Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 16:11:00 -0700 (PDT) From: Brian McGroarty <bvmcg@yahoo.com> To: SUR <marisombra@mindspring.com>, Brian McGroarty <BMCGROARTY@high-voltage.com>, freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: RE: The $500 Performance Question Message-ID: <19990806231100.25992.rocketmail@web1006.mail.yahoo.com>
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The regular FastTrak required that you access the drive through BIOS routines or load a special driver (which I believe is available for Netware, OS/2, Windows 3.x, 9x and NT). Directly accessing the FastTrak as though it were a standard IDE controller will give you just the stripes from one drive. Last I heard, Promise wasn't opening the specs and nobody had come out with a Linux driver. I don't see anything that looks like a driver in /usr/src/i386/conf/LINT If the old FastTrak or the FastTrak66 work under FreeBSD, I'd LOVE to hear about it. --- SUR <marisombra@mindspring.com> wrote: > I'd try a Promise FastTrak66 IDE RAID solution, from what i've > read about > this controller, it rocks. I myself am getting one to raid0 a > few IBM > ata/66 drives. > > http://www.promise.com/Products/ideraid/ft66page.htm > > hot swap IDE as well :P elite! haha > > http://www.promise.com/Products/products.htm > > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG > [mailto:owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Brian > McGroarty > Sent: Friday, August 06, 1999 12:16 PM > To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org > Subject: The $500 Performance Question > > > I've got a PC used primarily for programming. Projects tend to > be large > (8-12 > megs of C++ source), so build time is a concern. I'd like > ideas on where the > best place to sink $500 would be to boost performance. > > Relevant in the current configuration: > > o (2) Celeron 300a (on socket converters, overclocked to > 500mhz) > o Tyan Tiger 100 motherboard (Dual CPU) > o 512mb 100mhz RAM > > EIDE controller: > o 14 gig 7200 EIDE (/usr,/,swap) > o 28 gig 7200 EIDE (/tobackup,/cvs) > > EIDE controller 1: > o 14 gig 7200 EIDE (/home) > o 2/8x CDRW/CD-ROM > > For a familiar benchmark, a FreeBSD 'make world -j 40' takes > about an hour > and ten minutes. This may be slewed against your ssytem by the > inclusion of > -O3 optimization. > > The CPUs realize a lot of idle time; upward of 60%. I expect > then that I/O > is > my main bottleneck. > > The drives are Ultra-66 capable, but I don't believe FreeBSD > supports this > at > current. Thus, I don't see a way to enhance what I've got. > (I'm already > enabling 32-bit and DMA on the controllers via flags). > > So what's my best bet? Is there a fast and economical SCSI-2 > controller and > drive I should try? Any supported IDE RAID controllers? Or is > there an > Ultra-66 controller FreeBSD merely sees as really fast EIDE? > > Or is this time being spent in the huge kernel lock? Would > CAS2 capable RAM > then perhaps speed the buffer transfers noticably and get the > CPUs back to > unmanaged portions more quickly? > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message > > _____________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message
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