Re: Promise SX8 performance issues and CARM_MAX_Q

Jeff Garzik
2005-03-23T23:16:36Z

Bernard Blackham wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Playing with a recently acquired Promise SX8 card, we've found
> similar performance results to Matt's post to lkml a few months back
> at http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=110175890323356&w=2
>
> It appears that the driver is only submitting one command at a time
> per port, which is at least one cause of the slowdowns. By raising
> CARM_MAX_Q from 1 to 3 in drivers/block/sx8.c (it was 3 in an
> earlier pre-merge incarnation of carmel.c), we're getting very
> notable speed improvements, with no side effects just yet.
>
> Knowing very little about what this change has actually done, I've a
> few questions:
>
> - Should this be considered dangerous?
> - Why was it taken from 3 to 1?
> - Is CARM_MAX_Q a number defined (or limited) by the hardware?

In multi-port stress tests, we couldn't get SX8 to function reliably
without locking up or corrupting data, with more than one outstanding
command.

Maybe a new firmware has solved this by now.

Jeff