*BSD News Article 34836


Return to BSD News archive

Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!agate!soda.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU!dim
From: dim@soda.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU (D. Gerasimatos)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: NetBSD VESA IDE support ??
Date: 16 Aug 1994 19:50:56 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Undergraduate Association
Lines: 41
Message-ID: <32r5b0$dgo@agate.berkeley.edu>
References: <32r3bm$ql7@news.CCIT.Arizona.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: soda.csua.berkeley.edu

In article <32r3bm$ql7@news.CCIT.Arizona.EDU>,
Thomas J. Trebisky <tom@canopus.as.arizona.edu> wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I am in the midst of buying a 386 (486 actually) machine to run
>NetBSD.  The main board will be a VESA local bus 486DX2-66.
>
>The question I have is what flavor of disk controller will
>make best use of the VESA bus.  Political factors here may
>preclude a SCSI subsystem, so here are the options that I would
>appreciate comments on:
>

	I would go for SCSI and make sure it can bus master. 

>Now, if I do manage to convince the powers that be, to buy me
>a SCSI subsystem; which SCSI adapters make use of the VESA bus?
>Options I see are:
>
>1) Adaptec AHA1542CF  which is *not* a VESA card, but seems very
>popular among NetBSD users.  $205.00
>
>2) Adaptec 2842 which *is* a VESA card, but does *not* appear on
>the list of supported host adapters.  $299.00

	Adaptec is very expensive, and they refuse to divulge specs for
	their cards so *BSD folks don't like to support them by buying
	their products. Plus, many of their cards do not have drivers
	written for them (for the above reasons). 

>3) Buslogic KT445C (BT445c) which is a VESA card and does appear
>on the list of supported SCSI host adapters.  $210.00

	It is my understanding that all Buslogic cards are supported.
	This would be my choice.  


	Dimitrios