From owner-freebsd-chat Thu Nov 6 19:13:59 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id TAA04016 for chat-outgoing; Thu, 6 Nov 1997 19:13:59 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-chat) Received: from word.smith.net.au (word.smith.net.au [202.0.75.3]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id TAA03997 for ; Thu, 6 Nov 1997 19:13:22 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mike@word.smith.net.au) Received: from word.smith.net.au (localhost.smith.net.au [127.0.0.1]) by word.smith.net.au (8.8.7/8.8.5) with ESMTP id NAA00635; Fri, 7 Nov 1997 13:39:19 +1030 (CST) Message-Id: <199711070309.NAA00635@word.smith.net.au> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: Bob Willcox cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: hardware In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 06 Nov 1997 20:36:38 MDT." <19971106203638.26346@pmr.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 13:39:18 +1030 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > > > None of the IDE controllers I have used do (admittedly, I > > > haven't bothered with IDE in years). > > > > And from this vantage point you seek to criticise? > > No, not a criticism. Simply asking a question and qualifying my > perspective. Hokay. We've been seeing a lot of flak from people that seem strangely proud that they've never bothered to look. > > ... so I suggest that you start agitating for software support for more > > advanced IDE disk features. Mr John Hood (cgull@smoke.marlboro.vt.us > > IIRC) is our current high-end IDE god. Perhaps throwing the odd > > encouragement and (equipment) donation his way might see you able to > > save some serious money in the longer term. > > This begs the question...does the currently available crop of IDE > hardware support these more advanced features? If not, what can > software do to overcome that? I would have thought very little. In many cases, yes it does. In other cases, software can do no more than it otherwise might. Still, most people putting IDE disks on FreeBSD systems are neglecting to enable either 32-bit access or multiblock mode, and thus unnecessaruly hamstringing their hardware. > BTW, though I know little about IDE, I am quite familiar with SCSI and > have written a few SCSI device drivers over the years. I think that a balanced perspective is good. 8) Don't get me wrong; I much prefer SCSI from a technical perspective. I just think that IDE is being bagged out of all proportion where in fact it's quite a capable alternative. mike