The driver for the BIONET DMA adaptor is in a very early state but seems to
work quite stable. I had some problems on my 48MHz PAK/3/4ST/16TT machine but
since I had connected some other equipment these problems may not be caused
by the driver itself...

The driver is based on dummyeth of Kay Roemer, the DMA code is 
(C) T. Lang and is based on some assembler source code (C) by Hans-Peter
Jansen, LISA GmbH, Berlin.

There are some important things to know, so READ THIS BEFORE USING:
- Starting and stopping the DMA adaptor with ifconfig up or down doesn't
  really work since there are no possibilities to start or stop the BIODATA
  adaptor...
  So better let the interface be up after configuring.
- Be careful with background DMA drivers like the floppy driver or some special
  harddisk drivers. The protective protocol has been changed for their use:
  - when sending:
    Check for FLOCK, if set -> queue packet
  - interrupt routine:
    Check FLOCK, if set -> quit, else check for queued send packets, dequeue
    and send them, then check for received packets, if any get them and pass
    them to the upper layers.
  So before testing any background DMA stuff you should make a backup of your
  harddisk!
- Floppy access causes massive delays in sending and receiving!
- 1. Kay told me that MiNT doesn't do any task switches when FLOCK is set.
  2. I read in the MiNT documentation that MiNT doesn't do any task switches
     when the processor is in supervisor state.
  3. Usual harddisk drivers do DMAs in supervisor mode.
  The LANCEDMA driver relies on these facts. I would have written a completely
  interrupt driven DMA code (like I've done for my harddsikrecording system
  for ALL STs working on the ACSI port) but that's a lot of work due to some
  problems with dirty harddisk drivers like HUSHI ignoring a set FLOCK flag.
Planned features:
- It should be possible that one BIODMA.XIF manages more than one DMA
  adaptor. At the moment you can use only one.
Still missing:
- No cache management yet - nevertheless it works quite stable (don't ask me
  why ;-)

DON'T TRY THESE DRIVERS UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY SURE WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
I'm not responsible for any crashed harddisk or so.

If you have any suggestions, flames, hints or so do not hesitate to contact me.
My address:
Torsten Lang
Pestalozzistr. 9A
61231 Bad Nauheim
EMail: Torsten.Lang@physik.uni-giessen.de
