Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mira.net.au!news.vbc.net!vbcnet-west!samba.rahul.net!rahul.net!a2i!olivea!news.sgi.com!howland.erols.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!news.indiana.edu!news From: rodsmith@indiana.edu (Rod Smith) Newsgroups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus,comp.periphs.scsi,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: ASUS SC200 SCSI controller ? Date: 7 Mar 1997 23:25:22 GMT Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington Lines: 57 Message-ID: <5fq852$af1@dismay.ucs.indiana.edu> References: <5fpiic$hkq@chronicle.concentric.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: xyplex5-2-1.ucs.indiana.edu X-Newsreader: knews 0.9.3 In-Reply-To: <5fpiic$hkq@chronicle.concentric.net> To: dantso@cris.com (Daniel Ts'o) Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus:36047 comp.periphs.scsi:72464 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:36708 In article <5fpiic$hkq@chronicle.concentric.net>, dantso@cris.com (Daniel Ts'o) writes: > Can someone comment on the ASUS SC200 SCSI controller ? > > How does it compare to other choices: other NCR's like Symbios, and >the Adaptec 2940UW ? The ASUS SC-200 uses the NCR/Symbios 53c810 chip, and so will perform identically to other 53c810-based products, assuming all products are actually put together correctly. There may be product-to-product differences in component quality and even availability (I've heard of some generic 53c810-based boards that have terminators SOLDERED in place, for instance, making use of both internal and external devices impossible without special cables or a second host adapter). The ASUS SC200 has a reputation for being one of the better-manufactured of the 53c810-based products, so you should have no worries there. As to the Adaptec, the 2940UW is an UltraWide adapter, if I'm not mistaken. The 53c810 is a Fast SCSI-2 part. This means that the 2940UW will accept higher-end components (mainly rather pricey hard drives at the moment), and will take more of them. When used with the same Fast SCSI-2 devices, though, the two boards should perform similarly. If you need the more expensive and faster high-end components, a more appropriate choice in the NCR/Symbios line would be the 53c875, which is either Ultra or UltraWide SCSI, I don't recall which. I don't know of any specific product that uses this, but they do exist. > Can it be used in any PCI system or only ASUS ? I understand there is >a BIOS issue. There's no motherboard brand-name issue, but the 53c810 does require that support for the chip be present in the BIOS. This is usually referred to as the "NCR SDMS BIOS," and can coexist with most other BIOS brands (Award, AMI, etc.). Sometimes you'll get a notice to the effect that it's present when you boot your system. Other times you may need to contact the manufacturer of the motherboard, since they're the ones who license it from Symbios (or NCR for older boards) and add it in. I've seen reports of successfully hacking this support into BIOSes that don't have it, but I don't recommend this unless you have a spare BIOS chip sitting around, since it can make your system unusable. The last I checked, there was some information on hacking the NCR SDMS support into the MR BIOS on their web site (http://www.mrbios.com, I believe). I don't know if Symbios would condone such activities, but I'm sure they don't encourage it. > The OS would be FreeBSD. Is support for the ASUS SC200 in FreeBSD >decent, suitable for a robust, good performing system ? I use the port of these drivers under Linux and can't complain. I assume they'd be as good under FreeBSD. -- +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Rod Smith Author of: | | rodsmith@indiana.edu "Should I Buy OS/2" FAQ | | http://ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu/~rodsmith "OS/2 Soundcard Summary" | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+