From owner-freebsd-hardware Fri Dec 15 19:48:49 2000 From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Dec 15 19:48:47 2000 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from portnoy.lbl.gov (portnoy.lbl.gov [131.243.2.11]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9D23E37B404 for ; Fri, 15 Dec 2000 19:48:47 -0800 (PST) Received: (from jin@localhost) by portnoy.lbl.gov (8.11.1/8.11.1) id eBG3mD715576; Fri, 15 Dec 2000 19:48:13 -0800 (PST) Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 19:48:13 -0800 (PST) From: Jin Guojun (DSD staff) Message-Id: <200012160348.eBG3mD715576@portnoy.lbl.gov> To: gustavo@ifour.com.br, hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Asus A7V motherboard Sender: jin@portnoy.lbl.gov Sender: owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org > I am seeking a high quality motherboard to buy, my choice is: Asus A7V! > (http://www.asus.com/products/Motherboard/socketa/a7v/spec.html) > > But some questions raised: > > 1. Does FreeBSD support Onboard Promise® PCI-ATA100 Controller? > 2. This motherboard chipset supports 200MHZ FSB, does that mean any > problem for freebsd? > 3. Is anyone here running freebsd over it? How stable is it? And about > performance? Short answer is: Nothing different from ASUS K7V except having a second IDE controller, a Promise ATA-100. Do not know what performance you are looking for. Again it is similar to ASUS K7V on everything if you know K7V. ---- I do not know how other ATA-100 controller works. I haven't tried the burst rate on this controller yet. The overall stream is as bad as the ATA-66 controller. Below is the problem. Two (2) WDC 100AA on two ATA-66 bus ----> 22.5 X 2 = 45 MBps Four (4) WDC 100AA on two ATA-66 bus ----> 85 MBps (super) Note the single drive rate that affects the entire IDE and PCI performance: WDC ATA-66 drive One (1) WDC 450AA on one ATA-66 bus ----> 23.5 (selected drives) Two (2) WDC 450AA on two ATA-66 bus ----> 23 X 2 = 46 MBps Four (4) WDC 450AA on two ATA-66 bus ----> 66 MBps (OK) Four (4) WDC 450AA on two ATA-66 bus and two ATA-100 ----> 85 MBps (OK) One (1) WDC 450AA on one ATA-66 bus ----> 24.5 (selected drives) Two (2) WDC 450AA on two ATA-66 bus ----> 23 X 2 = 46 MBps Four (4) WDC 450AA on two ATA-66 bus ----> 10.8 * 4 = 43 MBps (???) Maxtor ATA-100 drive One (1) Maxtor 54089U8 on one IDE ATA-66 --> 29.5 MBps Two (2) Maxtor 54089U8 on two IDE ATA-66 --> 29.5 X 2 = 59 MBps (OK) Four (4) Maxtor 54089U8 on two IDE ATA-66 --> 9.5 X 4 = 38 MBps (bad) I do not believe that is disk drive problem because you may see the selected WDC drive will make the bus behave differently. I was luck that I had such WDC drives worked at 24 MBps boundary. When the drive stream speed is slower than 24 MBps, the bus works well. When the single drive stream rate higher than 24 MBps, the controller has problem to arbitrate the bus between master and slave. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message