Nekonomicon - adaptec 2944

loonvf
From Netherlands
Who joined May 5, 2004, 12:15 a.m.

Wrote the following at June 2, 2005, 1:02 p.m...

Hi all,

Since I have a nice HVD SCSI disk array which I would like to connect to my O2 I bought the adaptec AHA-2944

this link shows how to do it:

http://badideas.webicommerce.com/2944hack.html

touch 2944.pl
put the code in the 2944.pl file
save the file
chmod 750 2944.pl
the I did: 2944.pl /var/sysgen/boot/adp78.o
I only get this as output:
root>perl 2944.pl adp78.o
replaced...
root>

But the file did not change compared to the original one.

Perhaps anyone has an idea?

Thanks in advance,

Francois

nekonoko
Site Admin
From Pleasanton, California
Who joined Jan. 23, 2003, 1:31 a.m.

Wrote the following at June 2, 2005, 1:30 p.m...

Hmm, this looks like a similar hack to the gigabit cards posted a while ago - but this has a Perl script to do the work

Honestly I'm not much of a Perl guru so I'm not sure why it's not working for you, but if the first occurrence of 0x8178 just needs to be replaced with 0x8478 you could modify it via a hex editor.

Code: Select all


   [Megumi:~] neko 13% od -x /var/sysgen/boot/adp78.o | grep 8178
   

   0014420 3405 8178 0000 3825 3c06 0000 0c00 0000
   

   0015260 3409 8178 1049 0065 0240 2025 0000 2825

There are only two occurrences of 0x8178 in adp78.o that I can see so that limits the field a bit.

Twitter: @neko_no_ko
IRIX Release 4.0.5 IP12 Version 06151813 System V
Copyright 1987-1992 Silicon Graphics, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

recondas
Moderator
From NC - USA
Who joined June 6, 2004, 5:55 p.m.

Wrote the following at June 2, 2005, 2:18 p.m...

I grabbed a copy of the samething from google a while back 'cause I've got a 2944 still in the factory shrink wrap <that I "might" use someday>. I haven't tried it yet - how about a post if you decide to try it and it works?

loonvf
From Netherlands
Who joined May 5, 2004, 12:15 a.m.

Wrote the following at June 2, 2005, 2:48 p.m...

allright, my stupid thing.

I looked into the perl code and it needs an input and an output like this:

2944.pl /var/sysgen/boot/adp78.o_org /var/sysgen/boot/adp78.o

you need to do this twice since it replaces the 8178 only once per run
and as Nekonoko already discovered, it is in there twice.

now my hinv for my O2 looks like this:

root>hinv
CPU: MIPS R10000 Processor Chip Revision: 2.7
FPU: MIPS R10010 Floating Point Chip Revision: 0.0
1 195 MHZ IP32 Processor
Main memory size: 384 Mbytes
Secondary unified instruction/data cache size: 1 Mbyte on Processor 0
Instruction cache size: 32 Kbytes
Data cache size: 32 Kbytes
FLASH PROM version 4.18
Integral SCSI controller 0: Version ADAPTEC 7880
Disk drive: unit 2 on SCSI controller 0
CDROM: unit 4 on SCSI controller 0
Integral SCSI controller 1: Version ADAPTEC 7880
PCI SCSI controller 2: Version ADAPTEC 7880
On-board serial ports: tty1
On-board serial ports: tty2
On-board EPP/ECP parallel port
CRM graphics installed
Integral Ethernet: ec0, version 1
Iris Audio Processor: version A3 revision 0
Video: MVP unit 0 version 1.4
with no AV Card or Camera.
Vice: TRE
root>

but I have not been able to see the connected drives yet.
I now go to sleep and let you guys think about it.

Thanks in advance,

Francois
[/quote]

loonvf
From Netherlands
Who joined May 5, 2004, 12:15 a.m.

Wrote the following at June 2, 2005, 3:05 p.m...

yes it is late for me.

I thought that I had connected the drive array but it was not connected.

I shutdown the O2 and connected the scsi drive array correctly this time.

Started the O2 and after booting and login, I noticed 6 nice icons of extra disks

This seems to work.

Tomorrow I will initialize some disks and do some testing.

goodnight

loonvf
From Netherlands
Who joined May 5, 2004, 12:15 a.m.

Wrote the following at June 3, 2005, 2:42 a.m...

Allright,

So I was able to initialize a disk.
This evening I will try to build a disk stripe and do some speed tests.

So the 2944 seems to be a working HVD SCSI adapter for the O2

Nice since I have a few Discreet 3x6x4GB HVD SCSI disk arrays
which I now can use with my O2, Octane and Onyx2/SE

nekonoko
Site Admin
From Pleasanton, California
Who joined Jan. 23, 2003, 1:31 a.m.

Wrote the following at June 6, 2005, 11:25 p.m...

Very cool that you got it working! I'll have to add a link to that page on the blog - don't think I've ever run across it before.

Twitter: @neko_no_ko
IRIX Release 4.0.5 IP12 Version 06151813 System V
Copyright 1987-1992 Silicon Graphics, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

recondas
Moderator
From NC - USA
Who joined June 6, 2004, 5:55 p.m.

Wrote the following at June 7, 2005, 6:25 a.m...

loonvf wrote: Allright,

So the 2944 seems to be a working HVD SCSI adapter for the O2

Thanks for the hard work and update :wink:

loonvf wrote: This evening I will try to build a disk stripe and do some speed tests.

I'll watch for it

loonvf wrote: Nice since I have a few Discreet 3x6x4GB HVD SCSI disk arrays
which I now can use with my O2, Octane and Onyx2/SE

Your post was good timing for me - I was at an auction last Friday and ended up with the winning bid on a lot of four Sun D1000 dual channel 12 disk arrays. Externally they connect via HVD - internally the HVD is converted to LVD/SE. I'll probably try the 2944 hack <thanks again>, but may pick up a HVD card or XIO board for the octane to get two HVD busses.

fu
From constant traveler [nyc/london/berlin]
Who joined Sept. 29, 2005, 9:39 a.m.

Wrote the following at Nov. 29, 2007, 5:46 p.m...

this thread is already part of the o2 hw 'gator but before i buy a 2944 for my o2 (which has to recover from its necrophania), i'd like to ask the following:

(after browsing david's gallery i remembered that) i do have some avid rS drives lying around which are vhdci externally:

Code: Select all


   will i miss anything important (scsi-wise) if i just use a vhdci<-->hd68 cable..?

btw @recondas:
david your neko:gallery is some kind of visual library for me...
especially your "spares" pics provide visual pointers for stuff i've (long) forgotten but might come handy some day (not that my spares collection is as big as yours - i usually throw/give away things i don't use)

thinking twice about it your pics are a visual octane hw aggregator

: Avid rS MediaDrives

recondas
Moderator
From NC - USA
Who joined June 6, 2004, 5:55 p.m.

Wrote the following at Nov. 29, 2007, 6:03 p.m...

fu - as far as I known the Adaptec 7880 stuff is O2 only.

QLogic PCI SCSI does work in an Octane. Those Avid rS's are striped across both ports of a QLogic QLA12160:

Code: Select all


   Integral SCSI controller 3: Version QL12160, low voltage differential
   

   Disk drive: unit 2 on SCSI controller 3 (unit 2)
   

   Disk drive: unit 3 on SCSI controller 3 (unit 3)
   

   Integral SCSI controller 4: Version QL12160, low voltage differential
   

   Disk drive: unit 4 on SCSI controller 4 (unit 4)
   

   Disk drive: unit 5 on SCSI controller 4 (unit 5)

I used them along with an Octane Compression as video capture drives. Here's a copy of the results I got with a diskperf test:

Code: Select all


   mkfile 2000m testfile && diskperf -W -D testfile
   

   #---------------------------------------------------------
   

   # Disk Performance Test Results Generated By Diskperf V1.2
   

   #
   

   # Test name     : Unspecified
   

   # Test date     : Wed Apr 11 16:05:53 2007
   

   # Test machine  : IRIX64 octane 6.5 07010238 IP30
   

   # Test type     : XFS striped data subvolume
   

   # Test path     : testfile
   

   # Disk striping : group=4  unit=128
   

   # Request sizes : min=262144 max=4194304
   

   # Parameters    : direct=1 time=10 scale=1.000 delay=0.000
   

   # XFS file size : 2097152000 bytes
   

   #---------------------------------------------------------
   

   # req_size  fwd_wt  fwd_rd  bwd_wt  bwd_rd  rnd_wt  rnd_rd
   

   #  (bytes)  (MB/s)  (MB/s)  (MB/s)  (MB/s)  (MB/s)  (MB/s)
   

   #---------------------------------------------------------
   

   262144  125.04  138.50   69.80   29.54   56.75   27.99
   

   524288  133.77  141.46   37.35   62.46   35.77   47.79
   

   1048576  136.91  141.01   37.54   75.01   38.24   69.20
   

   2097152  137.44  141.13   61.14   98.80   58.89   94.23
   

   4194304  137.73  141.09   91.64  116.12   88.67  110.49

***********************************************************************
Welcome to ARMLand - 0/0x0d00
running...(sherwood-root 0607201829)
* InfiniteReality/Reality Software, IRIX 6.5 Release *
***********************************************************************

fu
From constant traveler [nyc/london/berlin]
Who joined Sept. 29, 2005, 9:39 a.m.

Wrote the following at Nov. 29, 2007, 6:14 p.m...

recondas wrote: fu - as far as I known the Adaptec 7880 stuff is O2 only.

yes i remember that

i mean i can use a vhdci-hd68 cable to hook the rS drives to the o2, can't i?

thanks for the diskperf results

recondas
Moderator
From NC - USA
Who joined June 6, 2004, 5:55 p.m.

Wrote the following at Nov. 29, 2007, 6:28 p.m...

fu wrote: i mean i can use a vhdci-hd68 cable to hook the rS drives to the o2, can't i?

The Avid rS drives I have are hd68 <and *low voltage* differential, so the *high voltage* differential 2944 won't work> - The external SCSI connection on the O2 is SE SCSI, so that will work with the Avids. If you add an Adaptec 2940UW in the PCI slot you could stripe the drives across both SCSI busses for a performance increase. I did pretty much the same thing for video capture on the 400MHz O2 I used to have.

***********************************************************************
Welcome to ARMLand - 0/0x0d00
running...(sherwood-root 0607201829)
* InfiniteReality/Reality Software, IRIX 6.5 Release *
***********************************************************************

fu
From constant traveler [nyc/london/berlin]
Who joined Sept. 29, 2005, 9:39 a.m.

Wrote the following at Nov. 29, 2007, 6:32 p.m...

recondas wrote: The external SCSI connection on the O2 is SE SCSI, so that will work with the Avids.

check

recondas wrote: If you add an Adaptec 2940UW in the PCI slot you could stripe the drives across both SCSI busses for a performance increase.

check (i do have an extra 2940UW in the o2)

sweet!

sorted: my rS drives are labeled Ultra 160/LVD , but i got baffled by B+H's page that suggests a vhdci cable

[scsi terminology always makes me dizzy

]

Snow123
Who joined March 25, 2008, 7:03 a.m.

Wrote the following at March 25, 2008, 7:12 a.m...

This evening I will try to build a disk stripe and do some speed tests. :!:

SGI: Hardware

adaptec 2944