The current version of the Intel EtherExpress PRO network driver (82595TX based card) appears to go unstable when run under a SMP kernel. The driver fails under loads over apx. 15% ethernet utilization on a dual Pentium processor based system (dual 90mHz processors - Micronics M54pe motherboard) with the following error: kernel: eth0: transmit timed out. network cable problem? Same hardware configuration tests OK at 75% ethernet utilization when booted under the distribution (single processor) kernel. Card configuration info: 10baseT connection, I/O base: 0x2A0 IRQ: 10 Concurrent processing: Disabled, EEProm addressing: Disabled Failure modes: network card will uauslly go inactive following noted error. In apparently random instances the card will recover and begin processing packets again. Running 'ifconfig eth0 down; ifconfig eth0 up' will usually clear the fault, but it has also been noticed that on occasion recycling the card can (somehow) impact other systems on the local network. Again, this failure has only been noted when running under SMP.
Update 30-Nov-1999 - My apologies. Further investigation found a local compilation error which appears to have caused the fault.