[flashrom] flashrom support for intel pro100 - worthwhile?

[Marko Kraljevic]

The support for 3com NICs got me thinking about other NICs with boot ROMs.

I've got a few intel 100 pro PCI cards around, with the 82558 chipset.
They have a PLCC socket, and a parallel interface; so they *should*
support any PLCC 28/29 family chips. There's good documentation
available, so I think adding support should not be too difficult.


The only problem is, 82558 only supports up to 64kB [A0:16], and 82559
only supports up to 128kB [A0:17]. So I'm not sure if I should bother,
especially with the PLCC socket, and the fact that we already have
support for the cheap and common 3com cards.

If you guys think it would be worthwhile to support, I can take a stab
at it though. :-)


datasheet for 82558:
http://developer.intel.com/design/network/datashts/29736001.pdf

datasheet for 82559:
http://download.intel.com/design/network/datashts/73825902.pdf


I'll take a look into some of intel's other ethernet controller chips,
see if anything supports > 1Mbit. Although I have a suspicion that
more modern controllers probably moved away from the parallel bus
and/or dumped boot rom altogether. And of course - I'll have to make
sure someone sold a physical card with them and a ROM socket!

Mark