Re: [PATCH -rt DO NOT APPLY] Fix for tg3 networking lockup

On Thu, Aug 03, 2006 at 08:45:31PM -0700, Michael Chan wrote:

ASF is firmware that monitors the system and sends out alerts whenever
certain events happen.  So it needs to run before the OS boots or after
it has crashed.  When the driver is up and running, the driver and ASF
run independently sending and receiving traffic on the same wire.  Of
course, the bandwidth that is used by ASF is a very tiny fraction of the
host traffic.  If the system crashes, the FIFO and other resources on
the NIC will be backed up and ASF can no longer function without
resetting the chip.

Thanks, that description was very helpful.  Would you accept a patch
with adding a comment describing this?  I couldn't figure it out from
looking at the source and googling "ASF" turned up lots of other uses
for that particular acronym.

It appears that there is no way of disabling ASF; is that a true
statement?

Thanks, regards,

						- Ted