SATA II NCQ and multi-port support for ICH7
A message that is not in the archive (sent off-list or not yet received): [email protected]
In <[email protected]>, on 07/24/2009
Quoted 5 lines · Tejun Heo
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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[email protected]
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SATA II NCQ and multi-port add-on card (PCI or PCIe x1)
In reply to a message not in the archiveIn <[email protected]>, on 07/24/2009
Quoted 5 lines · Tejun Heo
Quoted 4 lines · [email protected] wrote:
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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.
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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.
Well I just received "the final word" from Intel regarding AHCI on my DG41TY mainboard. It appear thats despite having the ICH7 chipset on it this particular board lacks the other hardware required to support AHCI. It is not simply a case of adding a BIOS option, so I will be in the market at some point for an add-on card.
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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).
If I can believe what Intel told me this point is now moot, the board can't support AHCI even if I attempted to enable it.
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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.
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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.
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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 think I can leave JMB360 out of my plans.
In addition to the SiI3132 chipset I am also seeing cards with the SiI3531 chipset. I see one of these for $12 shipped to me, so it certainly is reasonably priced! Is this a good alternative to the SiI3132, or are there better alternatives?
As noted in my subject, I am now seeking an add-on card and have only PCI and PCIe-x1 slots available to place it in. I am open for any recommendations of particular chipsets and cards. The ARC-5020 can support SiI, Intel, Nvidia and Marvell NCQ methods, so I am flexible in that area.
Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide me in this area.
-- Dave
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[email protected]
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Re: SATA II NCQ and multi-port add-on card (PCI or PCIe x1)
Hello,
Quoted 5 lines · [email protected] wrote:
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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 think I can leave JMB360 out of my plans.
Well, intel ahcis don't support FIS based switching yet either.
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In addition to the SiI3132 chipset I am also seeing cards with the SiI3531 chipset. I see one of these for $12 shipped to me, so it certainly is reasonably priced! Is this a good alternative to the SiI3132, or are there better alternatives?
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As noted in my subject, I am now seeking an add-on card and have only PCI and PCIe-x1 slots available to place it in. I am open for any recommendations of particular chipsets and cards. The ARC-5020 can support SiI, Intel, Nvidia and Marvell NCQ methods, so I am flexible in that area.
Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide me in this area.
I know sil3132 generally works well although it's quirky at times and has bandwidth limitation. Mark, how well do marvell chips preform? Do they have performance limitations like 3132s?
Thanks.
Signature · 1 line
tejun
Re: SATA II NCQ and multi-port add-on card (PCI or PCIe x1)
Quoted 4 lines · Tejun Heo
I know sil3132 generally works well although it's quirky at times and has bandwidth limitation. Mark, how well do marvell chips preform? Do they have performance limitations like 3132s?
..
They don't seem to have any significant bottlenecks, so performance is limited only by the bus-width for the card/slot into which it gets inserted.
Up to a point, somewhere in the mid-100's of MBytes/second. And the PCIe 7042 / PCI(x) 6042 chips handle FIS-based switching, plus all of the other SATA bells and whistles, including ATAPI.
I think the only significant thing that's missing now is power-management, which probably isn't that hard to add now that there are other in-kernel SATA drivers that include some PM functionality.
Cheers