NE1000

Key takeaways

NE1000 belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect NE1000 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of NE1000 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The NE1000 and NE2000 are members of an early line of low cost Ethernet network cards introduced by Novell in 1987. Their popularity had a significant impact on the pervasiveness of networks in computing. They are based on a reference design from National Semiconductor using their 8390 Ethernet chip.

History In the late 1980s, Novell was looking to shed its hardware server business and transform its flagship NetWare product into a PC-based server operating system that was agnostic and independent of the physical network implementation and topology (Novell even referred to NetWare as a NOS, or network operating system). To do this, Novell needed networking technology in general — and networking cards in particular — to become a commodity, so that the server operating system and protocols would become the differentiating technology. Most of the key pieces of this strategy were already in place: Ethernet and Token Ring (among others) had been codified by the IEEE 802 standards committee — the draft was not formally adopted until 1990, but was already in widespread use, and cards from one vendor were, on the whole, wire-compatible with cards complying with the same 802 working group. However, networking hardware vendors in general, and industry leaders 3Com and IBM in particular, were charging high prices for their hardware. To combat this, Novell decided to develop its own line of cards. In order to create these at minimal R&D, engineering and production costs, Novell based their board on the DP839EB, a reference design created by National Semiconductor using the 8390 Ethernet chip. Compared to the reference design's direct memory access, Novell used Programmed I/O, which limited performance. Novell's design also didn't map the card's internal buffer RAM into the host's address space. The original card, the NE1000 (8-bit ISA; announced as "E-Net adapter" in February 1987 for 495 USD) The "NE" prefix stood for "Novell Ethernet".

NE2000 The NE2000, using the 16-bit ISA bus of the PC AT followed in 1988. It uses thin Ethernet; the second ("B") revision added an Attachment Unit Interface (AUI) port to support a transceiver, and later models NE1000T and NE2000T added built-in 10BASE-T support. With the launch of the NE1000 and NE2000, Novell took two significant steps. The first was a program under which other vendors were invited to manufacture the cards with no royalty as "NE1000-compatible" cards. Vendors were required to submit their cards to Novell for certification, which focused on whether the standard Novell driver worked with the card. Interested manufacturers were given a complete package of manufacturing documentation to allow them to start building NE1000/2000 compatible cards without having to do any design work. The primary intent of this program was to drive down the cost of network hardware to promote the adoption of PC networking. The second innovation taken, primarily to deal with internal management issues, was to allow Novell's distributors to buy the cards directly from its manufacturer, Eagle, a contract manufacturing subsidiary of Anthem Technologies, the industrial distributor that provided the components for the NE1000/2000. Novell received a royalty on each card, but was no longer involved in scheduling and ordering manufacturing. In order to remain competitive with Novell's bargain-price cards, 3Com and other vendors were forced to cut the pricing of their entry-level network cards, contributing greatly to the networking boom of the 1990s. To a lesser extent, it is arguable that the success of the NE1000/2000 cards helped to tip the scales of the "LAN wars" in favor of Ethernet (championed by 3Com) over Token Ring (championed by IBM), though its main impact was to significantly lower the cost of PC networks. In 2003 National Semiconductor ceased manufacturing the 8390 chip.

Clones

Many other manufacturers copied the design labeling under their own brand, while still claiming NE1000/NE2000 compatibility. However, in reality, this was not always the case. For instance, the Winbond 83C901 ignores the reset signal.

Supported operating systems Besides NetWare, driver support is available for MS-DOS, Windows, UNIX, FreeBSD, QNX, and Linux. Windows XP does not support non-Plug and Play versions and Windows Vista does not support the NE2000 at all. Windows 2000 appears to have a working driver.

Emulator support DOSBox, via third-party patches Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) Bochs PCem, since v13 86Box

See also AMD Lance Am7990 - 1985, AMD Am7990 network chip 3Com 3c509 - 1994, 3Com 3c509 network card RTL8139 - 1997-2005, Realtek 8139 PCI network chips family

References

External links DP8390D - NIC Network Interface Controller (Obsolete) Archived 2009-07-15 at the Wayback Machine (National Semiconductor) — original reference design Ne2000 (wiki.OSDev.org) Michal Necasek, Was the NE2000 Really That Bad?

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with NE1000

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what NE1000 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to NE1000 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about NE1000 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of NE1000

In research: NE1000 appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses NE1000 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: NE1000 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Integrated circuits, Networking hardware, Novell, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for NE1000 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study NE1000 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what NE1000 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain NE1000 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is NE1000 in simple terms?

The NE1000 and NE2000 are members of an early line of low cost Ethernet network cards introduced by Novell in 1987. Their popularity had a significant impact on the pervasiveness of networks in computing.

Why does NE1000 matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study NE1000?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on NE1000.