From owner-freebsd-scsi  Fri Jan 19 03:52:36 1996
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Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 05:49:55 -0600
From: "Daniel M. Eischen" <deischen@iworks.InterWorks.org>
To: gibbs@freefall.freebsd.org, owner-freebsd-scsi@freefall.freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Aaptec 3985 controller
Cc: scsi@freebsd.org
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> # >I just got the bad news from Adaptec that the documents for the AIC-7810 chip,
> # >which makes the raid things like XOR, will not public available till the end o
> # >f
> # >the year. :(
> # 
> # That sucks, although it doesn't surprise me.  I got the impression the
> # 7810 documents wouldn't be availible for a while when I asked for
> # them the last time.
> 
>         I occasionally have read the manuals of this new adaptec toy,
>         and got a strong impression that it becomes RAID with the
>         presence of software drivers (analog of 'ccd'?) only.
>         Am I missing something?
>    And I wonder -- did someone of the FreeBSD engineers try
>         to talk with DPT? Their controllers are not too costly,
>         but specs seem to be better than Adaptec's. And DPT _are_
>         RAIDish, AFAIK.
>
> # --
> # Justin T. Gibbs
> # ===========================================
> #   FreeBSD: Turning PCs into workstations
> # ===========================================
> # 

You might want to try contacting the author of the Linux DPT drives, Michael Neuffer
(neuffer@goofy.zdv.Uni-Mainz.de).  He is on good terms with DPT and has visited their
headquarters in Florida.  At one time he was considering porting his driver to FreeBSD,
but I think that he didn't have the time.

It was initially hard for him to get anything out of DPT.  He signed the NDA, but they
agreed to let him release the driver under the GPL.  I've talked a few times with
Michael, and I don't think there would be a problem with slapping on the standard
BSD copyright if someone wanted to port his driver to FreeBSD.  And if not, he could
give a potential FreeBSD driver developer the name of one his contacts at DPT.

Dan Eischen
deischen@iworks.InterWorks.org