Subversion Repositories or1k_soc_on_altera_embedded_dev_kit

The Linux SYM-2 driver documentation file

Written by Gerard Roudier 

21 Rue Carnot

95170 DEUIL LA BARRE - FRANCE

Updated by Matthew Wilcox 

2004-10-09

===============================================================================

1.  Introduction

2.  Supported chips and SCSI features

3.  Advantages of this driver for newer chips.

      3.1 Optimized SCSI SCRIPTS

      3.2 New features appeared with the SYM53C896

4.  Memory mapped I/O versus normal I/O

5.  Tagged command queueing

6.  Parity checking

7.  Profiling information

8.  Control commands

      8.1  Set minimum synchronous period

      8.2  Set wide size

      8.3  Set maximum number of concurrent tagged commands

      8.4  Set debug mode

      8.5  Set flag (no_disc)

      8.6  Set verbose level

      8.7  Reset all logical units of a target

      8.8  Abort all tasks of all logical units of a target

9.  Configuration parameters

10. Boot setup commands

      10.1 Syntax

      10.2 Available arguments

             10.2.1  Default number of tagged commands

             10.2.2  Burst max

             10.2.3  LED support

             10.2.4  Differential mode

             10.2.5  IRQ mode

             10.2.6  Check SCSI BUS

             10.2.7  Suggest a default SCSI id for hosts

             10.2.8  Verbosity level

             10.2.9  Debug mode

             10.2.10 Settle delay

             10.2.11 Serial NVRAM

             10.2.12 Exclude a host from being attached

      10.3 Converting from old options

      10.4 SCSI BUS checking boot option

11. SCSI problem troubleshooting

      15.1 Problem tracking

      15.2 Understanding hardware error reports

12. Serial NVRAM support (by Richard Waltham)

      17.1 Features

      17.2 Symbios NVRAM layout

      17.3 Tekram  NVRAM layout

===============================================================================

1. Introduction

This driver supports the whole SYM53C8XX family of PCI-SCSI controllers.

It also support the subset of LSI53C10XX PCI-SCSI controllers that are based

on the SYM53C8XX SCRIPTS language.

It replaces the sym53c8xx+ncr53c8xx driver bundle and shares its core code

with the FreeBSD SYM-2 driver. The `glue' that allows this driver to work

under Linux is contained in 2 files named sym_glue.h and sym_glue.c.

Other drivers files are intended not to depend on the Operating System

on which the driver is used.

The history of this driver can be summarized as follows:

1993: ncr driver written for 386bsd and FreeBSD by:

          Wolfgang Stanglmeier        

          Stefan Esser                

1996: port of the ncr driver to Linux-1.2.13 and rename it ncr53c8xx.

          Gerard Roudier

1998: new sym53c8xx driver for Linux based on LOAD/STORE instruction and that

      adds full support for the 896 but drops support for early NCR devices.

          Gerard Roudier

1999: port of the sym53c8xx driver to FreeBSD and support for the LSI53C1010

      33 MHz and 66MHz Ultra-3 controllers. The new driver is named `sym'.

          Gerard Roudier

2000: Add support for early NCR devices to FreeBSD `sym' driver.

      Break the driver into several sources and separate the OS glue

      code from the core code that can be shared among different O/Ses.

      Write a glue code for Linux.

          Gerard Roudier

2004: Remove FreeBSD compatibility code.  Remove support for versions of

      Linux before 2.6.  Start using Linux facilities.

This README file addresses the Linux version of the driver. Under FreeBSD,

the driver documentation is the sym.8 man page.

Information about new chips is available at LSILOGIC web server:

          http://www.lsilogic.com/

SCSI standard documentations are available at T10 site:

          http://www.t10.org/

Useful SCSI tools written by Eric Youngdale are part of most Linux

distributions:

   scsiinfo:    command line tool

   scsi-config: TCL/Tk tool using scsiinfo

2. Supported chips and SCSI features

The following features are supported for all chips:

        Synchronous negotiation

        Disconnection

        Tagged command queuing

        SCSI parity checking

        PCI Master parity checking

Other features depends on chip capabilities.

The driver notably uses optimized SCRIPTS for devices that support

LOAD/STORE and handles PHASE MISMATCH from SCRIPTS for devices that

support the corresponding feature.

The following table shows some characteristics of the chip family.

       On board                                   LOAD/STORE   HARDWARE

Chip   SDMS BIOS   Wide   SCSI std.   Max. sync   SCRIPTS      PHASE MISMATCH

----   ---------   ----   ---------   ----------  ----------   --------------

810        N         N      FAST10    10 MB/s        N             N

810A       N         N      FAST10    10 MB/s        Y             N

815        Y         N      FAST10    10 MB/s        N             N

825        Y         Y      FAST10    20 MB/s        N             N

825A       Y         Y      FAST10    20 MB/s        Y             N

860        N         N      FAST20    20 MB/s        Y             N

875        Y         Y      FAST20    40 MB/s        Y             N

875A       Y         Y      FAST20    40 MB/s        Y             Y

876        Y         Y      FAST20    40 MB/s        Y             N

895        Y         Y      FAST40    80 MB/s        Y             N

895A       Y         Y      FAST40    80 MB/s        Y             Y

896        Y         Y      FAST40    80 MB/s        Y             Y

897        Y         Y      FAST40    80 MB/s        Y             Y

1510D      Y         Y      FAST40    80 MB/s        Y             Y

1010       Y         Y      FAST80   160 MB/s        Y             Y

1010_66*   Y         Y      FAST80   160 MB/s        Y             Y

* Chip supports 33MHz and 66MHz PCI bus clock.

Summary of other supported features:

Module:                allow to load the driver

Memory mapped I/O:     increases performance

Control commands:      write operations to the proc SCSI file system

Debugging information: written to syslog (expert only)

Scatter / gather

Shared interrupt

Boot setup commands

Serial NVRAM:          Symbios and Tekram formats

3. Advantages of this driver for newer chips.

3.1 Optimized SCSI SCRIPTS.

All chips except the 810, 815 and 825, support new SCSI SCRIPTS instructions

named LOAD and STORE that allow to move up to 1 DWORD from/to an IO register

to/from memory much faster that the MOVE MEMORY instruction that is supported

by the 53c7xx and 53c8xx family.

The LOAD/STORE instructions support absolute and DSA relative addressing

modes. The SCSI SCRIPTS had been entirely rewritten using LOAD/STORE instead

of MOVE MEMORY instructions.

Due to the lack of LOAD/STORE SCRIPTS instructions by earlier chips, this

driver also incorporates a different SCRIPTS set based on MEMORY MOVE, in

order to provide support for the entire SYM53C8XX chips family.

3.2 New features appeared with the SYM53C896

Newer chips (see above) allows handling of the phase mismatch context from

SCRIPTS (avoids the phase mismatch interrupt that stops the SCSI processor

until the C code has saved the context of the transfer).

The 896 and 1010 chips support 64 bit PCI transactions and addressing,

while the 895A supports 32 bit PCI transactions and 64 bit addressing.

The SCRIPTS processor of these chips is not true 64 bit, but uses segment

registers for bit 32-63. Another interesting feature is that LOAD/STORE

instructions that address the on-chip RAM (8k) remain internal to the chip.

4. Memory mapped I/O versus normal I/O

Memory mapped I/O has less latency than normal I/O and is the recommended

way for doing IO with PCI devices. Memory mapped I/O seems to work fine on

most hardware configurations, but some poorly designed chipsets may break

this feature. A configuration option is provided for normal I/O to be

used but the driver defaults to MMIO.

5. Tagged command queueing

Queuing more than 1 command at a time to a device allows it to perform

optimizations based on actual head positions and its mechanical

characteristics. This feature may also reduce average command latency.

In order to really gain advantage of this feature, devices must have

a reasonable cache size (No miracle is to be expected for a low-end

hard disk with 128 KB or less).

Some kown old SCSI devices do not properly support tagged command queuing.

Generally, firmware revisions that fix this kind of problems are available

at respective vendor web/ftp sites.

All I can say is that I never have had problem with tagged queuing using

this driver and its predecessors. Hard disks that behaved correctly for

me using tagged commands are the following:

- IBM S12 0662

- Conner 1080S

- Quantum Atlas I

- Quantum Atlas II

- Seagate Cheetah I

- Quantum Viking II

- IBM DRVS

- Quantum Atlas IV

- Seagate Cheetah II

If your controller has NVRAM, you can configure this feature per target

from the user setup tool. The Tekram Setup program allows to tune the

maximum number of queued commands up to 32. The Symbios Setup only allows

to enable or disable this feature.

The maximum number of simultaneous tagged commands queued to a device

is currently set to 16 by default.  This value is suitable for most SCSI

disks.  With large SCSI disks (>= 2GB, cache >= 512KB, average seek time

<= 10 ms), using a larger value may give better performances.

This driver supports up to 255 commands per device, and but using more than

64 is generally not worth-while, unless you are using a very large disk or

disk arrays. It is noticeable that most of recent hard disks seem not to

accept more than 64 simultaneous commands. So, using more than 64 queued

commands is probably just resource wasting.

If your controller does not have NVRAM or if it is managed by the SDMS

BIOS/SETUP, you can configure tagged queueing feature and device queue

depths from the boot command-line. For example:

  sym53c8xx=tags:4/t2t3q15-t4q7/t1u0q32

will set tagged commands queue depths as follow:

- target 2  all luns  on controller 0 --> 15

- target 3  all luns  on controller 0 --> 15

- target 4  all luns  on controller 0 -->  7

- target 1  lun 0     on controller 1 --> 32

- all other target/lun                -->  4

In some special conditions, some SCSI disk firmwares may return a

QUEUE FULL status for a SCSI command. This behaviour is managed by the

driver using the following heuristic:

- Each time a QUEUE FULL status is returned, tagged queue depth is reduced

  to the actual number of disconnected commands.

- Every 200 successfully completed SCSI commands, if allowed by the

  current limit, the maximum number of queueable commands is incremented.

Since QUEUE FULL status reception and handling is resource wasting, the

driver notifies by default this problem to user by indicating the actual

number of commands used and their status, as well as its decision on the

device queue depth change.

The heuristic used by the driver in handling QUEUE FULL ensures that the

impact on performances is not too bad. You can get rid of the messages by

setting verbose level to zero, as follow:

1st method: boot your system using 'sym53c8xx=verb:0' option.

2nd method: apply "setverbose 0" control command to the proc fs entry

            corresponding to your controller after boot-up.

6. Parity checking

The driver supports SCSI parity checking and PCI bus master parity

checking.  These features must be enabled in order to ensure safe

data transfers.  Some flawed devices or mother boards may have problems

with parity.  The options to defeat parity checking have been removed

from the driver.

7. Profiling information

This driver does not provide profiling informations as did its predecessors.

This feature was not this useful and added complexity to the code.

As the driver code got more complex, I have decided to remove everything

that didn't seem actually useful.

8. Control commands

Control commands can be sent to the driver with write operations to

the proc SCSI file system. The generic command syntax is the

following:

      echo " " >/proc/scsi/sym53c8xx/0

      (assumes controller number is 0)

Using "all" for "" parameter with the commands below will

apply to all targets of the SCSI chain (except the controller).

Available commands:

8.1 Set minimum synchronous period factor

    setsync  

    target:    target number

    period:    minimum synchronous period.

               Maximum speed = 1000/(4*period factor) except for special

               cases below.

    Specify a period of 0, to force asynchronous transfer mode.

       9 means 12.5 nano-seconds synchronous period

      10 means 25 nano-seconds synchronous period

      11 means 30 nano-seconds synchronous period

      12 means 50 nano-seconds synchronous period

8.2 Set wide size

    setwide  

    target:    target number

    size:      0=8 bits, 1=16bits

8.3 Set maximum number of concurrent tagged commands

    settags  

    target:    target number

    tags:      number of concurrent tagged commands

               must not be greater than configured (default: 16)

8.4 Set debug mode

    setdebug 

    Available debug flags:

        alloc:   print info about memory allocations (ccb, lcb)

        queue:   print info about insertions into the command start queue

        result:  print sense data on CHECK CONDITION status

        scatter: print info about the scatter process

        scripts: print info about the script binding process

        tiny:    print minimal debugging information

        timing:  print timing information of the NCR chip

        nego:    print information about SCSI negotiations

        phase:   print information on script interruptions

    Use "setdebug" with no argument to reset debug flags.

8.5 Set flag (no_disc)

    setflag  

    target:    target number

    For the moment, only one flag is available:

        no_disc:   not allow target to disconnect.

    Do not specify any flag in order to reset the flag. For example:

    - setflag 4

      will reset no_disc flag for target 4, so will allow it disconnections.

    - setflag all

      will allow disconnection for all devices on the SCSI bus.

8.6 Set verbose level

    setverbose #level

    The driver default verbose level is 1. This command allows to change

    th driver verbose level after boot-up.

8.7 Reset all logical units of a target

    resetdev 

    target:    target number

    The driver will try to send a BUS DEVICE RESET message to the target.

8.8 Abort all tasks of all logical units of a target

    cleardev 

    target:    target number

    The driver will try to send a ABORT message to all the logical units

    of the target.

9. Configuration parameters

Under kernel configuration tools (make menuconfig, for example), it is

possible to change some default driver configuration parameters.

If the firmware of all your devices is perfect enough, all the

features supported by the driver can be enabled at start-up. However,

if only one has a flaw for some SCSI feature, you can disable the

support by the driver of this feature at linux start-up and enable

this feature after boot-up only for devices that support it safely.

Configuration parameters:

Use normal IO                         (default answer: n)

    Answer "y" if you suspect your mother board to not allow memory mapped I/O.

    May slow down performance a little.

Default tagged command queue depth    (default answer: 16)

    Entering 0 defaults to tagged commands not being used.

    This parameter can be specified from the boot command line.

Maximum number of queued commands     (default answer: 32)

    This option allows you to specify the maximum number of tagged commands

    that can be queued to a device. The maximum supported value is 255.

Synchronous transfers frequency       (default answer: 80)

    This option allows you to specify the frequency in MHz the driver

    will use at boot time for synchronous data transfer negotiations.

10. Boot setup commands

10.1 Syntax

Setup commands can be passed to the driver either at boot time or as

parameters to modprobe, as described in Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt

Example of boot setup command under lilo prompt:

lilo: linux root=/dev/sda2 sym53c8xx.cmd_per_lun=4 sym53c8xx.sync=10 sym53c8xx.debug=0x200

- enable tagged commands, up to 4 tagged commands queued.

- set synchronous negotiation speed to 10 Mega-transfers / second.

- set DEBUG_NEGO flag.

The following command will install the driver module with the same

options as above.

    modprobe sym53c8xx cmd_per_lun=4 sync=10 debug=0x200

10.2 Available arguments

10.2.1  Default number of tagged commands

        cmd_per_lun=0 (or cmd_per_lun=1) tagged command queuing disabled

        cmd_per_lun=#tags (#tags > 1) tagged command queuing enabled

  #tags will be truncated to the max queued commands configuration parameter.

10.2.2 Burst max

        burst=0    burst disabled

        burst=255  get burst length from initial IO register settings.

        burst=#x   burst enabled (1<<#x burst transfers max)

  #x is an integer value which is log base 2 of the burst transfers max.

  By default the driver uses the maximum value supported by the chip.

10.2.3 LED support

        led=1      enable  LED support

        led=0      disable LED support

  Do not enable LED support if your scsi board does not use SDMS BIOS.

  (See 'Configuration parameters')

10.2.4 Differential mode

        diff=0  never set up diff mode

        diff=1  set up diff mode if BIOS set it

        diff=2  always set up diff mode

        diff=3  set diff mode if GPIO3 is not set

10.2.5 IRQ mode

        irqm=0     always open drain

        irqm=1     same as initial settings (assumed BIOS settings)

        irqm=2     always totem pole

10.2.6 Check SCSI BUS

        buschk=

    Available option bits:

        0x0:   No check.

        0x1:   Check and do not attach the controller on error.

        0x2:   Check and just warn on error.

10.2.7 Suggest a default SCSI id for hosts

        hostid=255      no id suggested.

        hostid=#x   (0 < x < 7) x suggested for hosts SCSI id.

    If a host SCSI id is available from the NVRAM, the driver will ignore

    any value suggested as boot option. Otherwise, if a suggested value

    different from 255 has been supplied, it will use it. Otherwise, it will

    try to deduce the value previously set in the hardware and use value

    7 if the hardware value is zero.

10.2.8  Verbosity level

        verb=0     minimal

        verb=1     normal

        verb=2     too much

10.2.9 Debug mode

        debug=0  clear debug flags

        debug=#x   set debug flags

  #x is an integer value combining the following power-of-2 values:

  DEBUG_ALLOC       0x1

  DEBUG_PHASE       0x2

  DEBUG_POLL        0x4

  DEBUG_QUEUE       0x8

  DEBUG_RESULT     0x10

  DEBUG_SCATTER    0x20

  DEBUG_SCRIPT     0x40

  DEBUG_TINY       0x80

  DEBUG_TIMING    0x100

  DEBUG_NEGO      0x200

  DEBUG_TAGS      0x400

  DEBUG_FREEZE    0x800

  DEBUG_RESTART  0x1000

  You can play safely with DEBUG_NEGO. However, some of these flags may

  generate bunches of syslog messages.

10.2.10 Settle delay

        settle=n        delay for n seconds

  After a bus reset, the driver will delay for n seconds before talking

  to any device on the bus.  The default is 3 seconds and safe mode will

  default it to 10.

10.2.11 Serial NVRAM

        NB: option not currently implemented.

        nvram=n     do not look for serial NVRAM

        nvram=y     test controllers for onboard serial NVRAM

        (alternate binary form)

        nvram=

        0x01   look for NVRAM  (equivalent to nvram=y)

        0x02   ignore NVRAM "Synchronous negotiation" parameters for all devices

        0x04   ignore NVRAM "Wide negotiation"  parameter for all devices

        0x08   ignore NVRAM "Scan at boot time" parameter for all devices

        0x80   also attach controllers set to OFF in the NVRAM (sym53c8xx only)

10.2.12 Exclude a host from being attached

        excl=,...

    Prevent host at a given io address from being attached.

    For example 'excl=0xb400,0xc000' indicate to the

    driver not to attach hosts at address 0xb400 and 0xc000.

10.3 Converting from old style options

Previously, the sym2 driver accepted arguments of the form

        sym53c8xx=tags:4,sync:10,debug:0x200

As a result of the new module parameters, this is no longer available.

Most of the options have remained the same, but tags has become

cmd_per_lun to reflect its different purposes.  The sample above would

be specified as:

        modprobe sym53c8xx cmd_per_lun=4 sync=10 debug=0x200

or on the kernel boot line as:

        sym53c8xx.cmd_per_lun=4 sym53c8xx.sync=10 sym53c8xx.debug=0x200

10.4 SCSI BUS checking boot option.

When this option is set to a non-zero value, the driver checks SCSI lines

logic state, 100 micro-seconds after having asserted the SCSI RESET line.

The driver just reads SCSI lines and checks all lines read FALSE except RESET.

Since SCSI devices shall release the BUS at most 800 nano-seconds after SCSI

RESET has been asserted, any signal to TRUE may indicate a SCSI BUS problem.

Unfortunately, the following common SCSI BUS problems are not detected:

- Only 1 terminator installed.

- Misplaced terminators.

- Bad quality terminators.

On the other hand, either bad cabling, broken devices, not conformant

devices, ... may cause a SCSI signal to be wrong when te driver reads it.

15. SCSI problem troubleshooting

15.1 Problem tracking

Most SCSI problems are due to a non conformant SCSI bus or too buggy

devices.  If unfortunately you have SCSI problems, you can check the

following things:

- SCSI bus cables

- terminations at both end of the SCSI chain

- linux syslog messages (some of them may help you)

If you do not find the source of problems, you can configure the

driver or devices in the NVRAM with minimal features.

- only asynchronous data transfers

- tagged commands disabled

- disconnections not allowed

Now, if your SCSI bus is ok, your system has every chance to work

with this safe configuration but performances will not be optimal.

If it still fails, then you can send your problem description to

appropriate mailing lists or news-groups.  Send me a copy in order to

be sure I will receive it.  Obviously, a bug in the driver code is

possible.

  My current email address: Gerard Roudier 

Allowing disconnections is important if you use several devices on

your SCSI bus but often causes problems with buggy devices.

Synchronous data transfers increases throughput of fast devices like

hard disks.  Good SCSI hard disks with a large cache gain advantage of

tagged commands queuing.

15.2 Understanding hardware error reports

When the driver detects an unexpected error condition, it may display a

message of the following pattern.

sym0:1: ERROR (0:48) (1-21-65) (f/95/0) @ (script 7c0:19000000).

sym0: script cmd = 19000000

sym0: regdump: da 10 80 95 47 0f 01 07 75 01 81 21 80 01 09 00.

Some fields in such a message may help you understand the cause of the

problem, as follows:

sym0:1: ERROR (0:48) (1-21-65) (f/95/0) @ (script 7c0:19000000).

.....A.........B.C....D.E..F....G.H..I.......J.....K...L.......

Field A : target number.

  SCSI ID of the device the controller was talking with at the moment the

  error occurs.

Field B : DSTAT io register (DMA STATUS)

  Bit 0x40 : MDPE Master Data Parity Error

             Data parity error detected on the PCI BUS.

  Bit 0x20 : BF   Bus Fault

             PCI bus fault condition detected

  Bit 0x01 : IID  Illegal Instruction Detected

             Set by the chip when it detects an Illegal Instruction format

             on some condition that makes an instruction illegal.

  Bit 0x80 : DFE Dma Fifo Empty

             Pure status bit that does not indicate an error.

  If the reported DSTAT value contains a combination of MDPE (0x40),

  BF (0x20), then the cause may be likely due to a PCI BUS problem.

Field C : SIST io register (SCSI Interrupt Status)

  Bit 0x08 : SGE  SCSI GROSS ERROR

             Indicates that the chip detected a severe error condition

             on the SCSI BUS that prevents the SCSI protocol from functioning

             properly.

  Bit 0x04 : UDC  Unexpected Disconnection

             Indicates that the device released the SCSI BUS when the chip

             was not expecting this to happen. A device may behave so to

             indicate the SCSI initiator that an error condition not reportable              using the SCSI protocol has occurred.

  Bit 0x02 : RST  SCSI BUS Reset

             Generally SCSI targets do not reset the SCSI BUS, although any

             device on the BUS can reset it at any time.

  Bit 0x01 : PAR  Parity

             SCSI parity error detected.

  On a faulty SCSI BUS, any error condition among SGE (0x08), UDC (0x04) and

  PAR (0x01) may be detected by the chip. If your SCSI system sometimes

  encounters such error conditions, especially SCSI GROSS ERROR, then a SCSI

  BUS problem is likely the cause of these errors.

For fields D,E,F,G and H, you may look into the sym53c8xx_defs.h file

that contains some minimal comments on IO register bits.

Field D : SOCL  Scsi Output Control Latch

          This register reflects the state of the SCSI control lines the

          chip want to drive or compare against.

Field E : SBCL  Scsi Bus Control Lines

          Actual value of control lines on the SCSI BUS.

Field F : SBDL  Scsi Bus Data Lines

          Actual value of data lines on the SCSI BUS.

Field G : SXFER  SCSI Transfer

          Contains the setting of the Synchronous Period for output and

          the current Synchronous offset (offset 0 means asynchronous).

Field H : SCNTL3 Scsi Control Register 3

          Contains the setting of timing values for both asynchronous and

          synchronous data transfers.

Field I : SCNTL4 Scsi Control Register 4

          Only meaningful for 53C1010 Ultra3 controllers.

Understanding Fields J, K, L and dumps requires to have good knowledge of

SCSI standards, chip cores functionnals and internal driver data structures.

You are not required to decode and understand them, unless you want to help

maintain the driver code.

17. Serial NVRAM (added by Richard Waltham: dormouse@farsrobt.demon.co.uk)

17.1 Features

Enabling serial NVRAM support enables detection of the serial NVRAM included

on Symbios and some Symbios compatible host adaptors, and Tekram boards. The

serial NVRAM is used by Symbios and Tekram to hold set up parameters for the

host adaptor and it's attached drives.

The Symbios NVRAM also holds data on the boot order of host adaptors in a

system with more than one host adaptor.  This information is no longer used

as it's fundamentally incompatible with the hotplug PCI model.

Tekram boards using Symbios chips, DC390W/F/U, which have NVRAM are detected

and this is used to distinguish between Symbios compatible and Tekram host

adaptors. This is used to disable the Symbios compatible "diff" setting

incorrectly set on Tekram boards if the CONFIG_SCSI_53C8XX_SYMBIOS_COMPAT

configuration parameter is set enabling both Symbios and Tekram boards to be

used together with the Symbios cards using all their features, including

"diff" support. ("led pin" support for Symbios compatible cards can remain

enabled when using Tekram cards. It does nothing useful for Tekram host

adaptors but does not cause problems either.)

The parameters the driver is able to get from the NVRAM depend on the

data format used, as follow:

                                 Tekram format      Symbios format

General and host parameters

    Boot order                         N                   Y

    Host SCSI ID                       Y                   Y

    SCSI parity checking               Y                   Y

    Verbose boot messages              N                   Y

SCSI devices parameters

    Synchronous transfer speed         Y                   Y

    Wide 16 / Narrow                   Y                   Y

    Tagged Command Queuing enabled     Y                   Y

    Disconnections enabled             Y                   Y

    Scan at boot time                  N                   Y

In order to speed up the system boot, for each device configured without

the "scan at boot time" option, the driver forces an error on the

first TEST UNIT READY command received for this device.

17.2 Symbios NVRAM layout

typical data at NVRAM address 0x100 (53c810a NVRAM)

-----------------------------------------------------------

00 00

64 01

8e 0b

00 30 00 00 00 00 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 07 04 10 04 00 00

04 00 0f 00 00 10 00 50 00 00 01 00 00 62

04 00 03 00 00 10 00 58 00 00 01 00 00 63

04 00 01 00 00 10 00 48 00 00 01 00 00 61

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

fe fe

00 00

00 00

-----------------------------------------------------------

NVRAM layout details

NVRAM Address 0x000-0x0ff not used

              0x100-0x26f initialised data

              0x270-0x7ff not used

general layout

        header  -   6 bytes,

        data    - 356 bytes (checksum is byte sum of this data)

        trailer -   6 bytes

                  ---

        total     368 bytes

data area layout

        controller set up  -  20 bytes

        boot configuration -  56 bytes (4x14 bytes)

        device set up      - 128 bytes (16x8 bytes)

        unused (spare?)    - 152 bytes (19x8 bytes)

                             ---

        total                356 bytes

-----------------------------------------------------------

header

00 00   - ?? start marker

64 01   - byte count (lsb/msb excludes header/trailer)

8e 0b   - checksum (lsb/msb excludes header/trailer)

-----------------------------------------------------------

controller set up

00 30 00 00 00 00 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 07 04 10 04 00 00

                   |     |           |     |

                   |     |           |      -- host ID

                   |     |           |

                   |     |            --Removable Media Support

                   |     |               0x00 = none

                   |     |               0x01 = Bootable Device

                   |     |               0x02 = All with Media

                   |     |

                   |      --flag bits 2

                   |        0x00000001= scan order hi->low

                   |            (default 0x00 - scan low->hi)

                    --flag bits 1

                       0x00000001 scam enable

                       0x00000010 parity enable

                       0x00000100 verbose boot msgs

remaining bytes unknown - they do not appear to change in my

current set up for any of the controllers.

default set up is identical for 53c810a and 53c875 NVRAM

(Removable Media added Symbios BIOS version 4.09)

-----------------------------------------------------------

boot configuration

boot order set by order of the devices in this table

04 00 0f 00 00 10 00 50 00 00 01 00 00 62 -- 1st controller

04 00 03 00 00 10 00 58 00 00 01 00 00 63    2nd controller

04 00 01 00 00 10 00 48 00 00 01 00 00 61    3rd controller

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00    4th controller

       |  |  |  |     |        |     |  |

       |  |  |  |     |        |      ---- PCI io port adr

       |  |  |  |     |         --0x01 init/scan at boot time

       |  |  |  |      --PCI device/function number (0xdddddfff)

       |  |   ----- ?? PCI vendor ID (lsb/msb)

        ----PCI device ID (lsb/msb)

?? use of this data is a guess but seems reasonable

remaining bytes unknown - they do not appear to change in my

current set up

default set up is identical for 53c810a and 53c875 NVRAM

-----------------------------------------------------------

device set up (up to 16 devices - includes controller)

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 - id 0

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 - id 15

 |     |  |  |     |  |

 |     |  |  |      ----timeout (lsb/msb)

 |     |  |   --synch period (0x?? 40 Mtrans/sec- fast 40) (probably 0x28)

 |     |  |                  (0x30 20 Mtrans/sec- fast 20)

 |     |  |                  (0x64 10 Mtrans/sec- fast )

 |     |  |                  (0xc8  5 Mtrans/sec)

 |     |  |                  (0x00  asynchronous)

 |     |   -- ?? max sync offset (0x08 in NVRAM on 53c810a)

 |     |                         (0x10 in NVRAM on 53c875)

 |      --device bus width (0x08 narrow)

 |                         (0x10 16 bit wide)

  --flag bits

    0x00000001 - disconnect enabled

    0x00000010 - scan at boot time

    0x00000100 - scan luns

    0x00001000 - queue tags enabled

remaining bytes unknown - they do not appear to change in my

current set up

?? use of this data is a guess but seems reasonable

(but it could be max bus width)

default set up for 53c810a NVRAM

default set up for 53c875 NVRAM - bus width     - 0x10

                                - sync offset ? - 0x10

                                - sync period   - 0x30

-----------------------------------------------------------

?? spare device space (32 bit bus ??)

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  (19x8bytes)

.

.

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

default set up is identical for 53c810a and 53c875 NVRAM

-----------------------------------------------------------

trailer

fe fe   - ? end marker ?

00 00

00 00

default set up is identical for 53c810a and 53c875 NVRAM

-----------------------------------------------------------

17.3 Tekram NVRAM layout

nvram 64x16 (1024 bit)

Drive settings

Drive ID 0-15 (addr 0x0yyyy0 = device setup, yyyy = ID)