From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jul 1 21:16:04 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4DCCC16A421 for ; Sun, 1 Jul 2007 21:16:04 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mureninc@gmail.com) Received: from an-out-0708.google.com (an-out-0708.google.com [209.85.132.250]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0C24013C469 for ; Sun, 1 Jul 2007 21:16:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mureninc@gmail.com) Received: by an-out-0708.google.com with SMTP id c14so321691anc for ; Sun, 01 Jul 2007 14:16:03 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=D/97UItMwUcLIXZ1RKdDJT3Fg4ZuKPj5fWAznyRzMhLxcRxWV6E/3EV8uOrQISVD0ggpQhnjJrWAjFxu/ijuYzxySV83M85iOibb8Mk15OkcznRrSdHlydzqUoGNSFDAOQVDs8Qs2a+W4BaF520PW+JgRliZXXaJzPnLrhM3thE= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=cPaItFKrH/8cNoYgisBD00g5MkeaQemcBY+H6L+KkWNXqVZV0TbQ7R09DC+TD63Qh9D1CcbO0e9ncDqeJM/wtQAKhndIJ8KXSpr7u7GAUEYUZLI6LrPNFO4IfcASftAQTLOtwpcXhpMu9yLa63QR9roLbTBiITWHHviqZRMxn/0= Received: by 10.100.11.7 with SMTP id 7mr3289421ank.1183322979513; Sun, 01 Jul 2007 13:49:39 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.100.189.2 with HTTP; Sun, 1 Jul 2007 13:49:39 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2007 16:49:39 -0400 From: "Constantine A. Murenin" To: "Ravi Pokala" In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <467E2392.6010109@fluffles.net> Cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Looking for a motherboard with lots of SATA ports, supported in 6.2-STABLE X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 01 Jul 2007 21:16:04 -0000 On 01/07/07, Ravi Pokala wrote: > I am leery of any SATA controller that I've never heard of, and I feared > that perhaps this was something I already knew from work and didn't like. > Some googling suggests it's actually a JMicron controller that is decent and > fairly well supported by 6.2-STABLE. Can anyone confirm that? Yes, JMicron controllers are a pretty standard feature of most modern Intel-based boards. Mine works without any problems: ... atapci0: port 0xbc00-0xbc07,0xb880-0xb883,0xb800-0xb807,0xb480-0xb483,0xb400-0xb40f mem 0xff6fe000-0xff6fffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci3 atapci0: [ITHREAD] atapci0: AHCI Version 01.00 controller with 2 ports detected ata2: on atapci0 ata2: [ITHREAD] ata3: on atapci0 ata3: [ITHREAD] ata4: on atapci0 ata4: [ITHREAD] ... ad6: 157066MB at ata3-master SATA300 acd0: DVDR at ata4-master UDMA66 ... > I do find it odd that they would use discrete chips for the NIC and extra > SATA ports, when the chipset contains both. Mainboard manufacturers usually like to offer Parallel ATA, which is not available in newest Intel chipsets, hence there is a need for an external chip. I guess, Serial ATA comes as a bonus with such external chips, and also provides the user with more choice on which controller to use. Also, I don't think ICH8 southbridge has integrated Ethernet networking capabilities -- these are usually added as an external chip, connected by PCI Express, as the following diagram illustrates: . Cheers, Constantine.