Which SCSI card?

[Matthias Andree]

Am 10.09.2010, 03:44 Uhr, schrieb Dan Langille:

> At present, this is the SCSI card I've been using with my old Digital  
> tape library:
>
> ahc0: <Adaptec 2944 Ultra SCSI adapter> port 0x9800-0x98ff mem  
> 0xfbaff000-0xfbafffff irq 21 at device 6.0 on pci1
>
> Now, I seem to recall that the library is an LVD device (is that correct  
> terminology?).

Low Voltage Differential (as opposed to SE, single ended), yes, makes  
sense.

> The card seems to be acting up.  What SCSI card would you recommend over  
> that one?  I'm on FreeBSD 8.1-stable.

Haven't tried FreeBSD 8-STABLE there, but 7.1-RELEASE-p2 was fine with my  
Tekram DC-390U2W, using sym(4) driver - be sure to check which connectors  
you need though and if the PCI interface fits mechanically on your  
mainboard; the U2WE and U3* are 64/32-bit PCI. They will work in 32-bit  
slots unless capacitors or chips get in the way of the extra 64-bit  
contacts.

With single-channel controllers without bridge chip, you can use at most  
two connectors at any one time, unless they have a SCSI bridge chip. With  
bridge or for dual-channel, it's more.

For connector layout, see

http://www.tekram.com.tw/ProductSpec.ASP?Product=DC-390U2_Series
http://www.tekram.com.tw/ProductSpec.ASP?Product=DC-390U3D_U3W

List of some Tekram controllers I know, those marked with asterisk (*)  
I've used with FreeBSD, those with a plus I've used with Linux - usually  
they also work with FreeBSD; those with ? I'm not sure about if I've used  
them.  I bought a bunch of the DC390 series Tekrams cheap a couple of  
years ago because my Adaptec 2940AU and 2940UW Pro were also acting up...  
not sure if the Adaptecs suffer from capacitor wear or whatnot.

Tekram model numbers with chips and partial feature:

amd(4) driver, non-LVD:

* DC390:  AMD53C974 based SCSI 8 bit 10 MHz (10 MByte/s), amd(4) driver,  
last used with FreeBSD 4
   DC390T: AMD53C974 based dual-channel version of DC390. Never seen or  
used one.

sym(4) driver, non-LVD (DC310 has no BIOS):

   DC310:  SYM53C810A (be sure to get an "A" version, the non-A is less  
efficient and uses ncr(4))
+ DC310U: SYM53C860 based SCSI 8 bit 20 MHz without BIOS (20 MByte/s)
* DC390U: SYM53C875 based SCSI 8 bit 20 MHz (20 MByte/s), used to cause  
driver issues with some wide devices on some OSes
? DC390F: SYM53C875 based SCSI 16bit 20 MHz (40 MByte/s)

sym(4) LVD stuff:

   DC390U2B:  SYM53C895 based SCSI 16 bit Ultra 2 (80 MByte/s)
* DC390U2W:  SYM53C895 + SYM53C141 bridge based SCSI 16 bit Ultra (80  
MByte/s).
   DC390U2WE: SYM53C896. 64bit PCI. Seems to be dual-channel with 80  
MByte/s per channel.
   DC390U3W:  SYM53C1010, never used it, Ultra 160 SCSI, 64 bit PCI
   DC390U3D:  dual-channel version of the U3W

Possibly DawiControl 2980U2W might work and has hardware similar to one of  
the Tekram DC390U2* devices, but I'm not sure if sym(4) understands the  
BIOS/device settings.

mpt(4) LVD stuff (Ultra 320) - I've never used those.

   DC390U4B: PCI-X 53C1020 based (mpt(4) driver), never used one
   DC390U4W: PCI-X 53C1030 based (mpt(4) driver), never used one

Then there are DC315* and DC395* based host adaptors. They use a Tekram  
ASIC and trm(4) driver, I have zero clue if they work.

HTH

-- 
Matthias Andree