From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Mark Lord Subject: Re: FW: ICH10R PMP support Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:11:36 -0400 Message-ID: <48609E28.8040300@pobox.com> References: <023701c8d4dd$d737fa10$85a7ee30$@com> <485F6830.1040000@pobox.com> <028401c8d549$7dfab390$79f01ab0$@com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from a-sasl-quonix.sasl.smtp.pobox.com ([208.72.237.25]:48158 "EHLO sasl.smtp.pobox.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751405AbYFXHLx (ORCPT ); Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:11:53 -0400 In-Reply-To: <028401c8d549$7dfab390$79f01ab0$@com> Sender: linux-ide-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-ide@vger.kernel.org To: Milo Medin Cc: linux-ide@vger.kernel.org Milo Medin wrote: > Mark, thanks very much for the reply. Sounds like the 88SX7042 is a good solution. A couple more questions: > > 1) There seems to be talk on the mailing list about a bug where on highpoint controllers using this chip the controller corrupts some data on non-raid disk members. I assume this is caused by the specific firmware on highpoint controllers using this chip, and that if I use a non highpoint version of the 88SX7042 that I won't see this problem. .. The firmware on the Highpoint RAID cards unconditionally overwrites sectors on any attached drives, before booting any O/S. Never plug a drive that already has data on it into any Highpoint RAID card. But for new drives, just partition around the firmware areas and you'll be fine. There are notes (and a WARNING) in the driver source code regarding those. Avoid sectors 1..63 (cannot boot from this controller as a result), and avoid the final (full!) GB of each drive. > 2) You said this is the best marvell solution for Linux at this time. Is there a better SATA controller that I should be thinking about other than the 88SX7042? I know the ICH9R's had good performance, but no FIS switching for PMP's. .. Dunno. I think everyone in the biz is going to AHCI style controllers now. Cheers -- Mark Lord Real-Time Remedies Inc. mlord@pobox.com