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Date:      Thu, 14 Sep 2000 16:52:57 +0200 (CEST)
From:      "O. Hartmann" <ohartman@ipamzlx.physik.uni-mainz.de>
To:        freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org, freebsd-smp@freebsd.org
Subject:   TYAN Thunder 2500-80 and FreeBSD 4.1
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.21.0009141636080.450-100000@ipamzlx.physik.uni-mainz.de>

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Dear Sirs.

I need a little bit help and assistance in some hardware/smp questions.
At the moment, one of our main servers is based on a dual-gigabyte intel
440BX chipset based mainboard. These days we change, we want to swapp
over to a new mainboard and new CPUs. The mainboard has been choosen
from TYAN, TYAN Thunder 2500-80. I watched out for compatibility reasons
not to obtain the Symbios Logic 53C1010 (SCSI-3/160) based board, because
SymbiosLogic 53C896 seems to be fully supported. I heard about many problems
of using SMP kernel on ServerWorks III HE chipset based boards in spring this
year, a lot about problems with i820 and i840 (Carmel) based SMP boards,
but that was shortly after the change towards FreeBSD 4.0. Now we have much more
ServerWorks III chipsets based mainboards on market as a replacement for the
memory demanding server market because of the problems with i820/i840 and
ECC RAM or due to the enormous costs of RIMM modules. It seems, that the
TYAN Thunder 2500 is one of the best mainboards on market - but has anyone
tested it using FBSD? 

Well, because we ordered such a mainboard and I never got an answer of 
my posted questions related to this hardware, it seems that I will be
on my own when trying the first time to migrate from the old hardware to
the new one. At the moment I try to configure a suitable kernel and because
we do not already use hardware  RAID 5 technology (I have an simple array
of RAID 0 bundled drives using vinum, and thats in some cases really slow, maybe due
the fact being a software solution), I use simply a main drive from which all 
bootsrap is done before starting vinum and the array. Well, that's besides 
that what makes me afraid of swapping over to the new hardware. I read a lot about
failures of starting SMP kernel or kernel does not recognize all the hardware
although these kind of mainboards all use standard and proofen hardware like
intel ether 10/100+ Pro lan chip, LSI/SymbiosLogic 53C896 dual channel LVD
SCSI controller, ES 3173 sound chip ... well, only the chipset seems to be
the point of problems. Does anybody know, whether this chipset runs with FreeBSD 4.1?
I think some PowerEdge solutions based on this chipset and also some Proliance
systems. If there is anybody out here who's some experiences, especially in
how to avaoid a non starting kernel, please contact me. I think, I will leave 
SMP facilities first time out to make myself sure, that the system will boot
with one of booth 866EB Coppermines.

Thanks in advance,



Gruss O. Hartmann
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