Adaptec 29160N

[Doug Ledford]

Karl-Heinz Herrmann wrote:
> 
> On 18-May-00 Doug Ledford wrote:
> > It handles the low level protocol communications between the
> > controller
> > card and the devices and it also is responsible for the majority of
> > the
> > communications between the card and the kernel level driver.
> 
> Now I'm curious: The code which handles all the communications (devices
> and back to the OS/kernel) is downloaded *into* the card when it's
> initialised? Or did I get something wrong here?

That's right.

> That seems like a quite central part of the card Firmware and I'm
> astonished that this is changed regular basis by the OS....

Far easier to change it in software than in hardware.  Besides, the Sequencer
RAM on the card is volatile, so you have to download the code with every
reboot as a minimum (the BIOS on the card does the same thing, only it
downloads Adaptec's sequencer code, then we overwrite that with our own).

-- 

 Doug Ledford <dledford at redhat.com>  http://people.redhat.com/dledford
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