From owner-freebsd-chat Thu Nov 6 20:39:19 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id UAA08739 for chat-outgoing; Thu, 6 Nov 1997 20:39:19 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-chat) Received: from obie.softweyr.ml.org ([199.104.124.49]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id UAA08723 for ; Thu, 6 Nov 1997 20:39:07 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from wes@xmission.com) Received: (from wes@localhost) by obie.softweyr.ml.org (8.7.5/8.6.12) id VAA24465; Thu, 6 Nov 1997 21:51:28 -0700 (MST) Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 21:51:28 -0700 (MST) Message-Id: <199711070451.VAA24465@obie.softweyr.ml.org> From: Wes Peters To: Bob Willcox , chat@freebsd.org CC: Mike Smith , John Hood Subject: Re: hardware In-Reply-To: <19971106203638.26346@pmr.com> References: <19971106125006.20805@pmr.com> <199711070141.MAA00357@word.smith.net.au> <19971106203638.26346@pmr.com> Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk 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