Re: Disable HTT on Serverworks GC-HE chipset

[ resend from my subscribed address, sorry for the duplicate... ]

On Sun, Mar 21, 2004 at 14:38:04 -0500, Ketrien I. Saihr-Kesenchedra wrote:
> At 09:02 AM 3/20/2004, you wrote:
> >Hi Scott,
> >I have tried without HTT because someone on #bsdcode told me
> >to do so (ket_). Maybe you know who he is :-) Not all revisions
> >of the chipset seem to be buggy so far, but rev. 0 is for sure.
> 
> Hi everyone. Yes, I'm here. :)  Been a bit busy, haven't had time to toss 
> in my $0.02. The issues I've seen are strictly limited to the GC-HE when 
> HTT is enabled, though I have had issues with other areas on some boards. 
> (I won't bore you with the details.) I've heard of and seen them reproduced 
> on Linux (2.4.x and 2.6.x) and Windows as well, so it's not just FreeBSD.
> 
> >Serversboards with this chipset are:
> >- Dell PowerEdge 2650
> >- IBM xSeries
> >- Supermicro E7500
> 
> The E7500 is actually an Intel E7500 chipset. If there are HTT issues with 
> the E7500, those are more likely operating system related. As far as I can 
> tell, Supermicro doesn't currently offer any Serverworks boards. Tyan, on 
> the other hand, has the Thunder GC-HE. The four-way Xeon Dells are also 
> Serverworks, but I can't recall the model numbers offhand.

FWIW, SuperMicro does still sell Serverworks boards, it just isn't quite
as obvious after their web site redesign:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/?typ=srvr

I've got a number of X5DL8-GG (GC-LE chipset) motherboards at work, they
work fine with FreeBSD and Linux.

> >While using google I found the GC-LE chipsets seems to have problems
> >with write-coalescing:
> 
> As I told Martin on IRC, I'm personally not sure on this one. It wouldn't 
> surprise me, but I haven't had any issues with the GC-LE's personally. I 
> wish I could offer some suggestions, but I really don't have enough 
> experience with the GC-HE's to know what's going on. However, I know the 
> typical GC-HE + HTT symptoms on Linux are excessive context switching 
> (>250,000/sec) followed by semi-random panics. Windows is usually a sudden 
> drop in performance, which requires a reboot to correct - sometimes the 
> drivers can work around this apparently. Also random BSODs on occasion, but 
> again, usually without drivers.

I haven't had any problmes with the GC-LE either, although it may be I've
just never run into the problem.

Ken
-- 
Kenneth Merry
ken_at_FreeBSD.ORG