Date: Fri, 28 Jun 1996 12:51:47 -0700 From: Darryl Okahata <darrylo@hpnmhjw.sr.hp.com> To: "Jonathan M. Bresler" <jmb@freefall.freebsd.org> Cc: mpp@freefall.freebsd.org (Mike Pritchard), jfieber@freefall.freebsd.org (John Fieber), doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: hardware handbook entry (mainly tapes and backups) Message-ID: <199606281951.AA171581508@hpnmhjw.sr.hp.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 28 Jun 1996 06:55:19 PDT." <199606281355.GAA03436@freefall.freebsd.org>
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> I've finished the rework of the hardware section of the handbook. I hope
> there's time to get this into 2.1.5, but if not I don't mind waiting.
Here are some comments:
* Under "Jordan's Picks/Motherboards": Triton-II chipset motherboards
have been shipping for a couple of months, and the Triton-II does
support parity and ECC (with some caveats -- see below). In
particular, people seem to be getting good results with the ASUS
P55T2P4 motherboard and FreeBSD (I don't have this motherboard, but
it's the one that I'm going to get in a couple of weeks or so ;-).
While both parity and ECC are supported by the Triton-II, ECC doesn't
work with early steppings of the T2. Here's what I've heard on the
topic (I have not verified the following):
1. ECC works with A2 and later steppings of the 82439HX Triton-II chip
(this is one of two (?) chips that are part of the "Triton-II"
chipset -- don't get this stepping confused with the 82371SB
stepping). You have an A2 stepping if the 82439HX chip has a
marking of "SU102". You have an A1 stepping if it's not marked
with an S-number or if the number is "SU087".
2. USB works with B0 and later steppings of the 82371SB chip, assuming
that your motherboard supports USB (don't get this stepping
confused with the 82439HX stepping mentioned above). The B0
stepping is marked with "SU093". You have an A1 stepping if it's
marked with "SU052", which doesn't support USB.
3. Two-way SMP works with B1? (B0?) and later steppings (of which
chip?).
NOTE: many postings on the net confuse the steppings of the 82439HX
and 82371SB chips.
* Under "Jordan's Picks/Video cards": You should emphasize that,
although the Millenium is supported by the commercial X server, it's
not supported by XFree86. As written, this section implies that the
Millenium works with XFree86.
* Under "Jordan's Picks/Networking": (Minor quibble) You might want to
mention that, for simple clients or home networks, an NE2000 clone
card is a cheap possibility. The ed0 driver for this card is solid,
and these clones can be found almost everywhere. You would definitely
not want to use this card in a server, though.
* Under "Motherboards, busses, and chipsets/PCI": The Triton-II chipset
is shipping. See above.
-- Darryl Okahata
Internet: darrylo@sr.hp.com
DISCLAIMER: this message is the author's personal opinion and does not
constitute the support, opinion, or policy of Hewlett-Packard, or of the
little green men that have been following him all day.
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