Highpoint DC7280

Highpoint DC7280

[Christian Brandt]

My company got hold of a Highpoint DC7280 for evaluation purposes. As we
weren't that much impressed - mostly due abysmal propetiary drivers and
support - I got it as a toy gift to play at home.

Abstract in novella form: it is a dirt cheap 32 Port SATA-Controller. It
features eight Marvell Chips each with a four port SATA Port Multiplier.
Highpoint has abandoned all support (as usual) right a week before
releasing it and the driver - dated 2011-06 - needs even some fiddling
to compile under 3.0. Then it crashed upon writing. Besides that it is
not THAT bad... gets around 250MB/s per Controller even with all eight
controllers under maximum load.

Is anyone else poking it with a stick?

[1] http://www.highpoint-tech.cn/PDF/DC7280/DC7280_DS.pdf

[2]
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/BIOS_Driver/DC7280/driver/Linux/dc7280-linux-src-v1.0-110621-1313.tar.gz
 (if KERNELVERSION==2.6 then... ok, so much about that one...)

-- 
Christian Brandt

 life is short and in most cases it ends with death
 but my tombstone will carry the hiscore

Re: Highpoint DC7280

[Mark Lord]

On 12-06-18 03:52 AM, Christian Brandt wrote:
> My company got hold of a Highpoint DC7280 for evaluation purposes. As we
> weren't that much impressed - mostly due abysmal propetiary drivers and
> support - I got it as a toy gift to play at home.
> 
> Abstract in novella form: it is a dirt cheap 32 Port SATA-Controller. It
> features eight Marvell Chips each with a four port SATA Port Multiplier.

It would be very interesting and useful to see the markings
on the top of the chip that is buried under that heatsink.

Most Marvell SATA chips already work with Linux..

Re: Highpoint DC7280

[Robert Hancock]

On 06/18/2012 01:52 AM, Christian Brandt wrote:
> My company got hold of a Highpoint DC7280 for evaluation purposes. As we
> weren't that much impressed - mostly due abysmal propetiary drivers and
> support - I got it as a toy gift to play at home.
>
> Abstract in novella form: it is a dirt cheap 32 Port SATA-Controller. It
> features eight Marvell Chips each with a four port SATA Port Multiplier.
> Highpoint has abandoned all support (as usual) right a week before
> releasing it and the driver - dated 2011-06 - needs even some fiddling
> to compile under 3.0. Then it crashed upon writing. Besides that it is
> not THAT bad... gets around 250MB/s per Controller even with all eight
> controllers under maximum load.
>
> Is anyone else poking it with a stick?
>
> [1] http://www.highpoint-tech.cn/PDF/DC7280/DC7280_DS.pdf
>
> [2]
> http://www.highpoint-tech.com/BIOS_Driver/DC7280/driver/Linux/dc7280-linux-src-v1.0-110621-1313.tar.gz
>   (if KERNELVERSION==2.6 then... ok, so much about that one...)
>

What does lspci -vv show for that board?

It looks like that driver contains a binary blob so who knows what it is 
actually doing internally.

Re: Highpoint DC7280

[Christian Brandt]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 613 bytes --]

Sorry for the delay, I was sick for a couple of days.

Am 19.06.2012 05:28, schrieb Robert Hancock:
> What does lspci -vv show for that board?

 Please see MIME attachment dc7280lspci-initialized.txt (for
completeness, uninitialized the IRQ is 64 and MaxPayload is 128 bytes).

> It looks like that driver contains a binary blob so who knows what it is
> actually doing internally.

 I am now done playing with ubuntu 12.04 and are going to dig a bit
deeper in using debian and a vanilla kernel.

-- 
Christian Brandt

 life is short and in most cases it ends with death
 but my tombstone will carry the hiscore


[-- Attachment #2: dc7280lspci-initialized.txt --]
[-- Type: text/plain, Size: 3574 bytes --]

84:00.0 RAID bus controller: HighPoint Technologies, Inc. Device 7280 (rev 03)
        Subsystem: HighPoint Technologies, Inc. Device 0000
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr+ Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 64
        Region 0: Memory at fbe40000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
        Region 2: Memory at fbe00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
        Expansion ROM at fbe60000 [disabled] [size=64K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2- AuxCurrent=375mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold-)
                Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
        Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
                Address: 0000000000000000  Data: 0000
        Capabilities: [70] Express (v2) Endpoint, MSI 00
                DevCap: MaxPayload 4096 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <1us, L1 <8us
                        ExtTag+ AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE+ FLReset-
                DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable+ Non-Fatal+ Fatal+ Unsupported-
                        RlxdOrd- ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop-
                        MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 512 bytes
                DevSta: CorrErr+ UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq+ AuxPwr- TransPend-
                LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 5GT/s, Width x8, ASPM unknown, Latency L0 <512ns, L1 <64us
                        ClockPM- Surprise- LLActRep- BwNot-
                LnkCtl: ASPM Disabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled- Retrain- CommClk+
                        ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
                LnkSta: Speed 5GT/s, Width x8, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
                DevCap2: Completion Timeout: Not Supported, TimeoutDis+
                DevCtl2: Completion Timeout: 50us to 50ms, TimeoutDis-
                LnkCtl2: Target Link Speed: 5GT/s, EnterCompliance- SpeedDis-, Selectable De-emphasis: -6dB
                         Transmit Margin: Normal Operating Range, EnterModifiedCompliance- ComplianceSOS-
                         Compliance De-emphasis: -6dB
                LnkSta2: Current De-emphasis Level: -6dB
        Capabilities: [100 v1] Advanced Error Reporting
                UESta:  DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-
                UEMsk:  DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq+ ACSViol-
                UESvrt: DLP+ SDES+ TLP- FCP+ CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF+ MalfTLP+ ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-
                CESta:  RxErr- BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout- NonFatalErr+
                CEMsk:  RxErr- BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout- NonFatalErr+
                AERCap: First Error Pointer: 00, GenCap+ CGenEn- ChkCap+ ChkEn-
        Capabilities: [140 v1] Virtual Channel
                Caps:   LPEVC=0 RefClk=100ns PATEntryBits=1
                Arb:    Fixed- WRR32- WRR64- WRR128-
                Ctrl:   ArbSelect=Fixed
                Status: InProgress-
                VC0:    Caps:   PATOffset=00 MaxTimeSlots=1 RejSnoopTrans-
                        Arb:    Fixed- WRR32- WRR64- WRR128- TWRR128- WRR256-
                        Ctrl:   Enable+ ID=0 ArbSelect=Fixed TC/VC=01
                        Status: NegoPending- InProgress-
        Kernel modules: dc7280

Re: Highpoint DC7280

[Robert Hancock]

On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 10:27 AM, Christian Brandt <brandtc@psi5.com> wrote:
> Sorry for the delay, I was sick for a couple of days.
>
> Am 19.06.2012 05:28, schrieb Robert Hancock:
>> What does lspci -vv show for that board?
>
>  Please see MIME attachment dc7280lspci-initialized.txt (for
> completeness, uninitialized the IRQ is 64 and MaxPayload is 128 bytes).
>
>> It looks like that driver contains a binary blob so who knows what it is
>> actually doing internally.
>
>  I am now done playing with ubuntu 12.04 and are going to dig a bit
> deeper in using debian and a vanilla kernel.

Well, it looks like it doesn't claim compatibility with anything
standard like AHCI. If it's just a pure HBA with no hardware RAID,
etc. then I'm not sure exactly why there seems to be so much code in
the driver?