SATA II NCQ and multi-port support for ICH7

SATA II NCQ and multi-port support for ICH7

[dhdurgee]

I have recently purchased an Areca ARC-5020 external eSATA II RAID to
connect to my system.  This unit supports ICH NCQ and multi-port for
multiple volumes.  I have connected it to my Intel DG41TY mainboard, which
has the Intel 82801GB I/O Controller Hub (ICH7), but I find I am only
seeing the first volume and the unit shows NCQ is inactive.

Looking at udev for the SATA-II port I see the following:

KERNEL[1247932822.419400] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.2 (pci)
UDEV_LOG=3
ACTION=add
DEVPATH=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.2
SUBSYSTEM=pci
DRIVER=ata_piix
PCI_CLASS=1018F
PCI_ID=8086:27C0
PCI_SUBSYS_ID=8086:D612
PCI_SLOT_NAME=0000:00:1f.2
MODALIAS=pci:v00008086d000027C0sv00008086sd0000D612bc01sc01i8f SEQNUM=1221

syslog shows the following:

ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: PCI INT B -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19 ata_piix
0000:00:1f.2: MAP [ P0 P2 P1 P3 ]
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: setting latency timer to 64
scsi2 : ata_piix
scsi3 : ata_piix
ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xf0e0 ctl 0xf0d0 bmdma 0xf0a0 irq 19 ata4:
SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xf0c0 ctl 0xf0b0 bmdma 0xf0a8 irq 19 ata3.00:
ATA-6: Areca   ARC-5020-VOL#00, 0100 AX, max UDMA/133 ata3.00: 1052732928
sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32) ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133
scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      Areca   ARC-5020 0100 PQ: 0 ANSI:
5 sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 1052732928 512-byte hardware sectors: (538 GB/501 GiB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't
support DPO or FUA

So NCQ is detected on the RAID unit but is not enabled and only one of the
two volumes is being seen.  Am I missing something that needs to be
enabled for the driver to support the advanced features?  Is my
configuration loading the proper driver?  If not, how can I load it?

-- Dave
-----------------------------------------------------------
dhdurgee@verizon.net
-----------------------------------------------------------

Re: SATA II NCQ and multi-port support for ICH7

[Jeff Garzik]

dhdurgee@verizon.net wrote:
> I have recently purchased an Areca ARC-5020 external eSATA II RAID to
> connect to my system.  This unit supports ICH NCQ and multi-port for
> multiple volumes.  I have connected it to my Intel DG41TY mainboard, which
> has the Intel 82801GB I/O Controller Hub (ICH7), but I find I am only
> seeing the first volume and the unit shows NCQ is inactive.
> 
> Looking at udev for the SATA-II port I see the following:
> 
> KERNEL[1247932822.419400] add      /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.2 (pci)
> UDEV_LOG=3
> ACTION=add
> DEVPATH=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.2
> SUBSYSTEM=pci
> DRIVER=ata_piix
> PCI_CLASS=1018F
> PCI_ID=8086:27C0
> PCI_SUBSYS_ID=8086:D612
> PCI_SLOT_NAME=0000:00:1f.2
> MODALIAS=pci:v00008086d000027C0sv00008086sd0000D612bc01sc01i8f SEQNUM=1221
> 
> syslog shows the following:
> 
> ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: PCI INT B -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19 ata_piix
> 0000:00:1f.2: MAP [ P0 P2 P1 P3 ]
> ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: setting latency timer to 64
> scsi2 : ata_piix
> scsi3 : ata_piix
> ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xf0e0 ctl 0xf0d0 bmdma 0xf0a0 irq 19 ata4:
> SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xf0c0 ctl 0xf0b0 bmdma 0xf0a8 irq 19 ata3.00:
> ATA-6: Areca   ARC-5020-VOL#00, 0100 AX, max UDMA/133 ata3.00: 1052732928
> sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32) ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133
> scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      Areca   ARC-5020 0100 PQ: 0 ANSI:
> 5 sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 1052732928 512-byte hardware sectors: (538 GB/501 GiB)
> sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
> sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
> sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't
> support DPO or FUA
> 
> So NCQ is detected on the RAID unit but is not enabled and only one of the
> two volumes is being seen.  Am I missing something that needs to be
> enabled for the driver to support the advanced features?  Is my
> configuration loading the proper driver?  If not, how can I load it?

ata_piix is loaded for legacy IDE emulation, and is limited by IDE 
interface in number of supported ports.  NCQ is not supported by this 
interface.

ahci driver supports "native mode", with full NCQ and all ports.

ICH7 chip usually supports both legacy IDE and native AHCI modes.

	Jeff

Re: SATA II NCQ and multi-port support for ICH7

[Tejun Heo]

Jeff Garzik wrote:
> ata_piix is loaded for legacy IDE emulation, and is limited by IDE
> interface in number of supported ports.  NCQ is not supported by this
> interface.
> 
> ahci driver supports "native mode", with full NCQ and all ports.
> 
> ICH7 chip usually supports both legacy IDE and native AHCI modes.

Also, IIRC, ich7 ahci doesn't support PMP.

-- 
tejun

Re: SATA II NCQ and multi-port support for ICH7

[Bjørn Mork]

Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@pobox.com> writes:

> ICH7 chip usually supports both legacy IDE and native AHCI modes.

No.  Only the ICH7DH, ICH7R and ICH7-M variants support AHCI.  See
http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/datashts/307013.htm

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imst/sb/cs-012304.htm lists the
Intel controller hubs with AHCI support.  Please note that this list does
*not* include ICH7, ICH8, ICH9 or ICH10 (i.e. the "plain" desktop
variants).

This has been discussed here a number of times before.  See e.g.
http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-ide@vger.kernel.org/msg02213.html

Note that you may be lucky and able to work around the problem.  It
seems that this is mostly a license restriction, preventing the
motherboard manufacturers from providing an AHCI mode in the BIOS
setup. 

Matthew Garret has made an AHCI force quirking patch for those lacking
an AHCI option: http://mjg59.livejournal.com/85504.html
I don't know if this will work with a plain ICH7.

Another option is fixing the BIOS.  I'm successfully running an ICH9 in
AHCI mode by using a BIOS meant for an identical motherboard with an
ICH9R (The motherboards in question are Asus P5K and P5KR).  But that
sort of flashing experiments are of course risky and not recommended...
It's probably better to buy a new motherboard without destroying the old
one first :-)

Just remember to pay the extra 10 dollars for the "R".


Bjørn

Re: SATA II NCQ and multi-port support for ICH7

[Jeff Garzik]

Bjørn Mork wrote:
> Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@pobox.com> writes:
> 
>> ICH7 chip usually supports both legacy IDE and native AHCI modes.
> 
> No.  Only the ICH7DH, ICH7R and ICH7-M variants support AHCI.  See
> http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/datashts/307013.htm

I was speaking generically about the ICH7-ish family, which includes all 
those variants you listed.

Because, as you aptly demonstrated, it is pedantic to simply repeat a 
long list of ICH7 chips...

	Jeff

Re: SATA II NCQ and multi-port support for ICH7

[Robert Hancock]

On 07/22/2009 07:15 AM, dhdurgee@verizon.net wrote:
> I have recently purchased an Areca ARC-5020 external eSATA II RAID to
> connect to my system.  This unit supports ICH NCQ and multi-port for
> multiple volumes.  I have connected it to my Intel DG41TY mainboard, which
> has the Intel 82801GB I/O Controller Hub (ICH7), but I find I am only
> seeing the first volume and the unit shows NCQ is inactive.

...

> So NCQ is detected on the RAID unit but is not enabled and only one of the
> two volumes is being seen.  Am I missing something that needs to be
> enabled for the driver to support the advanced features?  Is my
> configuration loading the proper driver?  If not, how can I load it?

The SATA controller is in the legacy PIIX mode which doesn't support 
most SATA-specific features. You need to switch it into AHCI mode 
(should be a BIOS setting for it somewhere) and then the ahci driver 
will get used instead of ata_piix.

Re: SATA II NCQ and multi-port support for ICH7

[dhdurgee]

In <4A68CF40.1050708@kernel.org>, on 07/24/2009 
   at 05:59 AM, Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org> said:

>dhdurgee@verizon.net wrote:
>>> The chipset needs to be ich7r and bios needs to allocate resource for the
>>> AHCI BAR.  There are patches floating around to allocate ABAR from the
>>> kernel but it isn't in the mainline kernel and I'm skeptical it will be.
>> 
>> As I noted in my original message, this is an Intel DG41TY mainboard which
>> has the Intel 82801GB I/O Controller Hub (ICH7) according to my
>> documentation.  I also posted information from my udev and syslog to
>> provide additional details in my original message.  Can you tell me if
>> this is supported for AHCI?  Is there a test program available I can
>> download and run to verify it?

>If the DID is 0x27c0, I think it supports ahci but I'm not entirely sure.

The DID is indeed 0x27c0, as shown in the udev file I first posted.

>> You note that patches are available to allocate ABAR from the kernel. I
>> installed linux mint x64 from their LiveCD.  Would it be possible to apply
>> such a patch, assuming that I can determine my chipset will support it?

>Sorry but you're on your own.  It might or might not work depending on
>the layout of iomem and memory layout (the reason why it's not in
>upstream).

Perhaps I will look into this later.  As this is a multiboot system with
at least one operating system, FreeDOS, that I suspect will not ever have
AHCI support it would be nice to be able to leave it in IDE mode and have
the operating systems that support AHCI enable it when they boot as
opposed to having to change a BIOS setting when changing from one
operating system to the other.

I have been exchanging e-mails with Intel tech support, perhaps I can
convince them that the BIOS is in need of such an option and get it added,
of course pigs may fly to the moon before this is available. I am somewhat
hopeful, as they have been issuing BIOS updates every three months for
this mainboard and perhaps this was just overlooked for some strange
reason.

>>> 3132 has a bandwidth bottleneck.  It can't keep many packets in flight on
>>> pcie bus and the throughput is usually capped somewhere around 150MB/s
>>> IIRC.  If the board supports larger pcie payload size (some exotic boards
>>> do), the performance goes up tho.
>> 
>> Given the SiI 3132 chipset has a bandwidth bottleneck what chipset should
>> I be looking for in a PCIe x1 card?

>Gen2 marvell controllers support PMP too but I don't have any first hand
>experience with them.  You can ask Mark Lord for more information, I guess.
>Also, please keep linux-ide cc'd so that people can look things up later.

I have added it to this e-mail, but I hadn't thought to check earlier
messages for the "CC" field.  In fact the e-mail I am responding to lacked
the "CC", so unless you "BCC"'ed it is out of the thread.

>> As I am going to use the card to
>> connect to an external RAID unit I don't need RAID function in the card
>> itself, just the NCQ and PMP support to work with my RAID unit.  The SiI
>> 3132 seems to be the basis for many of the cards I see available to me
>> locally.  I see one card using the "JMB360" chipset, but I can't say I
>> know much about it.

>JMB360 is an ahci controller.  ahci PMP support upto ahci1.1 doesn't
>support FIS-based switching and performance is likely quite lower than
>sil3132.

In that case I will leave JMB360 chipsets out of consideration.  I am
going to continue to see what I can do with the existing ICH7 first. If I
find support insufficient for my needs I will look and see if I have
further information about the second generation Marvell chipset that
indicates it would work better thant the SiI 3132 and what cards it is
available in.

Thanks again for your responses to my questions.

-- Dave
-----------------------------------------------------------
dhdurgee@verizon.net
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