
     The  awi  driver  supports various IEEE 802.11 wireless cards which run AMD
     PCnetMobile firmware based on AMD 79c930 controller with Intersil (formerly
     Harris) PRISM radio chipset.  It provides access to 32kb of  memory  shared
     between  the  controller  and the host.  All host/device interaction is via
     this shared memory, which can be accessed either via PCMCIA memory space or
     I/O space.  The awi driver encapsulates all IP and ARP  traffic  as  802.11
     frames.

     The driver works both in infrastructure mode and in adhoc (independent BSS)
     mode.

     In  infrastructure  mode, it communicates with an Access Point which serves
     as a link-layer bridge between an Ethernet and the  wireless  network.   An
     access  point  also provides roaming capability which allows wireless nodes
     to move between access points.

     In adhoc mode, it communicates peer to peer.  Though it is  more  efficient
     to  communicate  between  wireless nodes, the coverage is limited spatially
     due to lack of roaming capability.

     In addition to these two modes in the IEEE 802.11	specification,	the  awi
     driver  also  supports  a	variant  of  adhoc mode out of spec for DS radio
     cards, which makes it possible to communicate with adhoc mode of wi(4) dri-
     ver.  The NWID does not affect in this mode.

     For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8).

HARDWARE
     Cards supported by the awi driver include:

	   BayStack 650   1Mbps Frequency Hopping PCCARD adapter

	   BayStack 660   2Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter

	   Icom SL-200	  2Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter

	   Melco WLI-PCM  2Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter

	   NEL SSMagic	  2Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter

	   Netwave AirSurfer Plus
			  1Mbps Frequency Hopping PCCARD adapter

	   Netwave AirSurfer Pro
			  2Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter

	   Nokia C020 WLAN
			  2Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter

	   Farallon SkyLINE
			  2Mbps Direct Sequence PCCARD adapter

     The original Xircom Netwave AirSurfer is supported by the cnw(4) driver.

MEDIA SELECTION
     The DS cards support DS1 and DS2 media types, while the  FH  cards  support
     FH1  media  type.	For each media type, adhoc mediaopt can be used to indi-
     cate the driver to operate in adhoc mode.	For DS radio cards,  adhoc,flag0
     mediaopt can be used for wi(4) compatible adhoc mode.  In addition to these
     station  modes,  hostap  mediaopt can be used to create a host-based access
     point.

DIAGNOSTICS
     awi0: awi_pccard_probe: bad banner:  The device failed  to  initialize  its
     firmware.

     awi0:  failed  to complete selftest (%s)  The device failed to complete its
     self test.  In some circumstances, resetting device after power  on  fails.
     Re-inserting the card or down-then-up interface may be helpful.

     awi0:  transmit  timeout  The device failed to generate an interrupt to ac-
     knowledge a transmitted packet.

     awi0: failed to lock interrupt  The system was unable to obtain the lock to
     access shared memory.

     awi0: command %d failed %x  The device failed to complete the request  from
     the system.

SEE ALSO
     altq(4), arp(4), cnw(4), miibus(4), netintro(4), pccard(4), wi(4), wlan(4),
     ifconfig(8)

     Am79C930  PCnet  Mobile  Single-Chip  Wireless LAN Media Access Controller,
     http://www.amd.com.

HISTORY
     The awi device driver first appeared in NetBSD 1.5.

AUTHORS
     The initial version of the  awi  driver  was  written  by	Bill  Sommerfeld
     <sommerfeld@netbsd.org>.  Then the awi driver module was completely rewrit-
     ten  to support cards with DS phy and to support adhoc mode by Atsushi Onoe
     <onoe@netbsd.org>.

FreeBSD 7.2			  July 16, 2005 			  AWI(4)

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