Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 19:34:00 +0200 (MET DST) From: Stefan Esser <se@zpr.uni-koeln.de> To: Thomas Graichen <graichen@axp5.physik.fu-berlin.de> Cc: se@zpr.uni-koeln.de, freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Subject: Re: need some scsi help ... Message-ID: <199608141734.TAA00625@x14.mi.uni-koeln.de> In-Reply-To: <199608141312.PAA01008@mordillo> References: <199608141312.PAA01008@mordillo>
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Thomas Graichen writes: > hello > > i'm currently looking for a (if possible cheap) pci scsi controller and have > some question about that topic: > > * the best choice for price/performance seems to be an ncr controller (for > instance tzhe asus sc200 - but the question is - so i need the > ncr/symbios/sdms bios for it to work (i don't want to boot from that > controller) ? - i checked the bios in the board using > > cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i ncr | more > cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i sym | more No, that's not the canonic way to find out whether there is SDMS support on a system. In POST, there should be a line containing the word "SDMS" and a version number. But I'm not sure whether this line gets printed, even if no NCR controller is available in the system ... > and did'nt find anything which looked like the ncr bios (i found for instance > all the strings of the award bios in there) - can please someone with the ncr > bios in his mainboard bios if it is possible to find some ncr strings from the > ncr bios in it using this method ? - i ask for the need of the ncr bios for > the operation of the ncr driver because i read something in the linux scsi > howto about the ncr bios being required for opreation because the ncr bios > sets some registers which are required for the driver - and i think the linux > ncr driver is the FreeBSD driver ported to linux - so this should also apply > to FreeBSD No, Drew Eckhard started writing a NCR driver first. But when we found, that he used lots of "shortcuts" (for example he threw away most SCSI messages, since he was sure he didn't need to bother :-), it was very obvious that his driver wouldn't meet our expectations. Drew needed nearly two years to get DISCONNECT into his driver (and one of the reasons it took him so long is the fact that he ignored the SAVE POINTER message), and for that reason somebody ported the BSD driver to Linux, a few months ago. Anyway: The NCR driver is required to initialize ALL the registers without any help from the BIOS. If you find, that it does not work, then I'll make the necessary changes immediately. If you don't want to boot from this controller, then there should be no need for a SDMS BIOS! > * so thus the next question: if a non bios ncr controller won't work (and i > can't find an ncr controller with bios here in berlin (maybe someone has an > idea where to get such a thing here ...) - what else controller should i use ? NCR controllers are sold under the brands of: 1) NCR (still ...) 2) Symbios 3) ASUS 4) Tekram 5) Tyan and many more. It is not always easy to find out which one a local computer shop offers. Just make sure that the card comes with active termination (all cards from the manufacturers in the list above do). > possible choices so far are the adaptec 2940 (a lot more expensive - but may > be ok - if the cheaper version of it - without any software or docs - is > enougth - the adaptec 2920 is a bit cheaper but is it supported ? - is seems > to be equivalent to the last future domain controller (which seems to have > been bought by adaptec ...) - will this one work ? The Adaptec 2920 is NOT a bus-master, and thus is a bad choice for a multi-tasking OS. > * what other controllers are recommended ? > > * if i choose the adaptec 2940 - how good/stable is the driver in FreeBSD ? Justin put a lot of effort in making them the best supported cards in FreeBSD. > * does someone in the area of berlin/germany a good place to bye - for > instance an ncr controller with bios ? You don't need a BIOS. If it doesn't work with the current driver, then I'll send you a trivial patch to make it work. You can get NCR cards from lots of mail order companies (see c't magazine). You may try (in order of high to low page numbers in the advertizements section ;-) 1) Delektron (NCR8100S 149,-- / NCR8150S 219,-- (with BIOS) 2) HW Elektronik (ASUS SC-200 117,--) 3) Computer Profis (ASUS SC-200 135,--) 4) Comptronic (ASUS SC-200 125,-- / NCR8100S 125,--) 5) Multigraph (NCR8100S 139,-- / NCR8150S 188,--) (All prices in DM incl. 15% VAT !) BTW: There is also an offer of an Adaptec 2940 for 209,-- DM from "Computer Versand Boch" in the Sep 96 issue of c't ... Regards, STefan
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