Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 09:22:24 -0800 From: Darryl Okahata <darrylo@mina.sr.hp.com> To: Zach Heilig <zach@gaffaneys.com> Cc: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com>, John Gather <jpgather@acsu.buffalo.edu>, FreeBSD-hardware <hardware@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Tekram DC-390 Message-ID: <199711071722.AA031853344@mina.sr.hp.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 07 Nov 1997 09:59:58 CST." <19971107095958.62302@gaffaneys.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> On Thu, Nov 06, 1997 at 11:55:50PM -0800, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:
> > You must have an older release of FreeBSD then. With 2.2.5, you'll
> > find it listed in HARDWARE.TXT:
> >
> > amd0 n/a n/a n/a n/a Tekram DC-390(T) / AMD 53c974 PCI S
> CSI
>
> I don't know about the others (DC-390/DC-390U), but my DC-390F would not
> respond to the amd0 driver, and I had to use the ncr0 one. It has one large
> chip with 'Symbios Logic (c) 1995 -- 53c875' written on it.
The plain 390 is based upon the AMD chipset, which, while it works
(from the reports here), is not a fast performer. Personally, I'd avoid
the plain 390.
The 390F and 390U are better than the plain 390, as these are based
upon the Symbios (NCR) 875 chipset (and, as you've noticed, require a
different FreeBSD driver). These should perform quite well (modulo any
termination problems ;-). However, I seem to recall hearing about
problems with the 875 and older versions of FreeBSD, and so you may need
a recent version.
I've appended a little blurb that I wrote regarding the Symbios-
based SCSI controllers.
-- 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.
===============================================================================
While the Adaptec 2940 is a good card (and it's hard to go wrong
with it), you don't have to pay an high price for a really good SCSI
controller. One of the "best-kept secrets" is that cards based upon
the Symbios Logic (previously NCR) 810/815/825/875 chipsets are often
another good choice. They're *very* hard to find, however.
You get, say, 95% or more of the performance of an Adaptec 2940 at
around half the cost (or less). The 815-based controller (fast, narrow
SCSI, w/BIOS) will give you similar performance to a 2940, assuming that
you don't have an heavily-loaded server (if you have, say, three or more
disks being accessed *SIMULTANEOUSLY*, the 2940 will perform better, but
the majority of people won't run into this situation); the 825- and
875-based controllers should have no such limitation (the 825 is a
fast/wide controller, and I think the 875 adds ultra-SCSI, in wide and
non-wide configurations).
The 2940 does have nice BIOS-based setup routines for configuring
the card; the Symbios/NCR-based cards often use jumpers or DIP switches
for setup.
Don't let the low price fool you -- these cards are good (but very
difficult to find). They work well with MSDOS, Win95, & PC Unices
(FreeBSD or Linux), and I assume that they also work well with WinNT.
(However, I have seen a single report where one person has problems with
scanners & Win95.)
Here's a partial list of Symbios(NCR)-based boards (I haven't
verified all of this, but I believe it to be correct):
Data Technology 3130B (815-based, with BIOS). I paid around
$115 for one, a bit more than a year ago. Has passive
termination (a better solution is to disable on-board
termination and use an external active terminator,
assuming that you have internally-terminated devices).
Tekram DC-390U, DC-390F, & DC-390W (The 390U and 390F are
875-based, and I think the 390W is based upon the 825.
However, you want to *AVOID* the plain DC-390, as this
is based upon an AMD chip, and not the NCR/Symbios one.
ASUS SC-200 (810-based, without BIOS). You need a motherboard
(like the excellent ASUS P55T2P4) with an on-board SCSI
BIOS to use this card. Can be found for $70-80. I paid
$60 for a similar clone in December 1996.
Tyan S1365 (825-based, fast/wide SCSI, with BIOS).
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199711071722.AA031853344>