Promise 20319 chipset specs opened
Promise has given me permission to post hardware programming info for one of their chips (Linux driver: sata_promise), PDC20319. This also marks the first open chipset for Promise (AFAIK), so let's give them a round of applause.
The PDC20319 is a reasonably representative example of the hardware programming interface covered by sata_promise. Kernel developers wishing to work on sata_promise can study this doc, and deduce how the two-port PDC2037x chips work.
In addition to describing the "packet" format for ATA and ATAPI commands, this doc also describes how to use the chip's XOR RAID-assist features. I think it would be cool if someone so motivated found a way to use this efficiently under Linux.
The doc:
http://gkernel.sourceforge.net/specs/promise/pdc20319.pdf.bz2
I have also updated the list open chipsets and developer resources on linux-ata.org:
http://linux-ata.org/driver-status.html#open_chipsets
http://linux-ata.org/devel.html
Have fun!
Jeff
More Promise chipset specs opened
Quoted 1 line · Jeff Garzik
Promise has given me permission to post hardware programming info for one of their chips (Linux driver:
sata_promise), PDC20319. This also marks the first open chipset for Promise (AFAIK), so let's give them a round of applause.
I missed an email from Promise which supplied even more chipset docs to open. Whoops. The entire line supported by sata_promise.c should now be open:
2037x:
http://gkernel.sourceforge.net/specs/promise/pdc2037x%20series%20development%20guide.pdf.bz2
20319 (updated link, updated doc):
http://gkernel.sourceforge.net/specs/promise/pdc20319%20development%20guide.pdf.bz2
205xx (the newer NCQ chips):
http://gkernel.sourceforge.net/specs/promise/pdc205xx%20development%20guide%201.0.pdf.bz2
Cheers,
Jeff