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In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:33:37 +0100."
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Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:59:22 +0000
From: Dieter <freebsd@sopwith.solgatos.com>
Subject: Re: SATA PCI adapter recommendation 
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> I plan to put a SATA drive in an old PATA-only PC, so I'm
> looking for an appropriate adapter card.  A cheap card
> should suffice, I do not need RAID, and it does not have
> to be SATA-300.

> 1. Based on Silicon Image Sil-3x12 chip:
> http://www.digital-data.de/download/datasheets/111816_Datasheet.pdf

> I've read a few scary things about SIL chips on the lists,
> so I guess I'd better try to avoid that one.

The bad things I've read are all regarding the first generation
SIL chips with FreeBSD.  They work fine with NetBSD (and other OSes)
so the problem is with the FreeBSD device driver.  I haven't seen
anything (pro or con) about the 2nd generation chips e.g. Sil 3124
with FreeBSD.  The 2nd gen chips are supposed to be much better and
faster than the 1st gen chips.  Does anyone have experience to report
with the Sil 3124 (PCI), Sil 3132 (PCIe) or other 2nd generation Sil
chip with FreeBSD?

> Finally, a small question:  I assume that all of those
> SATA controllers do have their own BIOS, so I can boot
> from them, right?  It would be annoying to have to keep
> an old PATA disk in that box just to be able to boot.

This may depend on the firmware on the mainboard?