Date: Fri, 06 Apr 2007 09:08:54 +0100 From: Danny Knaggs <knaggsy2000@googlemail.com> To: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org Subject: FreeBSD 6.2 on SPARC64/x86 with Promise IDE Controller Message-ID: <46160016.8080504@googlemail.com>
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Hello all! This is first time I've used a mailing list, so bear with me! I've been asked to submit my findings of the ata driver in FreeBSD 6.2 on my sparc64 and x86 box from bsdforums.org. Link to my thread: http://www.bsdforums.org/forums/showthread.php?t=48682 I've just installed a Promise IDE Controller card (Ultra 133 TX2 - PDC20269) in my Sun Ultra 10 and have come across a slight snag. If I don't put in "hw.ata.ata_dma=0" in the loader options I get DMA timeout errors after it has queried the HDD on the Promise controller. I have found a link which someone else has a similar problem (NetBSD on Alpha) which maybe useful: http://archive.netbsd.se/?ml=freebsd-alpha&a=2007-02&t=3177803 Now, after BSD has loaded I can successfully change the DMA mode to UDMA66 on the HDD without any problems (get ~30MB/s transfer rate, compared to ~15MB/s when using the on-board controller using "dd"). Any higher and I get DMA timeout messages. The HDD works fine when it's attached to the on-board controller. Now, I thought I try the same Promise IDE card in x86 box with FreeBSD 6.2 and found something interesting... The HDD will not operate correctly at UDMA133 - it performs very slowly (<15Mb/s). Forcing the HDD to run at UDMA100 gives me 64Mb/s transfer. Which is roughly what I expect. So, it seems something is broken with the ATA driver - Sparc/Alpha getting the worse of it! If anyone has ideas/brainwaves/etc - I'm willing to give it a whirl! Thanks in advance. Dan.
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