From owner-freebsd-hardware Wed Aug 29 13:56:51 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from panzer.kdm.org (panzer.kdm.org [216.160.178.169]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2283237B405 for ; Wed, 29 Aug 2001 13:56:48 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from ken@panzer.kdm.org) Received: (from ken@localhost) by panzer.kdm.org (8.9.3/8.9.1) id OAA39805; Wed, 29 Aug 2001 14:56:28 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from ken) Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 14:56:28 -0600 From: "Kenneth D. Merry" To: Michael VanLoon Cc: Rick Hamell , Brian Szymanski , freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: scsi adapter to buy? Message-ID: <20010829145628.A39707@panzer.kdm.org> References: <36F7B20351634E4FBFFE6C6A216B30D54CC5@ecx1.edifecs.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2i In-Reply-To: <36F7B20351634E4FBFFE6C6A216B30D54CC5@ecx1.edifecs.com>; from MichaelV@EDIFECS.COM on Wed, Aug 29, 2001 at 01:47:46PM -0700 Sender: owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Wed, Aug 29, 2001 at 13:47:46 -0700, Michael VanLoon wrote: > > From: Kenneth D. Merry [mailto:ken@kdm.org] > > You'll probably want to make sure you get one of their > > DC-390U3* Ultra160 > > controllers. The DC-315/395 controllers have a Tekram Ultra > > SCSI chip that > > (apparantly) doesn't have its own SCSI phase engine and so requires > > multiple interrupts per transaction. > > I would second (or third) this. The latest Tekram cards came out very well > in recent StorageReview.com tests, being pretty much equal with Adaptec's > latest (faster in some tests, slower in others, but never far apart). > > They are very well built, and come with very complete cabling. I especially > like their split bus where you can put non-LVD stuff on the non-LVD bus > (like CD-ROMs, Jaz drives, older tape drives, etc.), and still have the LVD > bus run full speed. (For those who don't know, putting any LVD bus on a > fast (Ultra-80 or Ultra-160) LVD bus dumbs the entire bus down to SE > (Single-Ended, a.k.a. old SCSI) mode, slowing everything down, which is why > you don't want to mix non-LVD devices on an LVD bus with LVD drives.) The Adaptec 19160, 29160N and 29160 boards have the same sort of arrangement. The AIC-3860 bridge chip on the board separates the LVD and SE segments of the bus. (They didn't do that with the 39160, since you can just put any SE peripherals on one bus. The 29160LP doesn't have a bridge chip -- it doesn't really have enough connectors to justify it.) Ken -- Kenneth Merry ken@kdm.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message