Hardware Wanted

wtb: a PCI-X sata controller supported by linux

Y888099
Who joined July 11, 2016, 11 a.m.

Wrote the following at March 29, 2017, 12:38 p.m...

Never used, so I have no idea.
What do you suggest?
And have you got a unit for sale?
Let me know

I have one slot available, it's PCI-X, 64 bit, 66Mhz, 3.3V

Head Full of Snow. Lemon Scented You

jpstewart
Donor
From Southwestern Ontario, Canada
Who joined Sept. 21, 2010, 3:31 p.m.

Wrote the following at March 30, 2017, 8:03 a.m...

I always liked the LSI SAS/SATA controllers. The LSI SAS3080X in particular is fairly cheap and easy to find on ebay. It has 8 internal SAS/SATA ports, but you'll need the appropriate breakout cable(s). There are other models with only external ports or a mix of internal and external, depending on what your needs are. The important thing is the X at the end of the model number to indicate the PCI-X version of the card. There's also a 3080E which is PCI-Express, so stay away from that!

Sun SPARCstation 20, Blade 2500, T5240
HP C8000

Y888099
Who joined July 11, 2016, 11 a.m.

Wrote the following at March 30, 2017, 9:36 a.m...

Thanks for your answer.

jpstewart wrote: your needs are

I need more space, I need to connect two internal hard drives. My HPPA workstation is SCSI UW/DIFF. Since a brand new 150GB SCSI hard drive is listed at 150 euro, whereas a SATA 1TB hard drive is listed at 50 euro, and I need 300GB of space, I am moving to SATA. Fortunately I don't need HPUX, linux is fine, so I have just to find the right controller.

Head Full of Snow. Lemon Scented You

jan-jaap
Donor
From Wijchen, The Netherlands
Who joined June 17, 2004, 11:35 a.m.

Wrote the following at March 30, 2017, 12:04 p.m...

Beware that the older LSI SATA II controllers mentioned here are limited to 2TB disks.

To accentuate the special identity of the IRIS 4D/70, Silicon Graphics' designers selected a new color palette. The machine's coating blends dark grey, raspberry and beige colors into a pleasing harmony. ( IRIS 4D/70 Superworkstation Technical Report )

Y888099
Who joined July 11, 2016, 11 a.m.

Wrote the following at March 30, 2017, 2:45 p.m...

jan-jaap wrote: Beware that the older LSI SATA II controllers mentioned here are limited to 2TB disks.

Thanks, it's not a problem for me, bought two disks, of 1GB each

Head Full of Snow. Lemon Scented You

Y888099
Who joined July 11, 2016, 11 a.m.

Wrote the following at April 1, 2017, 8:39 a.m...

What do you think about Marvell 88SX6081?
It should be < 3Gbps, PCI-X 64-bit @ 66MHz
but I believe ~ 100MB/s on each SATA port.

Head Full of Snow. Lemon Scented You

mattst88
From Hillsboro, OR
Who joined July 13, 2005, 9:54 a.m.

Wrote the following at April 1, 2017, 1:06 p.m...

I've had good experiences with the Syba SY-PCX40009. 4 ports, 64-bit PCI (I think 66MHz+). It does 64-bit DMA. Supported by the sata_sil (CONFIG_SATA_SIL) driver (or maybe it's the sata_sil24/CONFIG_SATA_SIL24?). It's about $30 on eBay.

My computers (incomplete)

Y888099
Who joined July 11, 2016, 11 a.m.

Wrote the following at April 2, 2017, 2:31 a.m...

interesting

kernel v4.9.* seems to have interesting sATA stuff under SCSI's kconfig (does it make sense?)
e.g. drivers/scsi/Makefile:obj-$(CONFIG_BLK_DEV_3W_XXXX_RAID) += 3w-xxxx
which points me to 3Ware 's stuff

3Ware cards are usually well supported on Linux.
Theses cards are often considered as some of the bests hardware RAID controllers for GNU/Linux or BSD systems.
3Ware supports Linux and provide an opensource kernel driver which has been part of Linux for ages

2. Linux kernel drivers
There are two drivers for 3ware cards:

Driver Supported cards
3w_xxxx 3Ware Eskalad 7000 and 8000 series
3w_9xxx 3Ware Eskaled 9000 series

You should not expect any problems with theses drivers which are known to be mature and stable.
We don't know any current Linux distribution which miss theses drivers so no additional step should be required to get it working.

Does someone confirm it? On Kernels v4.9.* as well ?

These cards exist in PCI-X @ 66Mhz, around ~50 euro , acceptable for me, but I want to be sure it's a good choice.

I am tempted by 3Ware Escalade 8506-4LP

Head Full of Snow. Lemon Scented You

mattst88
From Hillsboro, OR
Who joined July 13, 2005, 9:54 a.m.

Wrote the following at April 2, 2017, 8:25 a.m...

I have some 3ware cards, and I was annoyed by them. They have a BIOS program that sets up the disks, and I wasn't able to use it as a result in my MIPS system.

The SATA_SIL card I recommended had no such problem.

My computers (incomplete)

Y888099
Who joined July 11, 2016, 11 a.m.

Wrote the following at April 2, 2017, 9:24 a.m...

mattst88 wrote: in my MIPS system.

Octane2?

mattst88 wrote: The SATA_SIL card I recommended had no such problem

Perfect for my HPPA workstation, going to buy a couple of SIL

But let me understand about 3Ware. I don't need to setup raid, I mean in that case it will be soft-raid (done by Kernel).
Can 3Ware be used as "simple" sata interface? What I really need is a fast interface.

Head Full of Snow. Lemon Scented You

mattst88
From Hillsboro, OR
Who joined July 13, 2005, 9:54 a.m.

Wrote the following at April 2, 2017, 9:48 a.m...

The MIPS system I have sata_sil on is a Broadcom BCM91250a .

As far as I remember, I was not able to access any drives on the 3ware card without configuring them in the BIOS program.

My computers (incomplete)