Re: Sil3124 + Sil4726 PortMultipier and FreeBSD9

On Sun, December 4, 2011 13:33, Alexander Motin wrote:
> On 04.12.2011 04:46, Nenhum_de_Nos wrote:
>> this port multiplier will work ok ? On Sil3124 and which others ?
>>
>> the tip on FreeNAS was great, but my main concern here is the sata hardware compatibility. I'd
>> like to buy it knowing it will work :)
>
> Port multipliers supported by all siis(4) hardware and many mvs(4) and
> ahci(4). In case of mvs(4) and ahci(4) support and effectiveness depends
> on controller model. SiI3124 is known to be a good option. If
> performance is not the first priority (150MB/s should be enough for home
> NAS) -- SiI3132 and SiI3531 are also fine. 6Gbps Marvell 88SE91xx in
> _non-RAID_ versions also good on tests, but there are not so many
> reports about them yet.

thanks for the info. I plan on not using hardware raid. will be Geom_(mirror/stripe) - as is now -
or ZFS. I have sil3124 on PCI so far, and an older version that is being used on current file
server:

atapci1_at_pci0:0:9:0:     class=0x010400 card=0x61141095 chip=0x31141095 rev=0x02 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Silicon Image Inc (Was: CMD Technology Inc)'
    device     = 'SATALink/SATARaid Controller (Sil 3114)'
    class      = mass storage
    subclass   = RAID

two years, always on and no issues so far.

> I can't say for sure about ICH7 and NM10, but many Intel chipset
> controllers support port multipliers when AHCI is enabled. I have
> feeling that all of them support it in hardware (at least since ICH8),
> but it is blocked by BIOS. At least I had motherboard that had and lost
> port multipliers support after some BIOS update. You may see that info
> in ahci(4) boot messages. Unluckily now Intel supports only
> command-based switching, that allows only one device beyond port
> multiplier execute commands at a time and significantly limits
> performance. Controller support for more effective FIS-based switching
> reported by ahci(4) and mvs(4) drivers during boot. All siis(4)
> controllers support FIS-based switching.

great info, I found some PCI-X and PCIe based sil3124 card that report FIS-compatible, but I can't
find on my PCI version. By your saying, I get great news then :)

I'll buy FIS-enabled PM :)

I Plan on buying if needed a PCIe version of it, and if I find port multiplier for SATA 6Gbs, I
will plan on one also.

> Also note that not all controller BIOSes support detecting and booting
> from devices on port multiplier, except one on the first port. Consider
> that when choosing controller and partitioning disks if you are going to
> boot from them.

thanks again, but I plan on booting from onboard controller. The PM is intended on expanding
capacity, and as is home file server, speed won't be a huge issue. If I can stream a high
definition video twice, its ok.

> Port multipliers themselves are quite simple from driver point of view,
> so all of them should be supported if they follow standards. At least I
> haven't seen reports yet that some one is not supported. What's about
> reliability comparison -- I have no info.

ok, I will do some testing when I receive it and plan to tell here results.

thanks for all,

matheus


> --
> Alexander Motin
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