Without the optimzation which isolates the PHY, the link goes up within a 1/10th of
a second after starting to load the firmware:

 7.588075 e100 0000:00:09.0 firmware: using built-in firmware e100/d101s_ucode.bin
 7.604133 e100_configure: [00-07]=16:08:00:01:00:00:26:07
 7.608117 e100_configure: [08-15]=01:00:2E:00:60:00:F2:48
 7.608117 e100_configure: [16-23]=00:40:FA:86:3F:05:00:00
 7.610785 e100_set_multicast_list: mc_count=0, flags=0x1002
 7.615390 e100_configure: [00-07]=16:08:00:01:00:00:26:07
 7.619380 e100_configure: [08-15]=01:00:2E:00:60:00:F2:48
 7.619380 e100_configure: [16-23]=00:40:FA:86:3F:05:00:00
 7.619380 e100_intr: stat_ack = 0x20
 7.622719 e100_watchdog: right now = -74502
 7.627045 mdio_ctrl: READ:addr=1, reg=4, data_in=0x0000, data_out=0x182405E1
 7.630994 mdio_ctrl: READ:addr=1, reg=0, data_in=0x0000, data_out=0x18203000
 7.634011 mdio_ctrl: READ:addr=1, reg=5, data_in=0x0000, data_out=0x182541E1
 7.639498 mdio_ctrl: READ:addr=1, reg=1, data_in=0x0000, data_out=0x1821782D
 7.643447 mdio_ctrl: READ:addr=1, reg=1, data_in=0x0000, data_out=0x1821782D
 7.646419 NIC Link is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex