Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Mon, 16 Jun 1997 20:47:41 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Simon Shapiro <Shimon@i-Connect.Net>
To:        Tom Samplonius <tom@sdf.com>
Cc:        "Justin T. Gibbs" <gibbs@plutotech.com>, FreeBSD-SCSI@FreeBSD.ORG, FreeBSD-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Announcement:  New DPT RAID Controller Driver Available
Message-ID:  <XFMail.970616204741.Shimon@i-Connect.Net>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.95q.970616174728.11083C-100000@misery.sdf.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help

Hi Tom Samplonius;  On 17-Jun-97 you wrote: 
> 
> On Fri, 13 Jun 1997, Simon Shapiro wrote:
> 
> ...
> > The driver supports the PM3334{U,W,D} which is a PCI controller 
> > sporting a 68030 processor, up to 3 SCSI ultra-wide-differential
> > busses.  It is also available (I think) as narrow, non-ultra and
> > definitely single-ended.
> 
>   www.dpt.com says this controller has a 40mhz 68040 ??

I know it is an abomination to have a Motorola processor in a computer
dominated by the holy Intel processor.  But, in case you can stomach the
idea for a while, it actually works well.

Those of you who insist that their computer is maintained purely Intel will
be glad to know that (as I am told), the next generation will have an i960
instead.

> ...
> > I would like you to help me in posting an announcement on the proper
> > FreeBSD lists and in checking it in.
> 
>   Anyone volunteered for the check-in yet?  Has a FreeBSD 2.2.2-RELEASE
> boot disk been made with the DPT driver?

Yes, Justin Gibbs.  He has been very helpful and now even insists that the
driver complies with the BSD coding standards.  I am indenting and
indenting... :-)

>   I'm looking at a RAID solution for a freebsd server I'm building.
> Reliability is important (previous server had an uptime of 209 days
> before
> a flaky disk forced a reboot!).   Basically, either I use the DPT
> controller, or a Mylex SCSI-to-SCSI controller connected to a standard
> PCI
> controller.  The Mylex solution is kinda slow, but since it simply
> appears
> as a really big disk connected to your SCSI bus, it is almost
> guarrenteeed
> to work with FreeBSD.

The DPT controller is doing the same thing.  Since 1982.  I think you will
find the support, the configuration utilities (in native mode!), the
perfomance and the complete integration (You will get a beep, console
output, syslog, SNMP event and a can of diet soda whacked on the head every
time:

a.  Bus Glitch
b.  Fan failure in the disk enclosure
c.  Power supply failure
d.  Disk failure.

If you have a spare disk plugged in, you will also get aotomatic re-build
of the array.  Oh, did iI mention all power supplies are redundant and all
disks are hot pluggable without any software intervention?

>From us (the Atlas team), you also get multi initiator support, performance
monitoring, Distributed Lock Manager and Distributed I/O.

...

The option for 200+ days between boots will only come later.  Right now we
are delivering 14 days between boots (the anticipated frequency of
enhancements posted for the driver).

Simon



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?XFMail.970616204741.Shimon>