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AWI(4)                 FreeBSD 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 (for-
     merly 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)
     driver.  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
     acknowledge 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
     arp(4), card(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
     rewritten to support cards with DS phy and to support adhoc mode by
     Atsushi Onoe <onoe@netbsd.org>.

FreeBSD 6.2                      July 16, 2005                     FreeBSD 6.2

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | HARDWARE | MEDIA SELECTION | DIAGNOSTICS | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS

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