Intel ICH5 SATA 150 disk controller support? (Louis LeBlanc)

[David D.W. Downey]

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 17:39:53 -0400, Ron Dzierwa <rondzierwa at comcast.net> wrote:
> Lou,
> 
> if people would stop slapping Soren on the back, and telling him what a
> wonderful job he's doing, and, instead, require him to make his driver
> work, i think we would all be better off.
> 
<SNIP RANT>

While I understand your anger, as I have the ICH5 as well on this Asus
P4P800-E Deluxe mainboard with 875 chipet, I think you need to
understand something.

Not sure your hardware knowledge levels so a brief explanation
follows. The ICH controller built into most mainboards these days are
*not* true hardware RAID controllers.  They contain *very* basic
'stub' information with the windows driver doing the main work of
controlling the device. There is enough logic to create the RAID
entries and assign drives to them and even format them. However the
*control* logic for normal operation is contained in the windows
driver. We see this all the time since the PnP craze started. (Think
back to 56K rockwell chipset modems which were hardware based and then
to the HC? modems which were built into motherboards but flaked like
crazy since they were windows driver controlled.)

The ICH5 chipset is indeed supported under Linux, Windows, and
FreeBSD. The problem is  that the *chipset* can be accessed but the
manufacturers rarely release the *full* specs to controller operations
publicly which makes writing solid drivers for Unix systems next to
impossible. These were designed with *Windows* in mind and it's IO
subsystem which is both a strategic market move and aimed at mass
market deployment. (Think mama and papa that have Jr. that needs a
PC.)

Having used, assisted development of, and developed certifications
for, various closed and open sourced Unices for over 12 years now,
this is something I've seen time and time again. And I have to refute
your claim that the ICH5 works under linux. It's *BARELY* works under
linux for the reasons I've stated above. Using Windows-intended
hardware under any type of *nix is a crapshoot at best.

-- 
David D.W. Downey