From owner-freebsd-scsi Tue May 27 04:02:00 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id EAA07938 for freebsd-scsi-outgoing; Tue, 27 May 1997 04:02:00 -0700 (PDT) Received: from Sisyphos.MI.Uni-Koeln.DE (Sisyphos.MI.Uni-Koeln.DE [134.95.212.10]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id EAA07932 for ; Tue, 27 May 1997 04:01:55 -0700 (PDT) Received: from x14.mi.uni-koeln.de (annexr3-9.slip.Uni-Koeln.DE) by Sisyphos.MI.Uni-Koeln.DE with SMTP id AA21420 (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for ); Tue, 27 May 1997 13:01:51 +0200 Received: (from se@localhost) by x14.mi.uni-koeln.de (8.8.5/8.6.9) id NAA00733; Tue, 27 May 1997 13:01:49 +0200 (CEST) X-Face: " Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 13:01:49 +0200 From: Stefan Esser To: Dave Huang Cc: freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG, current-users@netbsd.org Subject: Re: ncr driver working well with 53c875? References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.74 In-Reply-To: ; from Dave Huang on Mon, May 26, 1997 at 05:16:31PM -0500 Sender: owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On May 26, Dave Huang wrote: > Hi, I was thinking of getting some sort of 53c875 based card, probably > either an Asus SC875 or Tekram DC390F, and I wanted to make sure that the > ncr driver works well with it. I'm running NetBSD, but since it uses the > FreeBSD driver, everything should be the same :) I'll be running a 2gig > Wide Quantum Atlas and a 4gig Wide Atlas off the card... I don't know the state of the NCR driver in NetBSD, but do assume that the 875 is supported. Let me know, if you have any trouble with it ... > Any recommendation on whether I should get the Asus or the Tekram? I > notice the driver has some code to read the Tekram's EPROM; what does that > do? :) I have a Tekram DC-390F and a Symbios Sym8751S, and I do prefer the Symbios. Tekram wrote a FreeBSD driver that is specific to their card and published the sources. I did appreciate this, and it was one of the reasons I bought the DC-390F. But I do not like the Tekram SCSI BIOS. I found no way to obtain a more recent version than came with my card, and that one sometimes just hangs on reboot. It is also slow to probe the devices, it seems longer before the Tekram starts to probe for the first SCSI target than the Symbios needs to complete the bus scan. I used the Tekram sources to add code that dumps the config settings stored in Flash ROM. The generic SCSI code in FreeBSD is currently being reworked, and I plan to make the driver use the card's configuration as soon as the new SCSI code is available. There will also be support for the SDMS config NVRAM, then. Since I never saw an ASUS SC-875, I can't comment on that card. It is currently sold at very attractive prices over here, but I didn't check whether it comes with an internal WIDE SCSI cable (the Tekram does!). I have heard, that ASUS uses yet another SCSI BIOS of their own, not SDMS, but don't really know ... My typical setup is internal WIDE and external 8bit drives, but nearly all l875 based cards come with an external WIDE connector. Tyan seems to have build cards with internal WIDE SCSI and an external high density SCSI II connector (non-WIDE), and I definitely will try to get such a card, next time ... Be sure to check out which SCSI cables are supplied with the SCSI card, when comparing prices. An internal WIDE SCSI cable may cost an additional $50, if you buy it seperately. Regards, STefan