Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 11:32:55 -0700 (PDT) From: Julian Elischer <julian@elischer.org> To: David Smithson <david@customfilmeffects.com> Cc: freebsd-firewire@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: RAID Host Adapter Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0209301132140.82116-100000@InterJet.elischer.org> In-Reply-To: <011001c268ab$e2e2b5c0$0801a8c0@customfilmeffects.com>
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I'm about to start testing an indigita firewire ohci adapter. if it works I guess their other ohci cards will work.. On Mon, 30 Sep 2002, David Smithson wrote: > Okay, so nobody is interested in this topic. I'll just assume that it will > work because it's OHCI compliant. > > In case anyone is interested, let me describe how we use firewire storage > devices to move data. I am sysadmin for a visual effects co. in Burbank, > California. We work primarily with 2k film-resolution image files > (log10-bit/channel Kodak Cineons @ 2048x1556). These are uncompressed and > in full format are about 13MB ea. Those familiar with cinema know that > there are 24 frames per second, so obviously these files can use up a lot of > space very quickly. We store them on a 1.5TB FreeBSD file server capable of > sustaining 130MB/sec sequential reads. When we have finished a job, we have > to send the data to a film-printing facility. Our current method is to use > one or more 80GB Maxtor drives in firewire enclosures and transfer the data > via gigabit network interconnect. As you can see, this is a serious > application of the ieee1394 standard -- not just for home use. Much of our > time is spent waiting for transfers to complete. The bottleneck, at the > moment, probably occurs at the physical disk level (Old Maxtors) and then at > the physical network layer (even over gigabit copper). I wish to eliminate > the network bottleneck by implementing firewire in FreeBSD. I have been > successful in doing so on a test computer with a cheapy OHCI firewire host > adapter. I'm hoping to reduce some of the physical disk shortcomings by > replacing the Maxtor drives with faster (newer) ones -- maybe the new WD > special addition drives. In addition to this, I'd like to use a firewire > card that is geared toward serious applications. That is why I am > interested in the Indigita card. Here's a link to it: > http://www.indigita.com/products/prod_fireidt800pci.htm if you are > interested. Comments are welcome. I'm hoping to maximize transfer rates to > eliminate the wait period and get jobs done faster. I'm just not sure that > I'm seeing all the bottlenecks here. Thanks for listening. > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "David Smithson" <david@customfilmeffects.com> > To: <freebsd-firewire@FreeBSD.ORG> > Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 2:30 PM > Subject: RAID Host Adapter > > > > Hi. I've been looking at Indigita Corp's products. They will soon have a > > host adapter that supports RAID configurations (iDT800PCI). I was just > > wondering if there is any reason to think this adapter will not work with > > the current FreeBSD firewire module? > > > > -- > > David Smithson - Systems Administrator > > Custom Film Effects > > > > > > > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > > with "unsubscribe freebsd-firewire" in the body of the message > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-firewire" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-firewire" in the body of the message
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