FreeBSD 6.2 on SPARC64/x86 with Promise IDE Controller

[Danny Knaggs]

Any news/updates on this?

Every thing has gone silent!


Joao Barros wrote:
> I think nullpt sent you off track when he told you to try 
> freebsd-performance.
> I believe this is an issue for drivers and/or sparc (or maybe current)
> 
> I think I have a TX2 too. I can try it on my Ultra 5 if more testing
> is required.
> 
> PS: I'm cc'ing Søren Schmidt, he's the maintainer of most of the ata 
> drivers
> 
> 
> On 4/6/07, Danny Knaggs <knaggsy2000 at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> Hello all!
>>
>> This is first time I've used a mailing list, so bear with me!
>>
>>
>> I've been asked to submit my findings of the ata driver in FreeBSD 6.2
>> on my sparc64 and x86 box from bsdforums.org.
>>
>> Link to my thread: http://www.bsdforums.org/forums/showthread.php?t=48682
>>
>>
>> I've just installed a Promise IDE Controller card (Ultra 133 TX2 -
>> PDC20269) in my Sun Ultra 10 and have come across a slight snag.
>>
>> If I don't put in "hw.ata.ata_dma=0" in the loader options I get DMA
>> timeout errors after it has queried the HDD on the Promise controller.
>>
>> I have found a link which someone else has a similar problem (NetBSD on
>> Alpha) which maybe useful:
>> http://archive.netbsd.se/?ml=freebsd-alpha&a=2007-02&t=3177803
>>
>> Now, after BSD has loaded I can successfully change the DMA mode to
>> UDMA66 on the HDD without any problems (get ~30MB/s transfer rate,
>> compared to ~15MB/s when using the on-board controller using "dd"). Any
>> higher and I get DMA timeout messages.
>>
>> The HDD works fine when it's attached to the on-board controller.
>>
>>
>> Now, I thought I try the same Promise IDE card in x86 box with FreeBSD
>> 6.2 and found something interesting...
>>
>> The HDD will not operate correctly at UDMA133 - it performs very slowly
>> (<15Mb/s).
>>
>> Forcing the HDD to run at UDMA100 gives me 64Mb/s transfer. Which is
>> roughly what I expect.
>>
>>
>> So, it seems something is broken with the ATA driver - Sparc/Alpha
>> getting the worse of it!
>>
>> If anyone has ideas/brainwaves/etc - I'm willing to give it a whirl!
>>
>>
>> Thanks in advance.
>>
>>
>> Dan.
>>
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> 
>