DOCUMENT:Q142680  09-AUG-1996  [winnt]
TITLE   :Modification to Support Direct Host IPX Acceleration Drivers
PRODUCT :Microsoft Windows NT
PROD/VER:3.51 4.00
OPER/SYS:WINDOWS
KEYWORDS:kbnetwork

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The information in this article applies to:

 - Microsoft Windows NT Workstation versions and 3.51 and 4.0
 - Microsoft Windows NT Server versions and 3.51 and 4.0
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SUMMARY
=======

A new interface has been added to the SMB server which allows an acceleration driver to "hook up" to Srv.sys for acceleration of direct host IPX operations. Network Interface Cards that support this acceleration
are available from third-party vendors.
\*
\* MSINTERNAL:
\* One vendor with a NIC in beta is Xpoint Technologies,
\* however, we do not want to indicate preference for one vendor over 
\* another, and there are several others working on cards.

MORE INFORMATION
================

The interface is a new FSCTL (FSCTL_SRV_IPX_SMART_CARD_START) which passes a data structure into Srv.sys (struct SRV_IPX_SMART_CARD) having pointers to the driver acceleration routines.  When a direct host IPX client
subsequently does open, close, and read operations on disk files, Srv.sys
passes the request to the acceleration driver for servicing.

This new interface is included in Windows NT 4.0, and is available for Windows NT 3.51 from the Microsoft Internet site. It will be included in Windows NT 3.51 Service Pack 5.

Until Service Pack 5 is available, the new files for version 3.51 can be
downloaded from the following Internet location:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/fixes/usa/NT351/hotfixes-postSP4/srv-accelerate.

KBCategory: kbnetwork
KBSubcategory: ntnetserv
Additional reference words: prodnt 3.51 4.00

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Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1996.