$Id: README,v 1.1 2003/06/23 17:59:07 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. 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)
