From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed Jul 17 09:20:57 1996 Return-Path: owner-hackers Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id JAA01390 for hackers-outgoing; Wed, 17 Jul 1996 09:20:57 -0700 (PDT) Received: from MindBender.HeadCandy.com (root@mindbender.headcandy.com [199.238.225.168]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id JAA01381 for ; Wed, 17 Jul 1996 09:20:52 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost.HeadCandy.com (michaelv@localhost.HeadCandy.com [127.0.0.1]) by MindBender.HeadCandy.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id JAA06023; Wed, 17 Jul 1996 09:20:28 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199607171620.JAA06023@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> X-Authentication-Warning: MindBender.HeadCandy.com: Host michaelv@localhost.HeadCandy.com [127.0.0.1] didn't use HELO protocol To: dennis@etinc.com (Dennis) cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: mitsumi CD-ROM In-reply-to: Your message of Wed, 17 Jul 96 10:29:06 -0400. <199607171429.KAA23687@etinc.com> Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 09:20:28 -0700 From: "Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com" Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk >"Knowing better" isnt the issue. I have countless PCs in my lab, and only >my servers have SCSI. I dont need scsi for most of what I do, and to pay >$30 extra for it would be a waste, $150 or $200 is a mega waste >When I load a linux distrubution (I download FreeBSD), I slap on a cheap >IDE CDROM, load it up, and then put it back on the shelf. I dont have to >worry about whether the brand of SCSI controller i have is supported, or >shared memory, or I/O or anything else. OK, this is your opinion, and I can accept that. >To no-doubt spurn another wide-eyed debate among the academics, I also >dont want a bus-mastering controller stealing the bus from my more-critical >communications in a router-system where disk functions are secondary. This makes no sense. The only time a bus-mastering controller "steals" the bus is when you're doing I/O. An IDE drive not only steals the bus by implication, but it steals the CPU as well! Basically, IDE steals the entire machine until the I/O is finished. At least with a bus-mastering controller, the CPU can run out of the cache while a disk transfer is in progress. I can understand your opinion on this, as stated above. But to think that you're not getting the bus, and the CPU, stolen, when bus-mastering would steal only the bus, is a complete misunderstanding. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael L. VanLoon michaelv@HeadCandy.com --< Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x >-- NetBSD working ports: 386+PC, Mac 68k, Amiga, Atari 68k, HP300, Sun3, Sun4/4c/4m, DEC MIPS, DEC Alpha, PC532, VAX, MVME68k, arm32... NetBSD ports in progress: PICA, others... Roll your own Internet access -- Seattle People's Internet cooperative. If you're in the Seattle area, ask me how. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------