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LSI Logic SCSI cards SMP-compatible?

LSI Logic SCSI cards SMP-compatible?
Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:32:17 -050
Way back while first trying to get my dual-core system running, I 
replaced my old faithful LSI Logic U160 SCSI card by an Adaptec U160. It 
was simply one of the things I tried, but since then I *think* I have 
read somewhere that the LSI Logic cards don't work in SMP systems. Am I 
remembering correctly? (Yet I thought that some IBM servers actually 
used LSI Logic cards, and I know there is an IBM-distributed OS/2 driver 
for those cards -- and surely some of those servers ran WSeB.)

I'm asking because a couple of my drives are actually U320 models, and 
I'm thinking of upgrading to a U320 SCSI card to improve the drive 
performance.

-=-
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Re: LSI Logic SCSI cards SMP-compatible?
Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:23:59 -050
Alan Beagley wrote:
> Way back while first trying to get my dual-core system running, I 
> replaced my old faithful LSI Logic U160 SCSI card by an Adaptec U160. It 
> was simply one of the things I tried, but since then I *think* I have 
> read somewhere that the LSI Logic cards don't work in SMP systems. Am I 
> remembering correctly? (Yet I thought that some IBM servers actually 
> used LSI Logic cards, and I know there is an IBM-distributed OS/2 driver 
> for those cards -- and surely some of those servers ran WSeB.)
> 
> I'm asking because a couple of my drives are actually U320 models, and 
> I'm thinking of upgrading to a U320 SCSI card to improve the drive 
> performance.
> 
> -=-
> Alan
I found that the drivers had serious issues with JFS and HPFS when using 
LSI cards for SCSI in eCS or OS/2. The Adaotec wirjed better for me. 
This was on a single prcesssor system not dual. My dual processsor 
Post Reply
Re: LSI Logic SCSI cards SMP-compatible?
Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:23:59 -050
Alan Beagley wrote:
> Way back while first trying to get my dual-core system running, I 
> replaced my old faithful LSI Logic U160 SCSI card by an Adaptec U160. It 
> was simply one of the things I tried, but since then I *think* I have 
> read somewhere that the LSI Logic cards don't work in SMP systems. Am I 
> remembering correctly? (Yet I thought that some IBM servers actually 
> used LSI Logic cards, and I know there is an IBM-distributed OS/2 driver 
> for those cards -- and surely some of those servers ran WSeB.)
> 
> I'm asking because a couple of my drives are actually U320 models, and 
> I'm thinking of upgrading to a U320 SCSI card to improve the drive 
> performance.
> 
> -=-
> Alan
I found that the drivers had serious issues with JFS and HPFS when using 
LSI cards for SCSI in eCS or OS/2. The Adaotec wirjed better for me. 
This was on a single prcesssor system not dual. My dual processsor 
Post Reply
Re: LSI Logic SCSI cards SMP-compatible?
Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:12:09 -050
On 01/17/08 10:23 pm Eugene Tucker wrote:

> Alan Beagley wrote:
>> Way back while first trying to get my dual-core system running, I 
>> replaced my old faithful LSI Logic U160 SCSI card by an Adaptec U160. 
>> It was simply one of the things I tried, but since then I *think* I 
>> have read somewhere that the LSI Logic cards don't work in SMP 
>> systems. Am I remembering correctly? (Yet I thought that some IBM 
>> servers actually used LSI Logic cards, and I know there is an 
>> IBM-distributed OS/2 driver for those cards -- and surely some of 
>> those servers ran WSeB.)
>>
>> I'm asking because a couple of my drives are actually U320 models, and

>> I'm thinking of upgrading to a U320 SCSI card to improve the drive 
>> performance.

> I found that the drivers had serious issues with JFS and HPFS when using 
> LSI cards for SCSI in eCS or OS/2. The Adaotec wirjed better for me. 
> This was on a single prcesssor system not dual. My dual processsor 
> system uses SATA2. U have not tried dual procesor with SCSI.


Which LSI Logic card were you using and with which driver? I used the 
LSI Logic U160 card for years with HPFS and JFS. There was no problem 
until I tried it with the dual-core machine and ACPI. The U320 cards use 
the LSIMPT.ADD driver that was written for IBM and is not available from 
LSI Logic -- only from IBM (and through IBM from Serenity, of course). 
Surely this was written with WSeB on SMP machines in mind.

I think I'm going to try reverting to my LSI Logic U160 card and see if 
it works now that I've figured out a whole lot more things about the 
settings for ACPI on an AMD dual-core machine -- and of course the ACPI 
driver has advanced quite a bit in the 18 months since I tried it first. 
Nevertheless, I don't think the performance of the U160 card will be a 
reliable predictor of the performance of a U320 card.

It may be ACPI that is the problem rather than SMP per se, because IBM 
expected an SMP machine to be using multiple Xeons rather than a single 
multi-core CPU.

-=-
Post Reply
Re: LSI Logic SCSI cards SMP-compatible?
Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:12:09 -050
On 01/17/08 10:23 pm Eugene Tucker wrote:

> Alan Beagley wrote:
>> Way back while first trying to get my dual-core system running, I 
>> replaced my old faithful LSI Logic U160 SCSI card by an Adaptec U160. 
>> It was simply one of the things I tried, but since then I *think* I 
>> have read somewhere that the LSI Logic cards don't work in SMP 
>> systems. Am I remembering correctly? (Yet I thought that some IBM 
>> servers actually used LSI Logic cards, and I know there is an 
>> IBM-distributed OS/2 driver for those cards -- and surely some of 
>> those servers ran WSeB.)
>>
>> I'm asking because a couple of my drives are actually U320 models, and

>> I'm thinking of upgrading to a U320 SCSI card to improve the drive 
>> performance.

> I found that the drivers had serious issues with JFS and HPFS when using 
> LSI cards for SCSI in eCS or OS/2. The Adaotec wirjed better for me. 
> This was on a single prcesssor system not dual. My dual processsor 
> system uses SATA2. U have not tried dual procesor with SCSI.


Which LSI Logic card were you using and with which driver? I used the 
LSI Logic U160 card for years with HPFS and JFS. There was no problem 
until I tried it with the dual-core machine and ACPI. The U320 cards use 
the LSIMPT.ADD driver that was written for IBM and is not available from 
LSI Logic -- only from IBM (and through IBM from Serenity, of course). 
Surely this was written with WSeB on SMP machines in mind.

I think I'm going to try reverting to my LSI Logic U160 card and see if 
it works now that I've figured out a whole lot more things about the 
settings for ACPI on an AMD dual-core machine -- and of course the ACPI 
driver has advanced quite a bit in the 18 months since I tried it first. 
Nevertheless, I don't think the performance of the U160 card will be a 
reliable predictor of the performance of a U320 card.

It may be ACPI that is the problem rather than SMP per se, because IBM 
expected an SMP machine to be using multiple Xeons rather than a single 
multi-core CPU.

-=-
Post Reply
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