Strange problem with new AHA-2940AU

[Peter Pointner]

Hello,

I have strange scsi timeouts with a new 2940AU in a Tyan motherboard. I
get these timeouts only if I use the new 2940AU with an AIC-7861 Rev. 3
and a DRAM-timing for 70 ns chips in the bios settings of the motherboard.
The timeouts occur e. g. during a write of a 1 GB file (bonnie -s 1000,
during write with putchar). For the test I use Linux 2.0.33 from SuSE (I
think they added some patches to the original 2.0.33).

The strange thing is: If I change the motherboard bios setting to 60 ns
DRAM chips, I do not get the timeouts. I usually set that to 70 ns to be
on the safe side. If I use an older 2940AU with an AIC-7861 Rev. 1 (and
BIOS 1.2x) I do not get timeouts with any DRAM timing. "Do not get
timeouts" means I can run "bonnie -s 1000" 10 times without error.
"Getting timeouts" means I get it during the first run.

Can anybody give me an idea, why a more conservative DRAM setting can be
worse? And does anybody know about differences between AIC-7861 Revisions
1 and 3?

Thanks for reading
Peter

Below you find additional information, which might be useful.

============================================================================
Motherboard: Tyan Dual Pentium Pro ATX S1668
    with one 200 MHz Processor, 64 MByte RAM
    shows: TYN TITAN-PRO V3.03 during boot.
============================================================================
SCSI-Adapter: Adaptec AHA-2940AU SCSI BIOS v1.32
============================================================================
/proc/scsi/aic7xxx/0
--------------------
Adaptec AIC7xxx driver version: 5.0.3/3.2.2
Compile Options:
  AIC7XXX_RESET_DELAY    : 5
  AIC7XXX_TAGGED_QUEUEING: Enabled (This is no longer an option)
    See AIC7XXX_TAGGED_QUEUEING_BY_DEVICE in the file drivers/scsi/aic7xxx.c
    to disable tagged queueing on problematic devices.
  AIC7XXX_PAGE_ENABLE    : Enabled (This is no longer an option)
  AIC7XXX_PROC_STATS     : Disabled

Adapter Configuration:
           SCSI Adapter: Adaptec AHA-2940A Ultra SCSI host adapter
                           Narrow Controller
                Base IO: 0x8200
         Base IO Memory: 0xe1000000
    BIOS Memory Address: 0x0
                         Enabled
                    IRQ: 11
                   SCBs: Active 0, Max Active 9,
                         Allocated 30, HW 3, Page 255
             Interrupts: 813883
   Extended Translation: Enabled
         SCSI Bus Reset: Enabled
Disconnect Enable Flags: 0x00ff
 Tag Queue Enable Flags: 0x0001
Ordered Queue Tag Flags: 0x0001
      BIOS Control Word: 0x11b6
   Adapter Control Word: 0x0055

=========================================================================
/proc/scsi/scsi
---------------
Attached devices: 
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: QUANTUM  Model: XP34550S         Rev: LXY4
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 02 Lun: 00
  Vendor: SONY     Model: SDT-7000         Rev: 0215
  Type:   Sequential-Access                ANSI SCSI revision: 02

========================================================================
Apr  3 09:36:33 ppro kernel: scsi : aborting command due to timeout : pid 57422, scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0 Write (6) 0f c7 e2 f4 00 
========================================================================
/proc/pci
---------
PCI devices found:
  Bus  0, device  14, function  0:
    SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AIC-7861 (rev 3).
      Medium devsel.  Fast back-to-back capable.  IRQ 11.  Master Capable.  Latency=32.  Min Gnt=4.Max Lat=4.
      I/O at 0x8200.
      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xe1000000.
  Bus  0, device  13, function  0:
    VGA compatible controller: ATI Mach64 VT (rev 64).
      Medium devsel.  Fast back-to-back capable.  IRQ 255.  
      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xe0000000.
      I/O at 0x8100.
  Bus  0, device  12, function  0:
    Ethernet controller: 3Com 3C900 10b Combo (rev 0).
      Medium devsel.  IRQ 10.  Master Capable.  Latency=32.  Min Gnt=3.Max Lat=8.
      I/O at 0x8000.
  Bus  0, device   7, function  1:
    IDE interface: Intel 82371SB Natoma/Triton II PIIX3 (rev 0).
      Medium devsel.  Fast back-to-back capable.  Master Capable.  Latency=32.  
      I/O at 0xf000.
  Bus  0, device   7, function  0:
    ISA bridge: Intel 82371SB Natoma/Triton II PIIX3 (rev 1).
      Medium devsel.  Fast back-to-back capable.  Master Capable.  No bursts.  
  Bus  0, device   0, function  0:
    Host bridge: Intel 82441FX Natoma (rev 2).
      Medium devsel.  Fast back-to-back capable.  Master Capable.  Latency=32.  



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