Re: USB?

[dtutty@porchlight.ca]

Sorry,

I'm new to this mailing-list world.

I need to upgrade my server and I'm looking at used good stuff that is
cheaper and more reliable yet as powerful as cheap new stuff.

I'm looking at:

IBM RS/6000 7026-H50.  PPC 604e, PCI with two ISA slots.  Integrated
SCSI internal and external busses.  Boots from first non-hot swap scsi
drive.  Has 12 hot-swap bays in two six-packs, each of which can have
either SCSI or SSA backplanes.  

Current issues I'm trying to solve is USB and SCSI v. SSA.  

Someone reported here that SSA isn't supported for Linux.  I'll keep
looking for native support but have also found that Vicom makes for IBM
a 7190 SCSI host to SSA loop attachment that makes the whole SSA loop
look like one big SCSI drive with multiple luns.  For performance, this
attachment should be the only 'drive' on the bus.  I'm still looking at
the pros and cons of this (other than the price of the attachment).
Drive to processor bandwidth is limited to the SCSI speed, but if go
with SSA then inter-drive bandwidth is at the SSA bus speed.

The bonus comes if I extend to external storage.  Here, SSA seems the
winner due to cheaper cables with longer runs and better performance
besides.

Thanks,

Doug.


On Mon, Jun 26, 2006 at 07:49:50PM +0200, Dieter Schuster wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> am So, den 25 Juni 2006, schrieb dtutty@porchlight.ca:
> > Is there a way to add USB to a unit that doesn't have it? 
> 
> I think it would help if you tell us the System you have. 
> 
> > Can a generic USB PCI card go in a slot or will the firmware barf?  Will
> > Linux see it?
> 
> On the Pegasos II (a PowerPC system from Genesi/bplan with a G3 or
> G4) there seems to be some problems with USB cards. I have one working
> (it has a VIA chip). But my SCSI card, which works on a x86 system
> does not work in my Pegasos II.
> 
> I cannot tell you something about PCI on other PPC systems.
> 
> > IBM's description of PCI says that its architecture-independant, which
> > suggests that this should work if the PPC kernel has USB.  However, the
> > diagnostic manual lists as one of the errors that an installed PCI card
> > doesn't have a recognized VPD.
> 
> It seems that not all PCI cards are architecture-independant, in
> particular those with a "big" firmware.
> 
> 
> Hope this will help,
> 
> 	Dieter Schuster
> 
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