From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Feb 14 17:51:48 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B02FB106566B for ; Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:51:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mavbsd@gmail.com) Received: from mail-fx0-f228.google.com (mail-fx0-f228.google.com [209.85.220.228]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 356CF8FC1C for ; Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:51:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: by fxm28 with SMTP id 28so134458fxm.31 for ; Sun, 14 Feb 2010 09:51:47 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:sender:message-id:date:from :user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject:references:in-reply-to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=WIFXQX0XhLKMs2JGkr21qjuAzsB/0splJ//hsqNR2Ds=; b=q8AIaDP6iWo+F/gbwAd3kFqoCL8p9xio1W/W/3SWBKLK2APoop0cBWu1NUz5GXuv+m UiiJkFZC9n7Yl4gqWh57+NF6oaNuPkWlfe2Q51V0NjhLAI9ZwTPIVcRYosLxdWYH1K0u Z1v5REI6Z/86TzO1Oz5vbb+v942bFmZ9WxS/E= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=sender:message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject :references:in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=SHKF4ics9BlmftoRA589QRuahA1yypReWOaVQRRwD9FmvDlVD+VSQev1oZLfdtnINx wCXM0D7Q/iENlqj/fvkt3vlgYO5R1cAP8Wrw4fmAvaJC1VFC+Cf+BezsR5LUgXGsYRfm YpzzkdIcjczuCo9dqdhyUr9rfcgOOm91cRqFI= Received: by 10.223.65.12 with SMTP id g12mr1786696fai.69.1266169906915; Sun, 14 Feb 2010 09:51:46 -0800 (PST) Received: from mavbook.mavhome.dp.ua (pc.mavhome.dp.ua [212.86.226.226]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id 16sm2648646fxm.8.2010.02.14.09.51.44 (version=SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Sun, 14 Feb 2010 09:51:45 -0800 (PST) Sender: Alexander Motin Message-ID: <4B78382E.8080905@FreeBSD.org> Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:51:42 +0200 From: Alexander Motin User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (X11/20091212) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Steve Polyack References: <1265617382.00216602.1265605802@10.7.7.3> <1265707385.00217197.1265696404@10.7.7.3> <1265728980.00217271.1265715603@10.7.7.3> <1265750583.00217397.1265739002@10.7.7.3> <1265754184.00217418.1265743204@10.7.7.3> <1265756530.00217435.1265745602@10.7.7.3> <1265790181.00217606.1265778601@10.7.7.3> <1265842691.00217889.1265831404@10.7.7.3> In-Reply-To: <1265842691.00217889.1265831404@10.7.7.3> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: FreeBSD Stable , Dan Langille Subject: Re: hardware for home use large storage X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:51:48 -0000 Steve Polyack wrote: > On 2/10/2010 12:02 AM, Dan Langille wrote: >> Don't use a port multiplier and this goes away. I was hoping to avoid >> a PM and using something like the Syba PCI Express SATA II 4 x Ports >> RAID Controller seems to be the best solution so far. >> >> http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Express-Ports-Controller-SY-PEX40008/dp/B002R0DZWQ/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258452902&sr=1-22 > > Dan, I can personally vouch for these cards under FreeBSD. We have 3 of > them in one system, with almost every port connected to a port > multiplier (SiI5xxx PMs). Using the siis(4) driver on 8.0-RELEASE > provides very good performance, and supports both NCQ and FIS-based > switching (an essential for decent port-multiplier performance). > > One thing to consider, however, is that the card is only single-lane > PCI-Express. The bandwidth available is only 2.5Gb/s (~312MB/sec, > slightly less than that of the SATA-2 link spec), so if you have 4 > high-performance drives connected, you may hit a bottleneck at the > bus. I'd be particularly interested if anyone can find any similar > Silicon Image SATA controllers with a PCI-E 4x or 8x interface ;) Here is SiI3124 based card with built-in PCIe x8 bridge: http://www.addonics.com/products/host_controller/adsa3gpx8-4em.asp It is not so cheap, but with 12 disks connected via 4 Port Multipliers it can give up to 1GB/s (4x250MB/s) of bandwidth. Cheaper PCIe x1 version mentioned above gave me up to 200MB/s, that is maximum of what I've seen from PCIe 1.0 x1 controllers. Looking on NCQ and FBS support it can be enough for many real-world applications, that don't need so high linear speeds, but have many concurrent I/Os. -- Alexander Motin