Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 21:51:28 -0700 (MST) From: Wes Peters <softweyr@xmission.com> To: Bob Willcox <bob@luke.pmr.com>, chat@freebsd.org Cc: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>, John Hood <cgull@smoke.marlboro.vt.us> Subject: Re: hardware Message-ID: <199711070451.VAA24465@obie.softweyr.ml.org> In-Reply-To: <19971106203638.26346@pmr.com> References: <19971106125006.20805@pmr.com> <199711070141.MAA00357@word.smith.net.au> <19971106203638.26346@pmr.com>
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On Fri, Nov 07, 1997 at 12:11:45PM +1030, Mike Smith wrote:
% ... 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.
Bob Willcox writes:
> 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.
>
> BTW, though I know little about IDE, I am quite familiar with SCSI and
> have written a few SCSI device drivers over the years.
Most the new drives and controllers seem to support all of the new
features. The two most shouted about ones seem to be "mode 4" and
"ultra DMA."
I just bought a Samsung 3.4 Gb drive with these features for my wife's
machine, which runs Win95 and WinNT both. The drive is fast and quiet,
and judging from the Samsungs we have scattered around at work,
reliable. I suppose it is the "mode 4" that gives us the equivalents of
detach and command queueing, Mr. Smith?
Given what Mike has said (and I trust his opinions as much as anyone), I
may save myself some $$$ on the next computer purchase and look into
helping Mr. Hood with his IDE endeavors. Most PC motherboards come with
dual IDE controllers on the board these days, because they're built
right into the chipset, and using them saves not only money but
complexity.
Mr. Hood, what can I do to help? Wanna Samsung drive? ;^)
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr softweyr@xmission.com
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