The original problem statement (see Section 
) was not
specifically meant for the Linux
operating system. The reasons why Linux has been chosen are the fact
that the full source code is publicly available and that an active
base of development on the ATM front is present for Linux. A good
alternative would have been Sun's Solaris, because a
relatively cheap source license for the kernel can be acquired by
universities. A reason to perhaps take another look at Solaris is that
the ATM implementations are further developed for the Sun Sparc
platform than they are on Linux. The support in the
Linux-ATM driver for the Integrated Device Technology
Inc.'s low cost NICStAR ATM-25 PCI adapter and the
current trend towards Linux were major reasons to chose the Linux-ATM
system. The lack of better alternatives at the time of the decision
finalised the choice.
In this chapter, an overview will be given of the Linux-ATM driver and
how it fits into the Linux networking system. In
Section , a description of the installation procedure
and basic operation of the ATM driver is given.